Tempo Training

Had a great day of training yesterday. Goal for the day was to work on strength and tempo pacing. Legs felt amazingly good yesterday despite the short recovery period from the Spin class on Monday night. Of course the near 70º temps and sun certainly helped the cause. I rolled out of Backnang, and took in the 8%, 4km climb over to Schorndorf. Kept the cadence pretty low to work on leg strength. Good sensations. Then cruised the various bike routes through the villages to Schorndorf at tempo pace then onto Wablingen. From Wablingen, I rolled along the Necker(river) bike path towards Ludwigsburg and continued onto Murr. After Murr, I was feeling a bit of a hunger knock but took a snack and shortly later, the legs were firing fast again. Just over 3hrs, 2200kjs. I tried to keep the pace at tempo for as long as I could but the numerous villages and slow areas kind of complicate that but it was a great training session.

Being abroad has presented numerous new and different protocols for living. In Germany, no right on red, and you absolutely do not cross crosswalks unless you have a green light. It's funny to watch b/c you look both directions at the crosswalk and there are no cars in sight. Yet, people wait patiently. Not sure if its a more relaxed lifestyle, not the go-go-go American way, or just the desire to obey the man. I've noticed myself following the protocol. More b/c I just don't want to get into a situation that is way above my level of Deutsch language understanding =) I do think that the turn right on red after yield should be changed. Makes driving very slow.

Last night, I watched a tv program that highlighted German culture. It was basically a, "you know you are German because you act or do things like this.." It was really funny, and I actually learned things that I had noticed during my time here. For instance, currywürst is the highest consumed food in Deutschland, over 8million a year. German's also have associations for everything. Whereas in the US, we do not as I explained to Sandra. Some are good associations like sporting teams etc...some are just obscure and ridiculous, like the "laughing association" and the "schnitzel tasting association." A more important one was the association that went to biergartens and measured each beer to assure proper pouring sizes. Can't be cheated on your bier! The laughing association was just stupid. People get together and just laugh. No jokes, no comedy acts, just people making fake laughs. The program also hit a lot on food preferences and Sandra confirmed this. Germans eat only what is familiar to them. So diets are pretty regular. I can see that. The number of German restaurants in Majorca was mind blowing. For me, when I go on vacation, I choose to try flavors of the area and try things that i wouldn't normally eat so its quite different from my style, but to each his/her own.

Chow,
Matthew