.kosice's hell

.time for a special marathon race has come. The last Saturday in August is dedicated to bike marathon in my home town. 90km long, 3000 elevation metres, it's not very suitable for holiday bikers ;).

After two years of rainy weather, today we had finally some sun (maybe too much, biker is never satisfied with the weather) and only a modest mud :)... Competition was really tough, as some very good bikers were present again. My main challenge was to survive and try to improve my time as much as possible. Mission was successful, even though I've had time only for some 1600kms this season :(. I finished 17th, with the time of 5:54:37, thus improving last years time by 50 minutes ;). Yeah, it's good to add, that last year it was really rainy and we raced ankle deep in mud...
Anyhow, take a look at all the things you get when you pay your start fee... Isn't it worth all the trouble ;)?

.bad luck

.the time has come for one of my favourite bike marathons, Horal, taking place in Nizke Tatry mountains. Last year was successful, I finished 29th out of 200 and it was my best placement ever (not that bad considering that I'm a pure hobby rider and among the competitors are always also some professionals...).

This year the result was not that optimistic, due to a combination of many factors (some of them are my fault, some are beyond my powers to change ;) ). First of all, my physical condition is not that good (not enough km (approximately 1350km so far) , low frequency of training sessions). The weather this year is weird and of course it had to rain two days straight just before the marathon (it was still raining 30 minutes before the start). This resulted in really muddy and hard to conquer track. And because of the mud I've experienced also some technical problems with my bike (this is the first time ever on a competition). Both dérailleurs were so chocked with the dirt, that changing the gear became almost impossible (curiously only on the medium front gear, it just kept dropping the chain...).
I was quite desperate, because it was still some 30km to the finish :(. I've been considering giving up. Yet, I've not given up ;). I've made it through the finish line using only the gears, that were functional... The placement was not very good, but at least I've won over myself and technical bad luck. It still counts, don't you think :)? I was dirty but happy, like every good cyclist should be after finishing yet another marathon ;)...

.krkonose fever

.dreams do come true :). After so many days of terrible weather sun has finally shone last week. That means we had a chance for some biking. Krkonose mountains were chosen as a destination (with its highest mountain Snezka, 1602m). The highest mountain range in the Czech Republic was quite challenging and a bit biker unfriendly... Let me explain it a bit further.

After finding some place where to stay (near Pec pod Snezkou) and finding someone to go with (Jozko as always) all that was left was packing. We wanted ride in various locations of Krokonose, that's why this year we went by car (it's good to be mobile and not dependent on train schedules).
First days were really tropical, temperatures rising up to 35 degrees (not a great condition for a biking )... Still it was quite cool in comparison with 42 degrees in Slovakia during this week :).
We did some biking near Snezka. It was nice and challenging, the ascends are really steep and it's all the time up and down, like a roller-coaster ;). What was not that cool is the total ban for cyclists on some of the tracks (due to the high level of nature protection). That means that you cannot reach Snezka on bike (even though there is tarmac road almost to the top :(... ).
Nevertheless we have reached the summit (on foot), it was great and long trek through the surrounding beautiful nature. It was quite crowded up there. Many, many Czech and Polish tourists (most of them using a cablecar to get there) were parading around (some of them in very inappropriate shoes and clothes)...
To have a break from Krkonose we have also seen the Adrspach Rocks. Situated not far, this small sandstone area is decorated with hundreds of great and bizarre rocks. I really recommend it to your attention. It's worth the detour.
We spent one day in the vicinity of Harrachov. The track was really nice, yet this was the only day with heavy rain, so it was not that much fun ;). But we are strong and get through this foulness :). The evening sights were worth the long wait in the pub.
And finally we have planned some trip to near Poland, to see their side of the mountains. It was not bad, with a lot of untouched nature and minimum of tourists. While riding towards the foreign country we saw many military forts from the time of WW2. This region is full of them, even though they never served their purpose (due to the Munich pact)...
So this is it, more then 300kms on the bike, around 30kms on foot and a lot of positive energy from the nature. That's the result of the last week in Krkonose. I loved it :).

.slalom world cup

.my own sport activities are somehow frozen these days. That's one of the reasons I've decided to took a part in Prague's leg of kayaking world cup (with many of the best athletes competing). The facility is really close to my dormitory. The actual noise and fan ovations could be heard from the window :). Of course I've taken my camera to take some nice photos of this nice dynamic sport. Unfortunately our favourites (sportsmen from Slovakia) haven't won. Famous Martikan finished 2nd (and it was really close after his amazing second run). Our still young super talent Dukatova took the 4th place. Not bad but could have been better ;)...

.podoli strikes back

.this is becoming a tradition. This week the four of us (me, Sasa, Igi and Spigi) went for a bit of sunbathing and swimming. The weather was extraordinary sunny and hot. This of course resulted in a small sunburn but who cares ;). I was extremely tired because I had been working on my thesis again last night (yeah, I've got some feedback finally!). So I was sleeping a bit, swimming a bit and also watching some women water polo. A European championship is taking place there this week. Slovakia had won 23:1 over Turkey, so I was quite happy :). After spending 8 hours on the sun it was definitely a good moment to go home...

.water, steam, water...

.it took me two weeks to finally get into Podoli swimming pool area. It's not an easy job to persuade some people to go to some place :). And I've asked many friends over the time... They were busy (or lazy). But that's their personal problem ;).

So today was a grand première, opening of outdoor swimming season :). A couple of people should have come but as the time of departure was approaching they backed off. So our crew consisted at the end from two people only (me and Lubica).
Weather was sunny, with a small thunderstorm at noon. We wanted to spend a few hours sun bathing, swimming and relaxing. Entry fee is only 80Kc for whole day (student price) so it's definitely worth it (2x 50m pool, 30m pool, toboggan, sauna included). After finding some nice sunny place and chatting for a while (we both have very similar problems with our theses) we tried the quality of water (really delicious ;) ). The sun was replaced by clouds but this water - chat - water thing was continuing anyway :) (I did some nice and funny geriatric tests, with quite poor results ;), as Lubica is preparing for a final exams at medicine...). After a while some tender rain began and temperature dropped a lot. We decided to go inside (another 50m pool). There is also the sauna, so I've tried it, it was really hot (they have wet sauna with a lot of steam everywhere) but soothing.
We were forced to leave at 8 PM as they were closing the building. We were tired anyway so it was not such a big deal. On our way back we've dropped in a nice little Chinese bistro to recharge our batteries with long awaited food ;). Yeah, not a bad way how to spend a day in the summer :)...

.rocky adventure

.yeah, this was a full dosage of adrenalin and fun :). We've spent whole day biking through the Kokorinsko nature park together with Jozko. We did some 102 kilometres... Weather was really hot and sunny, so it took me 3 litres of water and 1,5l of Kofola to stay alive in this sunny inferno ;). But let me take it step by step.

At the beginning Jozko almost didn't make it on time for our train. Luckily only almost... After 40mins we were in our starting point, station Hnevice near the park. We bought some quick lunch in a local supermarket and after finding our tourist sign headed along it into the depth of the nature.
We were overwhelmed by awesome sights, giant orphaned sandstone rocks, deep pine forests and challenging (a bit muddy also) up and down narrow trails. Some parts were absolutely not passable on bike (steep footways through ravines). Aside from the rocks we've seen also ruins of army bunkers from the II. world war. They were a part of the large network of entrenchments that was actually never used because annex of the Czech Republic by Germany...
Finding water was really problematic as there are no springs (or at least we haven't find any) in the vicinity of marked paths. In this case bilberries are a great alternative. These forests are full of them so we ate some :). And when the situation with dehydration got even worse we just asked for a water in a small village we were passing through.
After a tasty late lunch and a short relaxation we continued our journey towards the symbol of this region, Kokorin castle. We took a nice trail leading near the river with many wooden gangboards and other cool stuff :). Castle was not that interesting. Maybe because I've seen too many castles in my life ;). But I have to admit that it is in good shape, not like many ruins in Slovakia...
We were running late, so we did some quick descent into the town of Melnik, took some photos of the famous confluence of rivers Vltava and Labe. Afterwards we've tried to reach the train station in time but without luck. We missed the train by a few minutes. So we headed for another station. Road goes close to a big powerplant and so we had an opportunity to see this ugly monster (and there are new family houses a few metres from a cooling tower, unbelievable) and got home at around 9 PM.

What a wonderful day :)!

.end of a dream

.this is it. Our road through the tournament ends in quarter-finals. Again... This time against Sweden. After 7 goals in our net :(. And it started so well...

First period was only starting when we scored for the first time. We were playing nice, offensive hockey. After Swedish equalizer there came another goal to keep us on the winning side. Solid play with stellar goaltending was a promising start with the image of semifinals waiting eagerly on our team.
Yet the hockey is played for 60 minutes and the second period was a disaster. Huge pressure of Sweden was inevitable. Yet after a quick goal they completely overwhelmed Slovak players and the ice was only theirs. Another bull's eyes were coming shortly afterwards. Score was switched from 2:1 into 2:4 and hope was slowly waving its good bye.
The third period was about our enormous will to do something with the result. But every goal in Swedish net was quickly followed by some major mistake in the defence... Sport luck was not on our side today (some big chances leaving the net by a centimetres, not valid goal, some penalties, etc.). Still it's good to add that Sweden was definitely better.
So now it's about the big hockey teams. Russia, Sweden, probably Canada and Finland. Who will be the new champion? My humble guess is: 1.Russia, 2.Canada, 3.Sweden...

.czech scalp!

.finally, the bad luck that goes along all our games against the Czech Republic was broken!
This game was really important (for both contestants), for us the victory was a ticket into quarter-finals, for Czech every point meant the same (on the other hand, the loss could bring them complications). We also needed some win to forget last two losses with northamerican teams...
First period was not very encouraging. Czech played their style of game and managed to score a goal in power play. We almost didn't send a shot on Czech goalie (and without shooting activity it is hard to win ;) ).
Second period reversed the roles. After the tying goal (scored by Demitra with some luck) we're more active and had some good scoring chances and pressure. It resulted in another goal. This was what we needed. From that moment on, the pressure to create the game was on our opponents (and it is tough to play when you desperately need to score...).
Final period was filled with Czech enormous effort to tie the game. Our defence was luckily against it. After surviving the penalty killing we struck a winning goal (by Gaborik, our first killer line is finally awake!). Our glee was not lasting long, as a minute later it was 3:2. Yet we managed to sustain great pressure in the last few minutes and not even pulling the goalie helped the Czechs.
Victory is ours! Yet the most important part of the tournament is still only to begin...

.relaxing day

This day was really full of interesting things and surprises. It all started with second lunch, when I was invited to taste some fried carp (neighbour caught it just yesterday). It was really delicious.

But after such overeating, some (sport) activity was really needed to get rid of all the fat ;). I've chosen squash, because I've not played it for a long time and I like it. The only problem left was to find some willing person, to join me (as you may know, it's not fun, when played alone ;) ). I had some luck, Eva agreed to come with me. It started to rain, so we were quite happy for this indoor sport :). After 60 minutes of play, totally tired and sweated, catching breath it was over. Yet it was quite nice and served it's purpose to cost me a lot of energy...
Evening was closing in and so was an important hockey game on world championship in Moscow. Slovakia - Czech Republic. To release the tension (in front of the TV set) and bring some luck for our team, we decided to cook something typical, 'bryndzove halusky'. This is such a delicious meal, yet so easy to prepare! You practically cannot ruin it in any way. And so also today they were great and evidently did help a bit, because we won ;)...

.overseas trouble

.oh man, oh man! I've not seen Slovak hockey in such a deep trouble for a long time... Two losses in two days. It's true, that against tougher teams (Canada 4:5 and the USA 2:4), but the problem is our inability to play anything at least similar to ice hockey... Lack of speed, lack of coordination, unwillingness to fight for puck, really bad penalty killing and pathetic penalty killing with a bonus of not very good performance of both goalkeepers in our team... I could continue like this, but is it needed?

These results make our position and chances to get to the quarter-finals a lot more complicated. I lack the team spirit in this squad. There are only few players, who are doing their best (for example Uram, he almost didn't make it into final roster, yet now is the most valuable player...). Superstar trio from the first line is playing absolutely nothing, 'nada', 'nichts' :(... We'll hope their time will still come. Maybe on Saturday, when we are facing Czech Republic, our big rival (moreover we have some 'weakness syndrome' when playing against them, resulting in very few good results over past few years)... If not them, we'll have to beat Belarus to even get into play-off phase. Otherwise we'll witness the worst final placement in last 11 years :(...

.okor marathon

.day was nice and just asking to go outside and do some sport activity. As for me the best way to relax is bike, I've decided to do some longer lap covering beauties of shores of river Vltava, castle Okor and also miraculously wonderfull valley of Divoka Sarka (summarized it gives about 80km of all types of terrain).
I was going alone (which si typical :( ), at least it gives a man the possibility to work on condition, look after tempo, etc. (no need to adapt yourself to abilities of others...). Anyway it's still better to ride with someone.
As this was my first ride after illness, I was afraid of being totally slow and weak. Fortunately, it was not that bad and the whole track was covered almost without breaks in 3,5 hours. Yet there is a large room for improvement. But the season is still young ;)...

.german obstruction

.second barrier on this world championship is breached! Today we beat Germany 5:1 after a bit better and more creative performance than in the last game. The best players are still getting used to a bigger ice rink and slightly different rules (in comparison with the NHL). So far their cooperation resulted in one (but beautiful) goal. Yet, Canada has to be aware of our strenght by now ;)!
Other top favourites are going through the tournament without bigger problems, I guess that the real strength will be apparent only after their mutual games...

.hockey fever

.one fever is receding (fortunately, maybe it was from something I've eaten on Tuesday...), another one is just starting (and this is lasting longer and a better one ;) ). World championship in hockey is starting in Moscow (April 27th - May 13th). Our team roster is still changing, some players from the NHL are only on the way.

We'll meet Norway, Germany and Canada in the preliminary group. First two rivals should be quite easy, but in hockey every team can beat everybody (sometimes :) ), so I guess we'll see. The most important game will be against Canada, I hope to see some high quality ice hockey match!

First games are already finished. We've seen some real beatings from favourites (CZE - BLR 8:2, RUS - DEN 9:1...). Our opening game against Norway was a winner but not much of a beauty (we won 3:0, the only positive performance was of goaltender Halak and forward Uram). But we have the points and that's important, maybe game with Germans will be better (this time already with all NHL players)...

.bike tour

.as I'm a bit bored of biking in the vicinities of Prague, we finally did some trek further away :). Together with Ivan (big thanks for willingness to do me a company) we rode through the wilderness of natural park Krivoklatsko (50km to the west from Prague).
We had taken a train to Nove Straseci station and from there followed tourist marks, criss-crossing forests of the park. Sunny, yet relatively cold weather was a gift, because riding in hot days is a nightmare (and on Thursday it should be 28 degrees...).
Region of Krivoklatsko is beautiful with its deep coniferous forests and almost untouched nature. It offers nice bike trails with all you ever wanted, challenging ascents, appealing downhills, technical passages full of roots... We did some 85kms and pleasantly tired returned back to Prague at around 8 pm. Next time we'll try some other part of Czech nature :)!

.season opening

.the weather is beginning to be warm and sunny on stable basis and that means, that there is a season (mountain bike) to begin. I haven't got my bike in Prague (two weeks ago it was still really cold), but the Easter holidays were an opportunity to go home and (amongst the other things) prepare my love ;) for this year's thousands of kilometers (the goal is approx. 2.500km, which unfortunately wasn't done last year, the counter stopped at some 2.260km). As always I have plans for some intensive biking in some Czech/Slovak mountains (Jeseniky probably) and some MTB marathons (I'll try to beat my best result from last year, when I finished 29th/210 in Nizke Tatry)...

So on Thursday i'm bringing my bike to Prague (by train) and the training shall begin. First spring kilometers are already beaten, many more still awaiting. Maybe we'll meet somewhere on the track :)!

.squashed out

.i'm starting to love Prague again, lot of things to do, many friends, many activities (while Saarbrucken was quite dull from time to time) - I haven't stopped this week so far ;).

Some squash was planned for this evening (thanx to Alex). It was my premiere this year and it looked that way... Poor condition, slow movements, wrong placement of balls. Nevertheless, now after finding people interested in playing on regular basis I hope for quick regaining of lost confidence and speed ;).
One hour took all my energy, but the feelings are positive, I love this sport! So back to writing diploma thesis now, with new fresh ideas I've just got :)...

.hockey joy

.we did it :). We (HC Kosice) are again in the semifinals of the Slovak ice hockey league... Hopefully it won't be our last stop like during last years play-offs.

As you can guess from the first sentences, I was yesterday once again on hockey game. This time we've beaten Skalica 5:1, which meant win in the quarterfinals series 4:1. Game was quite nice, not the best I've seen, but good. We won without a problem.
So good luck boys in games to come and let us be proud of Kosice's ice hockey again (after champion titles in 1986,1988,1995,1996,1999...)!

I love this game!

.let's play

.nothing really interesting was happening so we decided to at least take advantage of sport possibilities here in campus and play badminton :).
Our team consisted of three players (Sasa, me, Igor), two rackets and one damaged shuttlecock ;). Not the best combination for a game, right?
Anyway we had some playing schedule for taking turns and borrowed one professional shuttlecock so it was not as bad after all. I think everybody enjoyed it quite a bit and some of us have fulfilled their sport activities for this week ;)...

.icy refreshment

.as I'm a hockey fan, today's match between HC Kosice and HC Nitra was an ideal way how to spend an evening... This game was quite important because it solved the mystery about who will celebrate Christmas as a league's leader. I won't conceal the result from you any longer because it's great :). After the win 7:3, we are still on the first place... HC Kosice forever!!! ;)

The hockey action was beautiful. Really fast game with a lot of shots, great goalie (on our side) and amazing goals (in their net). It has reminded me of old times, when our hockey club was each year fighting in finals. Kosice are well known for combinational hockey and today's goals were like from the great book of hockey :). I've enjoyed my time, thank you guys! Maybe the gold medals are again realistic this season, I'll keep my fingers crossed...