Call it what you will: embro, hot sauce, warming cream, embrocation – this stuff can be great and it can be bad – very bad. When hot sauce is good it is really good – your legs are nicely warm and very comfortable. When the hot sauce goes wrong you end up with feelings of fire and extreme heat… There isn’t a bike racer (particularly cyclocross racer) out there who doesn’t have a “hot sauce gone wrong” story to tell.

Well, guess what? I’ve got one to tell today… So last Sunday I applied hot sauce to my legs and they were nicely warm and toasty during the race. But my feet – well they were frozen. Frozen bricks of flesh and I couldn’t feel my toes. Highly unpleasant and rather ineffective when it comes to clipping in and running. The common consensus from my cyclocross pals (people with much more experience than me) was to apply hot sauce to my feet. Sounds like a great idea doesn’t it?

So today it was a bit on the cool side. Perfect opportunity to test out the hot sauce on the feet tactic. I applied a moderate amount of hot sauce to the tops and bottom of my feet, my toes, and the ankle region. As for the excess, I simply wiped this all over my hands (I also get very cold hands). I was very careful to not get the hot sauce in my chamois – getting dangerously close to sensitive areas. (Yes I have experience with this…)

After about 20 minutes of riding I noticed a rather hot and fire-like sensation around my ankles. The hot sauce was working – and it was working too well. Clearly the ankle area is rather sensitive to the hot sauce. I was able to block out the burning ankle syndrome but it was highly unpleasant.

Upon arrival home my mission was to shower. But the thing about hot sauce is that it gets even hotter and more fire like when hot water comes in contact with it. Luckily I thought ahead and have a handy bottle of Sport Wash that was rumoured to be useful in removing the hot sauce from body parts. Well, this is a false rumour. The truth is that the Sport Wash simply amplifies the heat in the hot sauce. In fact it activated the hot sauce on the tops and bottom of my feet, toes and hands.

Now what to do? Well, I sucked it up like a cyclocross racer and stepped in the shower… This is where things went really wrong and got very hot. An unpleasant and rather painful shower was had. Now six hours after the application of the hot sauce, I can happily report that the heat is finally gone from my feet and hands.

Moral of the story? I’m not sure yet. The upside is that my feet and hands were nice and warm during the ride. I have learned not to apply hot sauce to my tender ankles… I just need to determine how to get the hot sauce off of my body. I’m open to suggestions…

Even with this slightly negative experience, I’m still hooked on the sauce and I’ll give it another go. Yes, I could be considered to be a slow learner!

What a day it has been here today! After a relaxing afternoon on Sunday followed by a tasty meal at Sultan’s in Herselt – Monday came fast and furious. (Sultan’s is Turkish kebab shop – similar to shwarmas – only much better…)

Nikoline and I hit up the local green route for an easy recovery ride on the ‘cross bikes. It was a great chance to ride on the trails, practice a few skills and chat and relax. We had a good ride and both found the woods to be super relaxing – though we did our best to avoid the mud (didn’t feel like cleaning our bikes!).

After a quick shower and lunch, we were in my car and off to Heist-Op-Den-Berg to pick up a young Danish cyclocross racer and take him to the bike shop in Geel. The Van Eyck bike shop is a cyclist’s dream with every manner of bike, brand of clothing, hard-to-find part, and other cycling goodies. It was a rather frustrating drive to Geel thanks to the crazy roadworks happening… But we made it and all left feeling very happy with our purchases. I managed to buy the batteries I needed for my PowerTap hub.

Then it was back to Heist-Op-Den-Berg where Nikoline and I were treated to tea, pancakes with Nutella and ice cream (I skipped the ice cream) and had a great time talking to the fellow that Emile the Danish cyclist is staying with. We could have stayed there all afternoon chatting with Victor about bike racing, training and life in general! When Victor discovered that neither of us have a massage therapist here, we were quickly out and in our car following Victor as he sped along the narrow roads to nearby Booischot where we met a very experienced massage therapist. It was super nice of Victor to help us out like this.

Then we hopped back in my trusty Peugeot and made fast tracks back to Blauberg – I had a work call and Nikoline had to get ready for her night out in Antwerp.

Yes, a very busy and hectic day – but an excellent one. This is definitely not a normal day for myself (nor Nikoline) – but it was great change of pace. We got the number one job of the day done – riding our bikes and then had time for everything else to fall into place.

This evening I’ve been doing some writing work for a new client and thanks to Marc’s help (love Skype) I’ve now got my PowerTap wheel working properly again. Oh and good news, I’m all booked for the Koksijde World Cup – big thanks to Stefan Wyman for finding us a great house for the race.

So, that’s the kind of day it has been! Now it is time for some yoga and maybe a couple episodes of Modern Family. Hope your Monday is going as well as mine.

This is my third day in Blauberg, Belgium and I’m pretty much settled in. Both bikes are built and appear to be in working order (Ignace is coming by this morning to check them out…). I’ve had a couple of good rides and rediscovered some of my favorite training routes.

Thursday’s ride was particularly painful but not all rides can be recovery rides! The workout consisted of three nine minute intervals. In this nine minutes I had to roll through a minute at tempo, a minute at threshold and a minute at VO2Max (repeat this three times). Innocent looking but definitely not once you’re knee deep in them. But I have to admit I love these kind of workouts – it is nice to see the power numbers that I can produce and to feel my body responding and working the way I want it to.

Today is Armistice Day (Remembrance Day) so it is a National holiday. Normally this means that I’d be racing today – but the race in Niel does not have a women’s race this year. I could have driven to Nommay, France for the C1 but I really couldn’t face the long drive yesterday after only arriving on Wednesday. I may regret not going to this race because there is a chance I could have picked up some UCI points that would be useful for qualifying for the World Championships…

Not much going on today. A recovery ride is on deck with Nikoline sometime this morning and then I’ll likely do some work and watch the men’s race at Niel on the television. There are also the bins of stuff that we left here last year that I need to go through and I’d like to walk the 200 meters or so to the town square to see what is happening today for Armistice Day.

Yes, so pretty much settled in. It is an interesting feeling to walk into stores and to be recognized and remembered – a very nice feeling and makes me wonder why we always leave in February!

Good news – I made it to Blauberg, Belgium without incident. Two very easy but crowded flights to get here – first time in a long time that I didn’t have an entire three seats to myself on the long flight. Ah well, at least the middle seat was empty!

The flights were pretty simple. Seemed to be lots of kids and a fellow with a horrible cough on the flight. I lucked into about five hours of sleep… Not too shabby and likely the reason why I’m still awake and feeling good right now.

So one thing has changed in the Brussels airport. It used to be a very long walk from arriving to getting to the baggage pick-up – but now it is a pretty short 5 – 10 minute walk. Sadly this new route no longer takes you by the Starbucks…

I was dreading getting my bikes and luggage to the rental car pick-up location since this involves manipulating big awkward bags down a spiral pathway that features an entrance that is slightly too narrow for bike bags. Last year I kind of cracked and ended up shedding a few tears as I tried to figure out how to get my stuff through the narrow entrance and down the spiral… This year I was ready for it and managed this component of arrival rather expertly. (Phew!)

I settled in very quickly and made a couple of quick stops in at the next door grocery store and nearby health food store. The best part of these two visits was chatting with the folks that work in both stores and feeling very welcomed. Soon enough Jos popped over and I got my bike put together so we could get out for a ride.

I had planned on going to a cyclocross training session but I was feeling a bit wiped and frankly not up to training with a new group in a new location. So I elected for a good ride with Jos – we chatted and zipped along some great roads and the time flew by. I rolled home to Blauberg from Westmeerbeek on some of my favorite paths and roads.

Nice to see my housemate Nikoline here when I arrived. All in all – a good first day. I’m all unpacked and have one more bike to put together. Tomorrow the work starts again with a double day involving a run in the morning and a road ride in the afternoon.

My first race is on Sunday in Hamme-Zogge. Not sure what I’ll do on the 11th – I think I’ll try to find out about a local ceremony for the National Day of Remembrance.

I’m looking forward to getting out on the trails, rolling along my favorite training routes and getting back into the racing groove. I took three days off from training after Nationals – it was just what I needed. It felt good to get out on my bike today and I really enjoyed pushing my legs and lungs a bit.

Alright, I best sign off. I’ll leave you with this photo of the house, my car and one of my Stevens Carbon Team DA bikes: