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The Motivation: If not now, then when? Life is too short to stay inactive.
The Challenge: If you are not willing to suffer, then you shouldn't be racing
The Dream: Staying fit and feeling younger day by day!




Showing posts with label athens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label athens. Show all posts

16 October 2011

STOLEN: My bike is gone!!! 150 euro reward is given

Well, there are no words to describe the mess this has done to me. My first ever race bike is now STOLEN. The theft took place on the night of 1st Oct. 2011. The bike was locked in my fenced yard (stupid, it should have been IN the house).

I thought it might help to post the incident on my blog, too. What's worse is that, I missed the final and most important to me Tri Race of the year, which I was preparing for more than 4 months now.

Please, if you can help me recover it - I GIVE 150 EURO REWARD. No questions asked.

Manufacturer: SCOTT
Model: Speedster S 50 (Flatbar)
Size: 58 cm (XL)
Colour: White
Place stolen: Halandri (in Athens), see google map at end of this post.

Characteristic: (i) Perhaps, the only bike in Greece with installed aerobar
on flat-bar handlebar (ii) Bright, white colour appearance (too white not
to spot it).

Contact me at:  e-mail: cplia AT hotmail DOT com .

Below: Photo of the stolen bike.






















Below: Area the bike was stolen from.

View Larger Map

28 May 2011

Revisited: Post race photo coverage - 10km 2010 Athens Classic Marathon Day

Click on any image below to view a full-size high resolution photo. I offer these photos for free to use as a thank for my visitors to this blog. I captured them from my Nokia X2 mobile phone.

Due to heavy demand and increased interest, additional photos have been added to guide people through the 2010 Athens Classic Marathon event and get a better idea of the atmosphere during that day. For this reason, I am also planning to create a photoalbum (hm...maybe ready until mid of June?), which when ready, I will uploaded it on this blog for the athletes to look through. Hope you enjoy the Marathon spirit and hope to see you in the coming 2011 Athens Classic Marathon Event too!

29 October 2010

2010 Athens Classic Marathon: Pre-race photo coverage!!

Registration time was a complete madness! Well, 21,000 competitors are expected to appear on the start line...so make sure you don't get squeezed or stepped over...



Course map: Study it carefully else go home


Some of the competitors' lists...must have been a nightmare for the organisers to deal with all this amount of information


Plenty of kiosks with sports and other relevant products at Zappion park, Athens, Greece before the 2010 Athens Classic Marathon

16 July 2010

Me at 2009 Greek Indoor Rowing Championship

I am not a rower, instead I am a fully passionate windsurfer, but I love rowing especially because it offers an incredible benefit in the CV system and to my opinion is one of the ultimate ways to top up your aerobic (and anaerobic level to less extend) performance. A single stroke exercises a significant part of your body; legs, core, hands, back, shoulders and no other machine in a typical gym can do this (i.e. gym machines aim to exercise a particular muscle group at a time). Of course actual on the water rowing is much preffered but since I don't own a rowing boat or at least I do not belong to a rowing team, I just enjoy the indoor rowing machine at my gym.


(me at the far end, with the white t-shirt, getting ready to start the indoor rowing race at 30-39 YO division)

I took the initiative to participate in the 2009 Greek Indoor Rowing Championship only to experience in close rowing action from dedicated athletes into this sport. However, I did have my preparation too. I studied carefully the rowing technique, I have followed systematically sprint and long in duration training sessions. My aim was to push myself close to a 7 min finish time for a 2000 meters distance, which is the reference distance to judge your rowing ability. If you have never rowed before it's not easy to hit this time limit people, believe me, even if you are a sporty person. I put down a 3 month advanced schedule, based around indoor rowing, in the hope to achieve a respectable ranking at the race. The race was 1000 meters long and on average a 3 min and 10 secs or less finishing time was the average time for most racers each year. After 2 and a 1/2 months in the gym I could hardly get down to 3 min and 15 secs for a 1000 meters distance and that was killing! (I was FORCED to take a break for at least 20 min even for such a short sprint time). I knew though that it was a fair time considering the circumnstances (no coach, no previous experience).
I eventually appeared at the start line of the Championship. I had no stress at all, I knew that I was there just for fun and to enjoy stroking against actual rowers. I had put down a simple plan: Just to follow my own pace - I wanted to stay on a plan that I followed during the gym session. I had a very lengthy warm up time prior to the race: 20 min of stretching and another 20 min of 'jumps' and self-exercises to make me sweat (but not to the extend to get tired of course!). Sprint rowing requires proper warm up, else you can shock your body and run out of glycose storage soon after you start to row hard (rowing IS physically very demanding).
After the hit of the gun (actually the machine's integrated monitor was the countdown watch) I forgot everything I prepared! A mass of 200+ people on the stage were filling in our ears with loud screams. I wasn't ready for this. I was rowing harder than I was supposed, thinking that if I stay behind then I will not be able to catch the experienced rowers at a later stage. I was rowing faster than my average pace (1.32min/500m instead of 1.40min/500m), but I was feeling confident. Perhaps the atmosphere around me was motivating me to forget pain and tiredness. I was in between the first 3 people (out of 12 people) until the first 600 meters (out of 1000 meters). During the last 250 meters my lungs were screaming for rest - I was marginally keeping a steady pace, but to my surprise I realised that I was at first place, with the second guy just 20-25 meters behind me (that's around a 4 to 5 secs lead). When I entered the last 150 meters my body activated the 'red' zone - alarms were buzzing within my brain, I was overloading my body and my muscles were full of lactic acid! I knew I was entering a level 5 intensity, my pace was still around 1.32-1.35min/500m and the distance from the second was increasing, now he was around 35 meters behind me. Could I last during the last 100 meters? (that was approximately another 12 hard strokes to go...). Countdown....12 strokes...11 strokes..........2 strokes...1 stroke........ thanks God it's over. I finished at first!!!!! What was that?? How did this happen????!!! I didn't think too much about the win, because I was ready to collapse. Soon after I stood up from the machine my knees were so weak, I almost had no feeling of a proper balance - I took a few steps and..... fell down!! Embarassing, but I couldn't do anything about it!!! It took me 30 min to recover, and even after that my lungs were feeling as if they were bleeding. However, the end of the day was the most rewarding: A medal for my first place and a new national record at my age group was a fact!!!! A deep satisfaction, but I won't take part to such a race again, because I don't think I can achieve such a win again!!! :D

Finishing time: 3 min and 2 secs - New National Record at 2009 (December) Indoor Rowing Championships (1000 meters). First place in my division (30-39 YO) and in between the approximately 120 athletes (actual full time rowers) from all divisions, I was ranked at 7th place. More details and official results can be found here:
http://www.aasport.gr/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149&Itemid=177

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