Oh to be a Braunvieh!

Since coming to Davos, I’ve suspected that, if I were a cow, I would want to be one of the Braunvieh, or Brown Swiss, cows that I see lounging in the pastures. Over the past couple of months, I’ve become well acquainted with my bovine neighbors and my initial positive impression has been confirmed. Between having a cushy lifestyle and possessing key attributes characteristic of their breed, there is no doubt in my mind that these girls have it made.

As I see it, here are the top reasons to envy the Swiss Braunvieh:

1. Scenery: Pastures in the Alps= blue skies, wildflowers and a killer mountain view. It can be a bit snowy, but the winter accommodations are pretty cozy.
2. Cuisine: Succulent grasses and flowers in the warmer months and seriously tasty hay in the winter. The farmers have been doing some serious haying since we’ve been here, stockpiling delicious meals for the winter. The ladies pity their corn and antibiotic stuffed American counterparts.
3. Hotness factor: With svelte yet shapely figures, these dairy cows are the Gisele Bundchens of the bovine world. Long lashes, fuzzy ears and soft, yet distinctive, facial features ensure that Braunvieh have little competition in the looks department.
4. Craftsmanship: Their primary purpose is to supply milk for some of the world’s best yogurts, cheeses and chocolate. They take great pride in their excellent milking abilities and withstand their daily exertions with the calmness and self-possession of champions.
5. Language: Like most Swiss, they are multi-lingual. They slip facilely between French (“meuh”), German (“mmuuuhh”) and Italian (“muuuuu”), as well as what appears to be their regional dialect of Swiss German (“grüüüüüch”).
6. Bling: Every cow gets her own Trychel (the egalitarianism keeps the jealousy in check). Half musical instrument, half jewelry, the bells helps them make their presence known and serves as the perfect accessory for any occasion.
7. Partytime!: When you get festivals in your honor, most notably the Alpabzug, where you are adorned with pretty hats and flowered necklaces and paraded down from the pastures, life is pretty good. B-list celebrities could only dream of this kind of attention.
8. The Laissez-Faire lifestyle: Unlike their European counterparts, Swiss cows aren’t hampered by the strict (and occasionally silly) regulations imposed by the E.U. dairy industry. Fewer rules means fewer headaches!

So what do the ladies think of themselves? Officially, they take the stance of neutrality and remained mum on the matter. Off the record, however, many cows indicated very favorable impressions of their breed and nationality. A few, however, expressed jealousy of their Indian counterparts and their revered status. Regardless of species, it appears that, for some, the grass appears greener in the other pasture.

Post Kitzbuhel: The Little Mermaid & me

Like most kids, I went through a pretty serious Disney phase in elementary school. To this day, a depressing amount of my brain is occupied by the song lyrics of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast*. The other day, I was reminded of The Little Mermaid upon reflecting on my race at the Kitzbühel WCS, where I finished a surprising 10th place after yet another disastrous pre-race lead-up. More specifically, I thought of Ariel and the advice that Ursula, the evil sea witch, gave her after taking away her voice in exchange for legs. How ever would poor Ariel seduce the prince without her best attribute, her beautiful singing voice?! Ursula reminded little Ariel that she had other qualities that might be appealing to that hottie prince. I believe that the actual lyrics are “Don’t forget about your looks, your pretty face/ And don’t forget about the meaning of the body language”. Amazingly, Ariel almost gets away with snagging the prince despite her limited means and only through Ursula’s use of magic is her marriage to the prince thwarted. (If you want to know the ending, you’ll have to watch the movie yourself.)

So what exactly does this have to do with triathlon? Not much, other than it reinforces the lesson that you can sometimes get away with more than you think with less than 100% of your ability. For a week and a half leading into the race in Kitzbühel, my training was seriously impacted by a knee injury. I had to lay off of running, ride no harder than an easy spin and use all of the sports medicine and physiotherapy I could to decrease the pain to a manageable level. Fortunately the USAT staff and DIrk, the German team physiotherapist, were thorough and generous with their time. (Thanks!) However, the knee injury was yet another setback in a season of setbacks, making me incredibly cranky and physically underprepared. The stress alone forced Coach Daz to binge on Swiss chocolate and to contemplate sending me back over the Atlantic. An injured Groffy is a handful, needless to say. Fortunately my training partners are nonplussed by my antics at this point, as was evidenced by their performances in Kitzbühel. That being said, I owe them big time for putting up with me this season...

If I was injured, stressed out and underprepared leading into the race, how was I able to finish 10th in a world-class field? Honestly, I was shocked that I managed a good result. Not as shocked as after my post-Death Spiral Hamburg result, but still very, very surprised. Instead of relying on my fitness (i.e. racing like a meat head), as I would have in the past, I raced as calmly and intelligently as could, focusing on racing efficiently and with minimal impact on my knee. While I would have loved to feel fitter and less flat, especially in the second 5k of the run, I couldn’t have hoped for a better result given my lead up to the race. It is probably safe to say that I am gradually becoming a more skilled racer, making me optimistic for when I can race with both skills AND have a greater level of fitness. After all, while the prince was enamored of mute Ariel, he was even more psyched when she had her voice as well.

* I’m sure that this is a confession that I should be embarrassed about, but I really have no shame. I run around in public in my swim togs, after all.

Extreme swimming with a message

While warming up from a chilly afternoon swim in the Davoser See (photo above) the other day, I watched the latest of the TED Talks, a lecture by cold water swimmer Lewis Pugh. In a nutshell, he is a publicity seeker with a message on climate change. A few years after a pioneering (NON-WETSUIT!!!) swim across the North Pole, Lewis travelled to the Himalayas to swim across a lake situated in the shadow of Mt. Everest. The conditions were undoubtably insane for a plunge (1k at 5300m and 2 degrees C), but his choice of swimming location was important in the context of climate change. The glaciers in the region are melting at an alarming rate and are the source of water for nearly a THIRD of the world’s population. As the water supplies dwindle, there is an even greater risk of instability in the region.

Although some cynics might dismiss Lewis’ feat as a publicity stunt that will do little to stem the tide of global climate change, we all can take away an important message from his talk. In order to complete his swim across the glacial lake, Lewis had to completely alter his approach to the task. After a failed practice swim a couple of days before that led to his near drowning, Lewis and his team realized that his old methods of coping with the extreme cold wouldn’t work. Instead of an aggressive struggle through the water, he had to swim in a calmer, more transcendental manner. While Lewis links the need for a change in swimming mindset to the need for a change of mindset in regards to our approach for climate change, we can apply this lesson to any type of struggle. Sometimes we have to completely abandon old patterns and adopt a new mindset. While it can be difficult to go about things in a different way, the rewards potentially outweigh the risks. And this, my friends, is a lesson that has been reinforced this year. I’m still waiting for the rewards, but I know that my change in approach will pay off!