Bonjour from France!

I am doing a test blog update via email to see if it's possible. We
are having an awesome time do far but the biking has been very
challenging so far. My loaded hybrid probably weighs about 50 lbs and
we've been doing tons of climbing everyday. We ride about 3-4 hours
per day, with plenty of rest stops, but the temps have been around
35-40C (100+F) and we always seem to ride in the hottest part of the
day. It is more humid this time too so that makes it harder as well.

We've climbed from 1500-2500' feet per day. Longest climb was about
10k. Steepest climb was about 20%. My quads are screaming ;)

The food has been wonderful, the wine is too. I've been sticking
mostly with rose because it is cooler in this heat.

We've stayed at some nice B&Bs but today we are splurging on or
gorgeous place in Apt, France. Google Le Couvent in Apt if you want to
check it out. Sigh...

We are staying here two nights so today we can do a shorter ride in
the Ocre hills without out panniers. There wa a sto yesterday so it is
cooler and very windy today.

Yesterday was our longest ride- 72km with a sting headwind as storm
arrived. It started out hot as usual but rode the last 30 minutes in
the rain and wind, it felt very refreshing after 6 days of oppressive
heat.

We have 3 more days until we are back in Cavaillon to catch the night
train to Florence. I'm looking forward to Italy!

Please excuse any typos as I type this on the itouch. I have tweeted a
few times but it's often in the middle of the night for north America
so check ny Twitter stream to see what I've been up to.

Au revoir pour maintenant!

A bientot!

Barb

I'm outta here...

Well this is my last post before I leave on Thursday so I thought I'd do a quick update.

Erik did his amazing solo ride on Monday, June 29. Overall, he rode 292 km in 12:25 with over 8000' of climbing!

For more info about Erik's ride, you'll have to listen to episode #28 of my podcast (see link on the right). You can also go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih76L24XBh8 to see a 2 1/2 minutes slideshow of the highlights.

One picture I forgot to include in the slideshow was a close up pictures of a wolf that I saw walking alongside the road on the Bow Valley Parkway. At the time I thought it was a coyote. I was looking out my car window by the way. :)






Training and the Trip

Well, life continues to be hectic and I've found it hard to fit in all the training I wanted to do. :( I've been swimming twice, had a couple of rides, and been on 4 runs in the past 10 days or so.

My main focus continues to be on running. I've been trying to stick mostly to the hills behind my house so my time hasn't been fast but I'm really enjoying it and so far, my shins haven't been complaining. I've also been running further partly because my runs include a 1 km hike up to the flatter area. So far I've run 6km, 6km, 7km, and 8.25km. I am really loving it!

I've had some ITB/knee pain off and on lately - that's what slowed me down on the 5k race with my daughter - bu I've been stretching and using the foam roller and my last two runs have been pain-free.

Much of this week however, has involved shopping, cleaning, running errands, and packing. We leave Kelowna at 11:30 on Thursday and leave Vancouver at 7:30pm. We will be home on July 26th. There will not be a podcast episode during that time.

My son will be staying with his Dad and I have house sitters looking after the dogs and the cat and generally holding down the fort at home.

When I get back, I'm going to have to kick my training into high gear if I want to be ready to the Apple Sprint Triathlon on August 23rd. (I'm starting to feel more than a little nervous about being ready with my messed up training schedule....)

However, I will be riding (not seriously) for 9 days on my trip (20-50km per day) and will try hard to fit in a few early morning runs before it gets too hot. Most places we're staying at will have swimming pools although it's hard to imagine that I"ll be swimming sets... ;)

So - in the meantime, I'm going to put serious training aside and just enjoy my vacation!

I will have my (Erik's) itouch so when I have access to wifi, I will tweet a bit and I will try sending a few email blog updates. Unfortunately, I have no way to send pictures until I get back.

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

A bientot!