Why hello there! Akeo and Chris here, thinking we'd dust off the ol' blog for an update on our summer in Grenoble.
We've been here for a full five weeks now, which neither of us can really believe because the time seems to have gone by so quickly. But this place is undoubtedly starting to feel more like home, with a daily routine pretty much set, the city layout now feeling familiar, and training opportunities well known at this point.
Chris's update: The awesome thing about living next to a mountain is that you don't have to travel far (i.e., at all) to start climbing. Just this morning Akeo and I went on a casual ski-walk before work and, in a little over an hour, found ourselves 2500 feet higher than when we started (we live at about 700 feet). I guess if you live near mountains this isn't such a big deal, but coming from the Boston suburbs it makes me pretty happy!
The metropolitan roads of Grenoble are pretty narrow and busy, but we don't have to go far to get to great rollerskiing: After about 10 minutes of scooting around the city, it's a really pretty, low-traffic road that climbs for two hours straight through smaller villages. The route is well supplied with water stops along the way, but we've found that the effect of increasing in altitude is decreasing temperatures, eventually landing at Col de Porte, a mountain peak at the relatively modest 4350 feet. I say relatively modest because forty-five minutes later, skiing on the stickiest tar pavement you've ever laid rollerkis on, up a switchbacky mountain road, you end up at the gorgeous Charmant Som, which at 6100 feet makes you feel pretty accomplished for the day!
Cute selfie on our way up to Col de Porte. In the background is Chamechaude, the highest mountain in the Chartruese mountain range. Don't worry, we'll hike it soon.
Some more roadside scenery from the ascent:
Akeo's update: Five weeks in also means that we both have operational road bikes and have been able to start exploring more than just the ascents (and best locations to catch rides). Last Friday, I was able to fully appreciate this by taking a morning work break and going on a short road trip for an amazing morning cycling adventure with my "boss," Max. We drove about an hour to the heart of the "High-Alps" where we started our epic ride. We rode two Cols (a Col is like a valley/mountain summit). The first was Col du Lautarait, after which we (Max) took a quick café break while we waited to be joined by friends. With our new members we headed up the real climb to the top of Col du Galibier (in the picture my head is blocking it but for those watching the numbers that is a summit of 8,678 ft, the sixth highest mountain pass in the Alps)! It was an awesome climb. As one of the most frequently included climbs in the Tour de France, it has a ton of history behind it and you feel very epic riding up reading the same words of encouragement that countless Tour de France winners have read on their way to victory! After lots of pictures from the top we started our descent, and it will suffice to say that I tied my all-time speed record on a bike (70kph) without even pedaling!! It was a fantastic morning and we were still back to work by early afternoon in time to finish up our protein purification for the week! (To view the video from Max's GoPro, including the descent, click here and for the full picture album look on my facebook wall.)
Summit:
View from the top:
While this was an especially epic day, we have had workouts from numerous other days that have been just as, shall we say, adventurous and instructive... We will not bore you with the details, but here are some highlights:
There's an accordionist outside our window right now, and I just got back from exploring Grenoble's centre-ville (below). Just another day in the life, feelin' French!
Keep on summering, training, and summer-training,
Chris and Akeo
We've been here for a full five weeks now, which neither of us can really believe because the time seems to have gone by so quickly. But this place is undoubtedly starting to feel more like home, with a daily routine pretty much set, the city layout now feeling familiar, and training opportunities well known at this point.
Chris's update: The awesome thing about living next to a mountain is that you don't have to travel far (i.e., at all) to start climbing. Just this morning Akeo and I went on a casual ski-walk before work and, in a little over an hour, found ourselves 2500 feet higher than when we started (we live at about 700 feet). I guess if you live near mountains this isn't such a big deal, but coming from the Boston suburbs it makes me pretty happy!
The metropolitan roads of Grenoble are pretty narrow and busy, but we don't have to go far to get to great rollerskiing: After about 10 minutes of scooting around the city, it's a really pretty, low-traffic road that climbs for two hours straight through smaller villages. The route is well supplied with water stops along the way, but we've found that the effect of increasing in altitude is decreasing temperatures, eventually landing at Col de Porte, a mountain peak at the relatively modest 4350 feet. I say relatively modest because forty-five minutes later, skiing on the stickiest tar pavement you've ever laid rollerkis on, up a switchbacky mountain road, you end up at the gorgeous Charmant Som, which at 6100 feet makes you feel pretty accomplished for the day!
Cute selfie on our way up to Col de Porte. In the background is Chamechaude, the highest mountain in the Chartruese mountain range. Don't worry, we'll hike it soon.
Some more roadside scenery from the ascent:
Akeo's update: Five weeks in also means that we both have operational road bikes and have been able to start exploring more than just the ascents (and best locations to catch rides). Last Friday, I was able to fully appreciate this by taking a morning work break and going on a short road trip for an amazing morning cycling adventure with my "boss," Max. We drove about an hour to the heart of the "High-Alps" where we started our epic ride. We rode two Cols (a Col is like a valley/mountain summit). The first was Col du Lautarait, after which we (Max) took a quick café break while we waited to be joined by friends. With our new members we headed up the real climb to the top of Col du Galibier (in the picture my head is blocking it but for those watching the numbers that is a summit of 8,678 ft, the sixth highest mountain pass in the Alps)! It was an awesome climb. As one of the most frequently included climbs in the Tour de France, it has a ton of history behind it and you feel very epic riding up reading the same words of encouragement that countless Tour de France winners have read on their way to victory! After lots of pictures from the top we started our descent, and it will suffice to say that I tied my all-time speed record on a bike (70kph) without even pedaling!! It was a fantastic morning and we were still back to work by early afternoon in time to finish up our protein purification for the week! (To view the video from Max's GoPro, including the descent, click here and for the full picture album look on my facebook wall.)
Summit:
While this was an especially epic day, we have had workouts from numerous other days that have been just as, shall we say, adventurous and instructive... We will not bore you with the details, but here are some highlights:
- Discovering (on day one) that walking 6km back down the road (in ski boots or bare feet) and then hitch-hiking the rest of the way down is less desirable (and worse for post-workout recovery) than riding down form the top.
- Discovering (not on day one) that this rule still holds true if it's a weekday and 11pm (and, yes, pitch-black out). [***Safety Side Note: We were not rollerskiing in the dark and would never do that! In this case, after finishing our rollerski and waiting an hour and a half at the top of the mountain with no luck getting a ride, we realized that if we didn't start hiking we'd be spending a rather chilly night in the mountains.]
- Discovering that, in the case of getting separated from one another, just keep skiing in a generally upwards direction and with a little luck you can be reunited after an hour at a random mid-mountain bus stop 3 minutes before the bus arrives to take you down.
- Discovering that it is rather easier to enter our apartment with the key through the door, than picking the clasp on the shutters and using the window (although Tor and Esther's Lowell basement training sessions proved very useful this day).
- Discovering, even though we are Nordic skiers, it is possible to buy more groceries than you can physically carry, with or without a bike, and no, even on those days it doesn't count as a strength workout regardless of how long it took you to traverse the 10 blocks back home.
There's an accordionist outside our window right now, and I just got back from exploring Grenoble's centre-ville (below). Just another day in the life, feelin' French!
Keep on summering, training, and summer-training,
Chris and Akeo
