Breakdown!

I was on my way to run with the L.A. Leggers this morning when I tried to shift into second gear. Something was wrong. I pulled over and my stick shift was just flopping around. I then heard something drop. Well, I obviously wasn't driving anywhere. Unfortunately, I was blocking the turn lane on La Cienega Blvd. at Pico. This made some people mad. 

I called AAA and had the vehicle towed to Saturn of the Valley where I met the Great Magnetic Wife. She said she had some errands she could run in the Valley, and asked if I wanted to get in a run. I said, "sure, take me to Balboa Park." I got in my six miles. However, as is always the case, I never seem to run quite as well by myself as with a group.

John Thum

The Runner's "Hi"

One of the reasons I am so happy to be back in L.A. after our travels in the last month to Paris and New York, is that my fellow runners are really quite a bit friendlier here. Whenever I pass another runner there is a sometimes subtle acknowledgment that we are both out there training. I call it the "Runner's Hi". Sometimes it is just a smile, sometimes a wave, sometimes a "good morning." But it is a nice little ritual we California runners have. When I ran in Paris about a month ago and New York City a week later, none of the runners I passed wanted to acknowledge our fleeting kinship.

John Thum

Hugh Bradner, Inventor of the Wet Suit, RIP

I just learned that Hugh Bradner, the inventor of the wet suit, died on May 5. It is really a fascinating story. His Wall Street Journal Obituary is here. The story of the invention of the wet suit is here. Thanks, Hugh. I didn't know who you were until after you died, but countless triathletes, scuba divers and surfers and I are grateful for your invention.

John Thum

Swimmin'

I went out this morning for a mile swim with an L.A. Tri Club group. Before we started swimming, when I was looking at the ocean, currents, etc., I saw a very large pod of dolphins. There were probably 15 to 20 dolphins in the pod. It is always exciting. 

We swam a mile and it felt pretty good.  I got advice from Tim Bomba to do a 2 mile ocean swim at least once a month between now and the Ironman Arizona in November. That is probably very sage advice. The Redondo Beach pier to Manhattan Beach pier is about two miles. I think I will incorporate that swim at least once a month in my training plans. Plus, I will participate in this year's Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim along that route in August, so I might as well get used to it.

John Thum

A Time To Remember

Please take time  this Memorial Day to remember and be grateful each member of the Armed Forces whose life was lost in service to this great nation.

John Thum

Running Again With The L.A. Leggers

The L.A. Leggers started their first ever fall marathon program today. The idea is for the club is to train people for the inaugural Pasadena Marathon on November 16. I will not be running that particular marathon as the Ironman Arizona follows only one week later, but it is a happy coincidence that I can train for the run portion of the Ironman with the Leggers.

We ran five miles today, the first couple were surprisingly hard, but I settled down and cruised for the last three miles. Mostly familiar faces with the 11.5 group, but there were three new people. The group was about half as big as the regular L.A. Marathon program. We had about 15 to 20 runners.

It's good to be back running with a group again.

John Thum

Eggcellent !

I love this commercial!



John Thum

Tri-Ku XVIII

He was turned to Steel

In the great magnetic field

Trains everyday

(Partially borrowed from "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath)

John Thum

Tri-Ku XVII

Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?

It's six months away

(Partially borrowed from "Ironman" by Black Sabbath)

John Thum

Six Months Away!

Today is May 23. Ironman Arizona is on November 23. Six months to go. Six months ago, when I signed up for this, now seems like six weeks ago. Training must intensify. I am definitely not ready as of this writing, but I do have six months to go. What have I gotten myself into?

John Thum

Versailles - Saturday, May 3, 2008

The original plan was to go to the Louvre, since we skipped it when I was sick. But the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to see Versailles. Lori and Bruce wanted to go to the Louvre, so we split up. It is about a half an hour train ride to get to Versailles. By the time we got there, the crowds were big. The people who worked there kept telling us we had to get in the very long line, but I knew that with our Museum Pass we did not.  While Wendy got a place in line, just in case, I investigated the special Museum Pass entrance. I found it and I was quite happy I did. Where as the regular line would surely take well over an hour to get through, the Museum Pass Entrance would take about three minutes. 

When I got back to the line The Great Magnetic Wife had made friends with an Italian couple ahead of us, Alberto Perini and Lidia Treviso. I was introduced and we were having such a good that I thought, I would rather hang out and talk to these people than to go into the palace early, so I didn't mention that the The Great Magnetic Wife and I could skip the big line. 

Alberto plays bass in Flavio Delladio & Honky Tonk, a country band. This is a rarity in Italy. But he clearly has a love of the music. This seems to be a vacation of bass players. I am, of course a bass player, Bruce is a bass player, Alberto is a bass player and Jean-Yves from Strasbourg is a bass player. Get us all together and that would be one bottom-heavy ensemble.

Versailles is amazing. Every corner is over-the-top extravagant. Bruce lent me Rick Steves' Paris guide book, which has a room by room description of the palace. It really helped to understand the place. It pointed out all of the things to look for.

Unfortunately, the Museum Pass did not get us into the Versailles Gardens. Or maybe, fortunately. We were pretty tired and didn't feel like standing in another line for tickets for the garden, so we bid our new friends adieu and took the train back to Paris. 

At one point we had thoughts of going to the Louvre after Versailles, but it didn't seem so appealing once we got back. We rested up a little and then went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. This is me on top of the Arc. 

After all their generosity, it was time to treat our hosts to a nice dinner in Paris. With the help of the Frommer's Paris Day by Day guide book, we chose Brasserie Zimmer, a very traditional French restaurant in the quite happening Chatelet neighborhood. The food was very good and the ambiance of the place was marvelous. After dinner we explored the neighborhood. It is full of clubs and people on the street. A lot of fun.

It was our last night in Paris, and we were a little sad that it was all coming to an end, but quite happy to have experienced it and very grateful to our hosts for making it possible. It was a bitter-sweet ride back on the Metro to the hotel. 

Au Revior.

John Thum

Paris - Friday, May 2, 2008

Well, we were in Paris, it was about time we went to an honest to goodness, big-time art museum. No, not the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay. We were tired from the events of the previous day, so we didn't get as early a start as we would have liked. As a result, by the time we got to the Musee d'Orsay, the lines were really long. Bruce was not going to stand for the that! While The Great Magnetic Wife, Lori and waited in line, Bruce went to see what he could do. He came back about ten minutes later with Museum Passes. These are great things to have in Paris. It gets you into most museums and a lot of top sights for one price, and you don't have to wait in the regular lines. It did take about another ten minutes to get past the security line, but we saved hours, I'm sure. 

The Musee d'Orsay is most well know for its collection of impressionist paintings. They have a great collection that includes Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Degas, etc. All of the best are well represented. Here I am hanging out with Vincent.

After the museum we crossed the Seine and entered the Jardins Des Tuileries, another beautiful public park/garden. We were all hungry and there was an outdoor restaurant in the gardens that looked good. It was at this restaurant that we finally had the experience of that famous Paris attraction, the rude waiter. In truth, most Paris waiters are not overly friendly like we are used to in the states, but they are quite efficient. However, this particular waiter was just down right rude and not at all efficient. I'd hate to go all the way to France and not have a rude waiter story. At the least the restaurant had ketchup to go with their French fries.

After lunch Bruce had to go back to the hotel for a business call. The Great Magnetic Wife, Lori and I went to the Musee de l'Orangerie, located on the grounds of the Jardins Des Tuileries for more impressionist. However, less impressive impressionists.

The Great Magnetic Wife fondly remembered going to a very fancy gourmet shop called Fauchon the last time she was in Paris, so we walked up the Rue Royal to seek it out. It was really quite disappointing. Every thing certainly cost a lot of money, but we all expected to be awed by the food and we were not. The cheese shop in Fontainebleau was far more impressive.

We walked back to the hotel and saw four large fingers sticking up out of the bushes. I thought, "I know what those fingers need, a thumb, or at least a Thum.

About a quarter of a mile down we spotted a puppet theater. I had no idea what they were saying, being in French and all, but The Great Magnetic Wife, who loves all things puppets, assured me that it really wasn't funny. I believe her, because nobody in the audience seemed to be laughing.

We rested a bit and then went out again with the idea that we would go to the top of the Eiffel tower. Unfortunately the lines were even longer than when we were there earlier in the week and there was a sign that said the very top was closed. So we decided to skip the Eiffel Tower. Maybe next time.

On our way back we stopped at the Speed Rabbit Pizza on Avenue Kleber for a little supper to bring back to the hotel. We ordered what they call their "New York Pizza." Their version of a New York pizza has cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, chopped beef and pickles. It was really quite tasty, but I've certainly never had a pizza like that in New York.

After that fine New York pizza I watched a little snooker and went to bed.

John Thum

Fontainenbleau - Thursday, May 1, 2008

May 1st in France in a national holiday, International labor day and all. While at breakfast, The Great Magnetic Wife asked our waiter what one says on May Day. He didn't seem to understand the question. "Do you wish others a happy May Day?" She asked. "If you would like to," was his response. She inquired further, "how do you celebrate?" "By not working." Maybe he was mad that he had to work on May Day.

We went of to visit cousin Liz in Fontainebleau. Lori and Bruce stayed in Paris. This would have been the third day of long train rides for Bruce (Strasbourg, London, Fontainebleau) and also they probably wanted some alone time. The train ride took less than an hour, Fontainbleau is almost a suburb of Paris. There are people who live there who work in Paris. 

Liz met us at the station and took us on a tour of Avon and Fontainebleau. Being a holiday, almost everything was closed, including the very nice bike shop in the photo above, but fortunately a really delightful cheese shop was open and so we stopped for a nice selection of cheeses and meats. We later stopped at an open bakery for some bread. Lunch having been procured, we stopped to pick up some Lily of the Valley, a traditional May Day gift in France, at the stand below.

We made our way back to Liz's house and got the grand tour. It is a charming three-story house plus a basement. Liz's husband, Fredo, and one of her two boys, Luc, soon arrived. Fredo and I smoked Cuban cigars in the back yard and then we all had lunch of the marvelous cheese and meat we got in town. 

It was time to tour the grounds of the Chateau de Fontainebleau, next to Versailles, it is the biggest palace in France. It is where Napoleon said his farewell after his defeat at Waterloo. It is about a twenty minute walk from the house. The Chateau was closed, being a holiday, but the grounds were open and they are spectacular. It did rain off and on, sometimes quite hard, during our walk and tour of the grounds, but being from L.A., where we don't get a lot of it, I usually enjoy rain.

Back at the house, we played poker. I won big, but if we were playing with actual money, rather than just chips, I'm sure I wouldn't have played the same way. I bet big and was really quite reckless. So, it didn't make me think I am actually good at poker. I'm sure I'm not.

We called my sister Margaret. Liz and Margaret are quite close, so it was a great deal of fun speaking to her.  This is a picture of me on the phone with Margaret.

Finally we got on the train back to Paris, loaded with leftover cheese, meat and bread from lunch. When we got back to the hotel, we had a nice dinner with Bruce and Lori with our leftovers.

John Thum

The Best Smoothie Ever!

The Great Magnetic Wife usually prepares a smoothie for me each morning. Today she was particularly artistic.

John Thum

Paris - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - Some Actual Training!

The Great Magnetic Wife and Lori went off shopping with Lori's Friend.  Bruce went off to London for the day for a business meeting. The girls also met up with my cousin Liz, who lives in Fontainebleau. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get in some actual training. Looking at a map of Paris, I saw a large park a little more than a mile from our hotel. The park is the Bois de Boulogne. It is big, and according to my tour book is a popular place to run.  I didn't see a lot of runners, but it did start to rain about 30 minutes into the run.  

I ran about a mile down Avenue Foch from the Arc de Triomphe to the Bois de Boulogne. I didn't bring a water bottle, but I figured that this was a big city park, there were bound to be a lot of water fountains. Apparently the French don't believe in public water fountains. They do like them for dogs, though.  There were plenty of water fountains for dogs.  Eventually, about 5 miles into the run, I really needed some water and I couldn't just drink the rain, so I humbled myself and got down on all fours and drank out of the doggie water fountain. Hey, they drink out of our toilets whenever they can.

The Bois de Boulogne is really beautiful.  There is a combination of lakes, large fields, woods, everything you could want in a big park.  It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York.

At some point I took a turn that had me running down a path next to the Seine.  It is a section that is lined with house boats.  Some were spectacular, some were run-down pieces of junk that made me wonder how they actually stayed afloat. But it was a nice section that seemed as if tourists don't often go.  At some point, I thought I might be lost. I wasn't getting closer to anything I recognized. I ran back up to the main road and suddenly realized that I had passed there about an hour earlier. I could have sworn I was going one direction.  

I ran by Longchamp Racecourse, one of two horse racing tracks in the Bois de Boulogne. It was quite nice. The track itself was much bigger than an American horse track.  I estimate the track was over two miles around. It was all turf, no dirt. I found a park map and made my way back to the hotel.  In all, I ran for about two and a half hours and cover a little over twelve miles. Not a bad day of training.

When I was back at the hotel, The Great Magnetic Wife called and asked if I wanted to join her and the girls for some shopping.  I could hear my cousin Liz in the background, wisely say, "no!" Perhaps The Great Magnetic Wife was just trying to be nice, but I can't imagine why I would possibly want to join three ladies on a shopping trip.

I decided to make my way over to he Arc de Triomphe and check it out up close.  Rain was threatening again, but if it rained, so what? Just as I crossed the street to the entrance of the tunnel that takes you to the ADT, I was approached by a woman who asked, "do you speak english?" I said yes. She handed me a card that said that she was from Bosnia, and then WHAM! I was pushed hard from behind into the woman. I knew immediately what was happening. Pickpockets! Fortunately, every guide book I read, warned of pickpockets and so I kept my wallet in the zipped, inside pocket of my jacket. I pulled away and left. Nothing was taken, but I'm sure that I would not have kept my wallet zipped away if it was not for the guide book warnings. Thanks, guidebooks!

I went through the tunnel and checked out the Arc from the ground. I figured I would come back with The Great Magnetic Wife for a trip to the top. The sky was getting pretty dark, so I headed back into the tunnel to go back to the hotel. By the time I got to the other side it was hailing quite hard. I was surprised. 

The girls eventually made it back and we had espresso in the hotel bar. Liz left to go back home and the rest of us went to Cafe L'Esmarelda for dinner. In a bit of gender role reversal I had the croque madam and The Great Magnetic Wife had the croque monsieur.

John Thum

Strasbourg - Tuesday, April 29, 2008

We got up and had our usual fabulous continental breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we got on a train for a couple of hours to go to Strasbourg to see the town and visit Lori's friend from college, Jean-Yves Benichou, who plays bass in the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Strasbourg is a charming little city that has at various times been a part of Germany or France. It most recently changed countries after WWII. Jean-Yves gave us a great tour of the city and took us to Le Terrasse Restaurant on the top of the Printemps department store.

After lunch Lori, Bruce and Jean-Yves went off one way and The Great Magnetic Wife and I went another. Mostly we looked at the local Toy Stores. We had an espresso in a local cafe and spent some time in the cathedral.  At one point we heard a great deal of commotion and looked across the canal to see the Young Commies having some kind of a march.  Perhaps it was a pre-May Day march. Pretentious, welfare state students, who will one day become workers with a 35 hour work week, unite!

While the Great Magnetic Wife went to a big department store, I went to the local Virgin Megastore. They seemed to mostly feature artists I have heard of, certainly a lot of Madonna displays. There were really very few big displays of French artists.

We met back up with Lori, Bruce and Jean-Yves and made our way back to the train station. We had a beer and a sandwich and headed back to Paris.  I guess our day of touring Strasbourg tuckered us out.

Back in Paris, we ate at the Cafe de L'est. Had some great French onion soup, which they call onion soup.

John Thum

Paris - Monday, April 28,2008

I woke up at about 3:00 am and realized that I did not feel very well. I had some aching all over my body, but especially in my legs. I hoped to just go back to sleep, but I was unable to. I got up and went out on the balcony to look down at what was happening on the street. Not much at 3:00 am: A guy walked by, someone from the hotel put out the trash. I then started writing down the adventures from the previous day, in other words, I started this. I made several attempts to go back to sleep, but my legs were so achy and painful that I could not do so until about 4:30 am.

I wasn't feeling great when we got up. We had planned on going to the Louvre, but that idea seemed a little daunting considering how I felt. It was suggested that instead of the Louvre, we go to the Clooney. I was hesitant to go to a Museum devoted entirely to George Clooney, but it turns out that it is called the Cluny,  and is a museum devoted to medieval art and artifacts. It is housed in an old monastery that also has ruins from Roman era baths. It was pretty neat, especially the tapestries. After a couple of hours, I realized I was not gong to be able to continue for the rest of the day. I took the metro back to the hotel while the others went on to other sights. Here is a photo of Bruce and me in the courtyard of the Cluny after our tour.

I rested at the hotel and watched the World Snooker Championship on Eurosport. I ended up really getting into it. I watched a little every day. The winner, Ronnie O'Sullivan, wasn't determined until after we got back, but I was interested enough that I had to look it up on the web to see who finally won.

After some rest, I felt a little better and we had tickets to the Ballet at the Opera National de Paris near the site of the Bastille. We saw three short pieces by Nureyev, Balantine and Forsythe. The last one was excruciatingly boring and pretentious, the first two were pretty entertaining, but I still had trouble staying awake, as did Lori, Bruce and The Great Magnetic Wife.

We had dinner at Bistro Romain, a chain of Italian restaurants. It is sort of France's answer to The Olive Garden, but it was quite good.

John Thum

Paris - Sunday, April 27, 2008

the Great Magnetic Wife and I arrived in Paris quite tired, having not slept much on the plane. This was part of the plan to beat jet-lag: exhaust ourselves and if we go to bed at a normal Paris-time, we will get up completely acclimated to the new time zone. It worked last year in Italy.

We waited at the airport for a couple of hours for ours hosts, Lori and Bruce, to arrive. We wouldn’t be able to check into the hotel without them and didn’t want to be burdened with our luggage in the mean time. We met Lori and Bruce at the arrival gate and we all took a cab into Paris and settled into the truly fabulous Hotel Raphael.

After a shower and a change of clothes, we went out for a little exploration/walking tour. We headed down Avenue Kleber towards the Eiffel Tower. Lori, in particular, was getting quite hungry and needed some sustenance before going much further. So we stopped at the Café Kleber, a very Parisian sidewalk café. I had French fries. Hey, when in Rome…or Paris…well, you know. They were good, but there was no ketchup. Boy those French have a lot to learn about their fries.

We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower. It is quite spectacular and actually much larger than I had imagined. The wait to go to the top was about an hour and Lori and Bruce didn’t want to do so anyway, so The Great Magnetic Wife and I figured we would come back early on a weekday. Unfortunately we never did.

We all headed past the Eiffel Tower towards the Ecole Militaire and planned on a loop that would take us past the Grand Palais, down the Champs Elysees, to the Arc de Triomphe and back to the hotel, in total, about a three and a half mile loop.

We saw a group of guys playing American (flag) football and I couldn’t resist getting a picture of them during a play with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Having not slept much, we were starting to get pretty tired on this walk. It was nice to finally get to the Arc de Triomphe and then our hotel.

There was Champaign waiting for us in the room, so we had a little before a quick nap and then off to dinner at Le Butte Chappelle.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. The Great Magnetic Wife, of course, went down to the hotel’s business center to check her auctions on Ebay, but I laid down and dozed off.

John Thum

Back To Blogging

Many things have gotten in the way of blogging for the last few weeks. I hope to catch up this weekend on all of the goings on.

John Thum

Homme de Fer

Ah, Paris...

More sight-seeing than training, but I did get in one good long run at the Bois de Boulogne. Here's a photo from our day trip to Strasbourg. The goal is to become an Homme de Fer, an Ironman!

John Thum