While Waiting....

As I sit here whiling away another New England winter, I'm also waiting the arrival of some legal paperwork that I need to sign before I can put a deposit on my trip. So while it's not signed, sealed and delivered just yet, I'm close. But man, I just want to get that deposit down so I know I have it officially in the works.

Meanwhile, I downloaded some "Learn Russian" podcasts from iTunes. I've been listening pretty regularly and I think I'm picking things up. Of course I can say what's in the podcasts, but if someone replies to me, I'm screwed. But there's still time to remedy that. And anyway, a certain Irishman I know said he survived in Russia knowing only "yes", "no" and "goodbye". Sweet. I have those nailed.

So far I know (with pronounciations):

Hello - Zdrastvooyte
Goodbye - Da sveedaneeya
Please - Spaseeba
My name is - Meenya zavoot
Sorry - eezveeneete
Please / you're welcome - pazhalooysta
I don't understand - Ya nee paneemayoo
I speak a little Russian - Ya nemnogo govorju po-russki
Good luck! - Udachi!
Good morning - Dobroe utro
Good day - Dobryy den
Good evening - Dobryy vecher

Yeah, so you can see it's a little slow going. My problem, aside from not being able to see/read this since I haven't yet learned the Cyrillic alphabet, is that these words are a mouthful. I mean, really, I speak Spanish, Italian and French, and even a little German without a problem. But with Russian I feel myself stumbling all over the words. Hopefully I just need more practice. We'll see...

Second itinerary in...

Last night I received the skeletal itinerary from the "other" travel specialists for Russia. The specialist warned me that my budget (which is hefty) may not be hefty enough for their line of travel. She "downgraded" the hotels to still pretty expensive options, only gave me 4 days of private guide and driver and didn't include airfare, visa or insurance costs, and still came in about $2000 over my budget. Sheesh!

The more I mull over my first option, which provides private guide and driver every day, covers exactly the sites I want, and puts me up in more reasonably priced but still centrally located hotels, the more I like it. I'm still awaiting Olga's revision to get me an extra day in Moscow. Once I receive that, I'm pouncing on it.

It is sort of depressing thought that this trip would be about 7 1/2 months away! A whole spring and summer away!

Revising itinerary

Today saw some action. Olga is revising my itinerary not only to add a day in Moscow to accommodate the Tretyakov and the Pushkin Museums but also get me a guide for them. Man, this is service. I also heard from the more expensive agency which is going to put a less detailed proposal together for me as a courtesy before I decide whether I want to work with them or not. Both are due back to me early next week.

I'm reading Fodor's Moscow and St. Petersburg and actually figuring out the Cyrillic alphabet a bit (B is R, P is B, etc.) and am getting really latched on to this whole idea. My Amazon Wish List also erupted with a whole list of required reading; good thing I have 8 months to get through it!

And this is my new desktop. Sigh.

First Itinerary in...

Today I received the first customized itinerary. I have to say I'm impressed. It covers just about everything I want and for about $600 less than I'd estimated. What surprises me is that they have me in St. Petersburg first, which I sort of always expected to be where the trip would end, but in reality I'll be flying home from Moscow. I don't know if that should matter to me or not. I have heard St.P is "my kind of city" and Moscow not so much.

The other thing that is interesting is I only have 2 full days in Moscow. I am going to ask and see if I can get one more, since the Pushkin Museum and Tretyakov Museum, both "must sees" in my mind, have not been included and there is no "free" time in Moscow. Hmmmm. I suspect that is because hotels are dirt cheap in Moscow on weekends, and this itinerary has me landing in Moscow, not surprisingly on Friday night and departing Monday morning. I think I can squeak one more day out of this.

I also asked for a proposed itinerary from another Russian travel company, just for the purposes of comparison shopping. This one though is looking for $220 just to put the proposal together, and their chosen hotels are the Ritz or Savoy. Methinks that's an indication that they're just a smidge out of my league. We'll see...

Wheels to Russia in motion

So I took the leap. Yesterday while working at home, I took a break and called a travel agency that specializes in travel to Russia. I spoke with Olga, a very nice agent from St. Petersburg who asked me the length of my trip, when I want to go, what I want to see, what kind of accommodations I want, how long in each city and how independent I feel. We agreed that I'd go with a partially guided / partially independent trip. She's putting a customized itinerary together now, including flights and visas. I anxiously await both the itinerary and the bottom line. Fingers crossed that Olga pulls something together that I'll just love!

I promised myself Russia

With the new year comes the threat of another birthday, and this year it just so happens to be a milestone birthday, and one I promised myself to mark in style and with something I'd put off for a while. Although it's seemed far off for some time, I just realized the one trip I'd been promising myself to mark the occasion has risen to the top of the agenda. This trip is to Russia and I've taken the week between Christmas and New Year's to jump start the trip planning because I don't think this is one of those "get up and just go" types of trips.

I've long been fascinated with Russia. My earliest memories of it just so happen to have occurred in the same year. Way back when, my fifth grade teacher used to warn us of the impending doom that the Russians were surely to bring upon the USA. Now, I'm sure in that day and age, it seemed possible, although maybe he was just a bit of a war-monger or maybe just shit-stirrer. But damn, you don't say those sorts of things to impressionable 10 year olds! I can actually remember asking my grandfather if what my teacher said was true, and was relieved that Gramp didn't think the Russians were going to wipe us off the map. I knew that Gramp knew better than any half-baked elementary school teacher, for sure. Also in that same year, the US Olympic hockey team wiped up Lake Placid with the Russian team and it's probably one of the earliest news-worthy memories I have. That whole US vs. Russia mentality, the busting of the evil empire, all that big baddie versus little old goodies like these baby faced hockey players from our very own hometowns. It was bigger and better in our minds than Luke vs. Darth. It was one for the history books for sure, but it sparked an interest in Russia for me that never really subsided.

I was riveted to the news of the break-up for the USSR into the nation states in the late 80s and 90s and how they continue to morph over time. And as a competitive figure skating aficionado, I fully appreciate that the Russians are, and always have been, and probably will forever be, better skaters than just about everybody. Doe-eyed Canadians included (man, I have NOT recovered from that Olympic "scandal"!)

So here I sit with a few different options in hand, a guidebook on Moscow and St. Petersburg and a hand-penned list of must-sees. Deciding how to do it is the issue. I can either go on a fully guided (sigh...probably with 15 geriatrics), partially guided (with some free-time to myself) or totally on my own.

Here's what I'm thinking. Totally on my own is out of the equation. Ordinarily I go anywhere on my own without a second thought. In Russia though, the tourist infrastructure is not as well-developed as everywhere else I've been. From what I have read so far, it is difficult, if not impossible to get into some of the places I want to see without a local guide. There is also the mental hurdle of being in a country where, not only do I not speak the language, I can't even read the alphabet. I'm blessed to read and speak three languages other than English. Russian is not one of them. At least in the Czech Republic I could read the letters and pretend that a Spanish/French transliteration of what the word looked like would do. And sometimes that worked perfectly. I could of course, and probably will, attempt to learn both the alphabet and at least a basic knowledge of Russian before I go. But for now it's a mental hurdle I'm struggling with. One that could land me on a Moscow Metro ride to no where...like Charlie on the MTA.

But part of why I travel is to learn about the culture and immerse myself in the surroundings. Schlepping on and off a bus and in and out of sights with a group of English speaking Americans doesn't really do it for me in that regard. I'd want to cut loose and spend some time seeing things that maybe the group doesn't and seeing how I'd do there on my own. So the allure of a partially guided trip is calling to me.

And still, at the back of my mind there is that elementary school teacher's voice warning me that I could go missing for some perceived infraction and end up in a gulag in Siberia forever more. So for that reason alone, no matter how unrealistic it is, I'd kind of like someone on the ground there to at least know where I am and where I'm supposed to be some of the time.

This trip won't be cheap, but it's meant to be a trip of a lifetime. I'll probably not do many/any other big trips this year and just save up for the September/October timeframe. But in the meantime it gives me something to ruminate on during the cold winter months and gives me a reason to go to work (if for no other reason that to accrue vacation time!) So for now I'll keep reading and talking to tour providers. I have some time to decide and plenty to keep me busy thinking. I just can't believe it's here!

S Novym Godom!

My First Century

Now that I’ve had the time to let the dust settle and fully absorb the experience, I figured it was time to blog about completing my first century ride (ok, Twin told me to, so here I am).

Just about a year ago, it would have been insanely foolish for me to even consider riding 100 miles in one day with a knee like mine. In fact, I was specifically told then that I should never ride again. That I should be happy working out on the elliptical trainer (the only exercise that caused no pain/swelling at the time) and to give up on the bike, both indoors and out. But, in what turned out to be one of my first life lessons over the course of 2009, if I really want something bad enough, I’ll find a way to make it happen. So I found another doc, another physical therapist, a phenomenal personal trainer and even a magical chiropractor, and got myself 100 in a day. Yee ha.

Getting back on the bike outside was an exercise in self-restraint. My physical therapist warned me that I would have to temper my obsessive personality and learn to set limits and stop, even when it feels too good to do so. He cautioned me to increase my mileage by no more than 10% a week. So that meant if the first week’s rides were 20 miles, next week would be 22, then 24.2...you get the picture. A gradual build. But in May, I was just happy to be back on the bike. When I was discharged from therapy, I hooked up with Jon the SuperTrainer and we started on a course of quad strengthening, which was the crux of most of the knee issues. And off we went and that strength work and the slow build-up of miles began in April.

Just after WSSC, I got it in my head that I wanted to ride the Seagull Century with other Spinning Instructor Friends of mine. It can’t get any cooler than that, but part of it too was this burning need to take on turning 40 (next year) and shake my fist at it. Do something that not a lot of people my age can do. But I think at that point in time, I was lucky to be up to 30 miles on the road. I had all summer to get closer to 100 since the century wasn’t until October, so the training began in earnest. Apparently my personality is pretty transparent, because Jon also recognized that obsessive streak in me and focused that obsessiveness into a fairly rigid and extremely extensive strength training program that he called, creatively enough, “century training”. Now that he and I had something to work towards, we were cooking with gas. As my miles got longer and I experienced soreness in the base of my neck or lower back, I’d tell Jon, he’d give me some weight work and after a couple weeks of working that, I’d be pain free on the road.

My training plan was to ride my Tuesday night Spinning class as a high intensity interval training ride, weight train with Jon on Wednesdays, ride outside for a short ride on Thursday night, off day Friday, medium ride on Saturday and long ride Sunday. I’d teach off the bike on Mondays or ride it if weather prevented me from being outside on one of the weekend days (learned and acknowledged early on that the knee doesn’t like 3 days in a row on the bike). I’ll tell you though, there were days when either my heart wasn’t in it, my training buddy would bonk or I’d be training alone riding into an insane North Shore headwind and just wonder to myself “why the hell am I doing this? Who’s going to care if I bag it now?” But the part of me that wanted to prove something pushed on. And then there were days that were picture perfect; days I’ll pull out of memory during the blizzards of February, and remember the cliff-side rides around Cape Ann, the gorgeous blue sky and surf of the perfect summer morning, the rolling hills in Hamilton. With days like that to balance out the “why?” days, I kept logging the miles on MapMyRide and comparing notes with the Twin. As long as we were at about the same place in training, I felt good. She’d be with me, we could sag together. And I’d keep going.

Overall, training went pretty well, until somewhere into the 50 mile range and then all hell broke loose. Or it felt so to me. I had to move in late July and lost 2 weekends while I moved on my own. Then I got strep-C and lost another 2 weekends. I got a couple of good weekend rides in once I felt better and then around Labor Day my knee flared up again and I was off the bike entirely. Mentally beaten, I started to tell myself and everyone else who would listen that I was probably not going to be able to ride the whole century. I was in constant pain and state of swelling so I was mentally laying the groundwork for not doing the ride at all. Jon was still working with me, but that was about the extent of my activity for 3 weeks. Then he suggested talking to Deanna, a fellow Spinning instructor and chiropractor. The two of them convinced me to work with her rather than wait the months to see the ortho again only to get referred back to therapy. Life lesson #2 was this: try the unconventional; you never know what will happen.

Deanna worked on me with an instrument of cruelty that looked like a cattle prod from a Russian gulag (also known as the Graston Technique) and a cold laser. Deanna’s goal was to break up accumulated scar tissue, inflame it to get it to start healing again and get the knee cap floating properly again. After just one session, I went out and rode 25 miles pain-free. Seriously! I went back for a second session for good measure. But that was it. I was back on the bike. So for 5 weeks, I continued to build my miles and managed 56 miles before the century. That wasn’t looking promising for a finish, but I was hoping for 75 on a good day. I convinced myself I would have been happy with that. My last ride before the century was the Sunday before on my finely tuned Specialized, which I’d just picked up from a tune-up at the best bike shop in the land. The ride was effortless, the shifting like butter, the bike my new best friend again. So this is what a little lube and fine tuning gets you? I was psyched. Bring on the 100.

So that nice early fall weekend in October, I drove to Maryland and met my Twin and other Spinning pals for the ride. I was nervous, obsessively tied to my training plan (would I be able to have my pre-meal scrambled eggs? Would I have enough GU? Nuun? Would the knee hold up? Would I be able to sleep the night before?) and really anxious to get rolling.

Saturday morning, we headed to the start line and within 5 pedal strokes I knew I had a serious problem. And like all best-laid plans, it was not my knee as I might have predicted. Instead, the previously smooth shifting and “smooth like butter” ride I had the previous weekend had turned into a painful clunk and chunk, with the middle 4 gears not even clicking in at all; the chain would just bounce right over them. Somewhere in transit the derailleur got compromised (as well as gnarled up handlebar tape, which is just plain ugly). I stopped at the mechanic station and they told me "nothing is wrong but if there is something wrong, it’s probably just sand from the area in the derailleur". Witnesses who rode with me will attest to the “that shouldn’t be doing that” sound it made the whole rest of the day. But at 9:00 that morning, I could bag it or bust it. Life lesson #3: bust it. I worked too hard and worried too much to walk away now.

The first 20 miles were, for me, meant to get over the mechanical and deal with it and to get into some kind of riding formation with the group. It was a casual pace and all about finding a groove. At the first rest stop, I felt good and kept going. Same at 40.

The only “problem” I had was going into the 60 mile rest stop, I all of a sudden got really light-headed and insanely hungry. I drank a water bottle full of Nuun and knocked back a Gu and a pack of Fig Newtons. I also ate everything in sight at the rest stop. Oranges, multiple slices of pound cake, chocolate chip cookies. And I switched from Nuun to a really sugary sports drink. That seemed to help, so I got back on the bike and headed out again.

The ride itself was actually fun for me, not a drain at all. The terrain was flatty-flat. Insanely flat, like no where on the North Shore flat. The weather was reasonable. It was hardly an effort to keep moving, as I remember it now. The lure of the food at some of these stops definitely helped. The group didn’t really stick too closely together and I found myself riding on my own or with people I didn’t know at all a lot. I did ride with a few of our group for parts of the ride, but this definitely was more of an individual effort than I thought it would be. And I killed it, at least in my mind, where I think it loomed bigger for me than it did for anyone else.

At 82 miles, I texted David and my sister and said I was going for it. They both replied with encouragement and I just jumped back on and went. My odometer died coming out of that rest stop (so no photo of the 100 on the meter!) so I had no idea how much road was left in front of me, other than it was less than 20 miles. When we got close to the end, a cop stopped us all for traffic and I sat there and wondered what it would feel like to finish this. I think that was the first time it occurred to me that I was actually going to do this. I was going to finish. And finish in fairly good shape and time. Little did I know that I was just around the corner from the finish line. When I saw the tunnel down to the finish, I recognized where I was and I got teary-eyed. After everything that had been thrown at me in the last year to keep me off the bike, I just kicked it all in the ass. I beat it down and won. I’ll tell you, it’s a good feeling. And I’m already looking for another one or two next year, because once you’re bitten by the bug, you want more. Believe me.
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The To Do list (because we all learn something from things like this):
Learn to ride in the drops
Learn to do what you need to in a port-a-pottie
Buy all-weather-wear
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Many people supported me and made this experience extra special, but a few deserve a shout-out, in no particular order:

To Brian, your color commentary and stick-to-it-tiveness got me through the training, and some of those rides were glorious and some were just plain ugly. Eat your breakfast first (a real breakfast) and we’re back at it as soon at it’s over 60 in the spring. Special props to you for teaching me to drink at speed!

To David, I know you knew I was going to do this even when I didn’t. Thanks for listening to me bitch though! Are you in for a road trip next October?

To Evans the Ortho who made me believe again, Brendan the PT who brought me back, Jon the SuperTrainer who keeps me there, Deanna the Chiro who tweaks when needed, Scott my LBS guy (I’ll be back in March to get the derailleur replaced and handlebars retaped!)...you are part of the team. You’re not going anywhere, ever! I couldn’t have done it at all without you.

To Twin, I wouldn’t trade that weekend for anything and if I played it over, I’d do it all the same. All of it. Even the fire drills and the guy in compression socks. Just bring a corkscrew next time, will you? Seeing you gnaw that one off with your teeth was not attractive! ;-)

To Turning 40: bite me. There aren’t many people my age who did what I just did. Just wait till you see what I’m going to beat 41 down with!