Although it is my birthday month, May. It’s still cold here in Belgium. Also wet.

But word around the campfire is that it was snowing back home yesterday, so I got that going for me.

If you do not have your passport and 1.50 euro cash (or enough to buy a small loaf of bread) with you at all times you are legally a Gypsy…it’s the law. And now you know.

Currently I’m in Flanders. For the non cycling saavy, there is an enormous professional race going on today. It’s called the Tour of Flanders or as they say in Freaky Deaky Dutch “De Ronde Van Vlaanderen”. It’s northern Belgium’s bread and butter race, picture a traveling Super Bowl. If you are a professional, you can plan on a real long day at the office, over 260K long, but if you’re an amateur you can count on a rest day because there are no other races going on. The rest day came welcome in my schedule after a good training week and a couple of races, I was more than ready to shut ‘er down and get everything back to neutral. Especially when this was the view out of the kitchen window this morning.

Don’t worry, that’s not snow it is hail. It’s a wonderful feeling looking out the window at the Belgian countryside covered in hail knowing that all I need to do is knock this out before it gets cold.

Maybe I’ll even do two.

Other than that there isn’t too much going on here on the East side of the Atlantic. I’m getting into a nice training and racing groove, and hopefully the good results are soon to follow.

On a side note, I have picked up a nice little ’staying warm’ trick. It’s all about the warming creme. That’s not the secret, the important part is placement of the creme. Obviously, putting it on any bare skin is a good idea and maybe some extra on the knees, but the most important area, the base of the spine. A dab of embrocation on the spine will do you wonders. Of course, only people in Belgium need to worry about staying warm in April, but file it away for cross season.

My last post was zonder books.

Well, I’ve been back in Europe for 5 days now. My first race was yesterday, it was a Kermesse in a town called somethingeke. I was focused on not worrying about how I felt physically as with the jet lag and mediocre sleep at best so far it was going to be a hit or miss. The goal of the race was to get back into the ebb and flow of racing ride as smart and aggressive as possible and get one day closer to shutting the door on jet lag. Unfortunately, about 1/2 a lap into the race, there was a huge pile up on a tiny farm road. Which meant I got to unclip and watch the front split ride away while I was waiting for guys on the floor to move out of the way since the road was flanked by big ditches to each side which meant gridlock in the group. So I rolled in the chase group until we got pulled. That’s kermesse racing. Now I get to take a day off, first one since I’ve been here and I am enjoing a relaxing day and even enjoying the gray weather, only because I don’t have to ride in it.

Hopefully I can keep this more updated than in the past, and I promise not to make it too “bikey” since I’m pretty sure there are only a handful of you that read it, and even less that know what I’m talking about when I start throwing the bike jargon around. Also more pictures.

I just downloaded my camera and most of the pics as of now are just of the house, so I figured it’s about time for a virtual cribs tour. But let’s start at the beginning. I made a conscious effort not to over pack, of course I did, but not to the extent I did last year, so I figured I’d show everybody what made the cut…

And yes, believe it or not there are a few pair of underwear in there, don’t ask me why. And of course there is the traditional, parting shot with the rents.

OK, this is already getting scary long. Long story short I made across the ocean in the big metal tube and all my luggage did too. Now I’ll show you how I’m living.

If you ever end up in West Flanders, look up 4 Kasteeldreef and wander into room number 5 that is where you’ll find me. Right now I’m “zonder” roommate which is Dutch for without roommate. I only know this because I’m constantly looking for items in the grocery store that say zonder gluten. Not to fear, word around the campfire is I’ll have company coming in early this week. Here is the panorama shot of the room slash my bed. Nothing big or fancy, but it’s very nice and even I can’t complain, which is saying a lot.

Here is the heart of the operation…my closet.

 

As you make your way out of my room, you’ll find my bathroom. Nothing special, but it is the more traditional European bathroom. Which means its is zonder shower curtain and shower head. Initally, most people when they get here think, what the French Word. However, anybody that know me knows any excuse to sit down I jump at and any reason to take more tubbies than usual is right up my alley.

Finally, we make it to the kitchen. There are three in the house, this one is the “back” kitchen. Most of the burners work, one of the stoves does, and the toaster is on the fritz but it’s where I make my coffee every day, so I like it.

 

Everybody has their own shelf in cupboards and refrigerators. It’s their own little piece of the kitchen, and here is mine.

It is mostly coffee, coffee makers, and expired Powerbars. Oh yea and honey.

OK, well my computer is telling me that the battery is about to die, and there is more lactic acid in my fingers than there was in my legs yesterday racing. Not to mention this is my biggest blog ever. So I’m going to shut her down otherwise there will be no chance of me ever blogging again.

That is all.

Dear Cycling Peaks,

I love your product. Without it, I would have a $2000 square taper bottom bracket. It makes sense out of my jumbled world of watts. You also sponsor my team, which I’m forever indebtted to you for. I know that I’m probably using your product to a small percentage of what I could be using it for, but I still like it. Okay, in all honesty I like to look at the charts and see how high I can get them. It makes me feel good when I see a new high score for anything. Sidenote, its the easiest way to keep a good training journal, I just plug it in.

There is only one suggestion I would have for you to look into. The DSS, Dressing Stress Score. Perhaps you can add this into the already calculated Training Stress Score.  The name is not important. I for one, believe this number is very important, and largely overlooked. It’s winter time in Colorado, has been for a few months now. Anybody who has gone out in the cold knows the sensation a DSS would calculate. The act of dressing is tiring. Really. Most days I’m more tired after I get dressed than when I come back from a 5 hour ride, I’ve even started eating and drinking while dressing to avoid lackluster training sessions.

I haven’t finialized the formula yet, but it includes the number of layers, time spent dressing (not including rubbing something into your chamois), and elasticity of your clothing. Layers is easy as typically it is a whole number. Take 4 for example. Time can be measured in minutes, for example today, I’m guessing at least 18. The elasticity is trickier. For example the elasticity of your shorts may not be a high number. Maybe a 0.3. But pulling on tights after shorts, leg warmers, windproof grundos, makes the elasticity factor exponetially high. You know you have a high elasticity factor when movement is inhibited. Nearly a 0.83, yes that’s not a typo. So, if you multiply layers and time then add your elasticity factor, this is a hypothetical 72.83 DSS. Compared to a summer day when you have a jersey, bibs and your biggest elasticity variable are your socks it may be as low as a 3.02. That’s a massive difference, and a lot of energy going into pulling on spandex. I neglected to calculate the number of zippers pulled since as long as your zippers are in good working order the energy expenditure is negligible.

To keep your training at high levels, the DSS must be at zero everyday, or you will not recover well. That’s science. I’ve had a lot of experience with high DSS levels. The lastest scientific research shows that the only effective and legal means to lower your daily DSS is with coffee and or espresso. The accepted dosage is 1 shot of espress0 for every 10 DSS points, error on the generous side.
Just something to think about. Once again, thanks so much for your product, it is with all joking aside invaluable.

Ever.

All that comes to mind is the word Kharma. I’m not Buddist and to round out that ignorant American statistic I’m not even really sure which religion believes in Kharma. However as I’m drinking my coffee this morning I can’t help but wonder if the god of weather and all his chronies are LOL’ing at me this morning as I was riding sans gloves just yesterday. The good news is that I get to spend the day of St. Valentine with my one true love…my trainer.

On an unrelated note, it has freed up some time and energy to start my electronic garage sale, in a final push to pad the bank account before I leave. Buy some of my stuff, even if you don’t need it! Or at least look at it here:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcyclingdelt

It’s like Oprah’s, only better.

The most recent book added to “the list”….

        

In non-book related news, the 2008 season is drawing nearer everyday. Literally. I was down in Albuquerque (aka alkapurkie aka apple turkey) for just about 2 weeks at training camp. It was good. The weather wasn’t too bad. When compared to the winter we’ve been having it was great. As usual, the city itself went above and beyond welcoming us and accomodating our needs. It was good training with a solid squad to start the season. It should be a good year, everything looks to be on track for everybody. A big thanks to our sponsors and the state of New Mexico. I would also like to thank the staff of Presbyterian Hospital for keeping me alive during my asthma testing for the UCI. Training camp tends to set the tone and the standard for the coming year, and all signs are pointing to a good year, but the hard work and sacrifices are just beginning.

Now I’m back home for just over a month before going back over. Recently, I’ve been having some visitors in the Casa de Wenzel. Old friends that became too cool for Greeley have been coming up for some good cow town training. The company is always welcome, but it is common courtesy to leave the cruddy weather wherever you came from. Other than that things are staying pretty low key which is exactly how I’d like to spend my final weeks on this side of the ocean.

Hi. My name is Scott Wenzel and I’m an over packer.

Also, there is no space saving way to fold a chamios.