Jessi Stensland - Adventures in Endurance Performance

A Summary of Airline Fees for Bags and Bikes

I don't know about you, but I've found myself wasting precious time  lately when booking travel, digging around airline websites looking for extra baggage fees, especially when it comes to bikes.  Rarely is it enough to utilize only the basic search engine prices to determine the overall cost of travel airline to airline anymore.  Extra fees make a huge difference in my decisions.  I created this list to save myself, and you, valuable time in travel planning.

Here is a summary of the current baggage charges, gathered from a number of major airline websites today, December 28, 2009.  They are listed in order from most reasonable to obscene.  Props to Southwest Airlines and Air Canada who lead the way for domestic travel! Click on the airline name to be linked to their website page regarding bicycle charges (when applicable.)

NOTE:  Most airlines will not charge extra for bikes packaged under 50lbs and 62" (L+W+H). The following list assumes the bicycle case is over 50lbs or 62".

NOTE #2:  Not all websites were clear as to whether the airline would charge both the regular checked baggage fees in addition to the excess baggage fees, though I've found that to often be the case.  For example, United Airlines will charge $20 for the first bag and $175 for a bike which makes the total cost $195 each way.

NOTE #3:  Where there are two amounts mentioned for first and second bag fees, the lower price refers to the discount you receive when you check-in and pay for your baggage online prior to the flight.

NOTE #4:  I've been choosing my flights in support of those companies that offer lower fees for bicycles even when I'm not flying with a bike, especially when there is no difference in price between two or more airlines. 

**If you see any discrepancies or have any personal experiences worth noting, please comment below.

Happy travels!!

______________________________________________________________________________________

Southwest Airlines

$0 for up to two checked bags

$50 per checked bicycle

Air Canada

Within Canada:  $0 for up to two checked bags + $50 per checked bicycle

Between Canada + US:  $0 for first bag + $30 for second bag + $50 per bicycle

Jet Blue

$0 for first checked bag + $30 for second checked bag

$50 per bike domestically + $80 per bike international

Virgin America  

$20 per checked bag

$50 per checked bicycle

Frontier Airlines

$20 for first bag + $30 for second bag

$50 per checked bike

Alaska Air / Horizon Air

$15 for first bag + $25 for second bag

$50 for baggage > 50lbs + $50 for baggage  > 62" = $100 per bike

Northwest Airlines

$15/$20 for first bag + $25/$30 for second bag

$100 per bike checked within US + $150 per bike checked internationally

Continental Airlines

$18/$20 for first bag + $27/$30 for second bag

$100 per checked bike

American Airlines

$20 for first bag + $30 for second bag

$100 per checked bike

US Airways

$20/$25 for first bag + $30/$35 for second bag

$100 per checked bike

United Airlines

$15/$20 for first bag + $25/$30 for second bag

$175 per checked bike within US + up to $250 per bike checked internationally

Delta Airlines

$15/$20 for first bag + $25/$30 for second bag

$175 per checked bike within the US + $300 per bike checked internationally

VIDEO // CYCLING // The Morning Routine

I had a blast hanging with and filming the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team during the 2009 Tour of California.  This was one of my favorite videos.  It gives a great (and entertaining) behind-the-scenes insight into the morning routine of professional cyclists.  Although slightly unique to each team...there is still the basics of eating, packing up and not missing the bus.  For more of the same click HERE.

3 WEEKS IN GIRONA, SPAIN. HEAVEN.

I escaped reality for a bit, but I suppose this is my reality...being able to hop over for a couple weeks to Girona.  It's place I've been wanting to check out for a couple years now since so many friends are lucky enough to call it home for half of the year.  It really is a little slice of heaven, especially in the summer, and especially when it comes to cycling.  Having friends to live and hang there with certainly put my adventure over the top! 

From the main street, called the Rambla, to the cathedral, to running into friends just by walking around town, to riding right out the front door, even at 4pm and getting in a great ride, to checking out Garmin's HQ and service course, to visiting the Dali Museum, figuring out where to buy toilet paper and laundry detergent, deciding which pastry was my favorite of the week, finding all the fixin's to create an American breakfast of french toast, eggs and bacon with real maple syrup and cinnamon sugar and much much more (I'll spare you!)...I had a memorable time, to say the least.  I hope my travels allow me back there again soon.  Here are just a few photos.  More can be found on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/gojessi...enjoy!!  Hope it inspires you to get there someday too!

Below is an all-american crew in Girona for the night, post-Gelato!  It's myself on the right, Allen Lim (2nd from left), Garmin's Team Physiologist Extraordinaire, Willow LaVenture, physical therapist from Boulder, on the left (how cool is her name!) and to my right is Stacy Sims, who was in town with the team helping create a new hydration system for the Tour. Very cool crew!!

Indoor Cycling Series = Fun + Fundraising

It's been a pleasure to be involved with the team over at the ITP Foundation for the past 5 years.  Its a hard working gang whose roots are in triathlon and who organize super fun well done events to raise their precious funding. 

For anyone in Connecticut or NJ/NY too, this announcement is for you!

Introducing a new event organized by the ITP Foundation.  To survive all this cold weather here in CT, we decided to bring racing indoors in February and March.  The local Darien, CT bike shop, Pedal and Pump Multisports has brought in a new MultiRider CompuTrainer system and developed a race series that will take place on these bicycle trainers.  Goodie bags, tshirts, prizes,  and refreshments will be included.   These machines provide one of the most realistic simulations of riding outside. 

The following is more information about the race series:

Encompassing four courses of varying difficulty, to be held over a seven week stretch, the top eight cyclists in each class will compete against one another in the final race.

The ITPF Indoor Cycling Series will take place at Pedal & Pump Multisport, in Darien, CT, on Sat., Feb. 7, Feb. 21, March 7, and the championship round on March 21.

The race is facilitated by using a CompuTrainer: a stationary bicycle trainer that hooks up to a computer and simulates riding outdoors. You put your own bicycle on the trainer.  The MultiRider system allows for up to 8 people to ride against each other on the same course at the same time.  Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 finishers in each class.

Registration is $75 per cyclist.  Should you raise $500 for the ITP Foundation, your registration fee will be completely reimbursed.

TO REGISTER:

Visit the event website at Active.com HERE

OR

Feel free to stop into Pedal and Pump to check it out and you can register in person at the store.

Stay warm out there and...ride on!!

Mind > Body + No Expectations

My mind was definitely bigger than my body today.  Still recovering from pneumonia, yes, pneumonia.  Not quite sure how I ended up with it.  But I plan to never do that again! 

I wasn't sure what to make of my ride today.  I just wanted to ride.  I knew I couldn't go too hard or too long, even if I wanted to, and I wanted to.  One thing I've gotten good at over all these years is body awareness.  Not only meaning where my body is in space, but really knowing it, listening to it and giving it what it wants/needs when it wants/needs it, especially with training and nutrition.  I've never been a fan of expectations, and lucky for me, applying this awareness to training has pretty much eliminated them by taking the guess work out of what comes next and what I'm capable of.  Of course the door is always left  open for a surprise breakthrough - because you never know, right?  But for the most part this is key.

So today I left the house not really sure of what to do other than to give my body what it wanted and that was ok.  Today I could figure it out along the way.  That's necessary a lot more in the off/pre-season before the body and its performance is dialed enough to plan in advance.  I immediately ran into a few friends who were in the midst of a pretty cruisey 2 hour ride.  That ended up being a blessing since I quickly realized I was not up for much and having company made the time pass a lot quicker.  I broke off from them as they headed home and since I was still feeling great about being out on the bike, I decided to head to Torrey Pines hill - the approximately 1 mile climb in the park by the coast right near the house.  I thought I'd figure out what I wanted to do once I was there.  1x? 10x? Hard-ish?  Easy?  I could feel that my respiratory + cardio systems were being taxed by the remnants of my pneumonia, so I worked my way to figuring out that spending my time on a little strength and form would be a good plan.  I decided on:

Low HR, low cadence repeats, for as long as I felt like doing them, alternating one seated, one standing.  And not JUST that but as importantly:

• Keeping my body quiet on the bike
• Keeping even pressure on the left and right pedals throughout pedal stroke
• Keeping good posture and the upper body relaxed

As well as jostling around of whatever was left in my lungs with some good productive coughing in the open ocean air along the way.  Have to keep getting that crap out (and it worked!)  :)  AND of course enjoying the ocean views along the climb and decent.

I ended up doing four repeats.  During the last 100m of the last 3, I was inspired to pick up the cadence and crush it for as long as I could.  Man it felt good, like I had SOMEthing in me, but it also took EVERYTHING out of me in all of 15-20 seconds.   I recovered quickly though, which is a good sign, and it livened up my PowerTap files - even giving me a peak power record for the year (which isn't saying much but relatively speaking anyway!) for 30 seconds.  394 watts.  I'll take it. 

Tomorrow is another epic hike-run-climb-boulder-scramble, somewhere on the outskirts of LA.  Found the hike thanks to a great blog I found called:

Modern Hiker:  A Hiking Blog for LA and Southern California

Just finding ways to get fit while playin' around.  Good stuff. 

Happy Thanksgiving + Epic Morning Ride!

What a great day to take a moment and think about all of the awesomeness in life!   Wishing you all MANY things you can be thankful for...

I have too many to list here.  Family, friends, health...I love ya.

I will admit, it got a little challenging to find a way to be thankful this morning as we got caught in the down pouring rain on our ride, especially when my hands were so cold they felt like they were on fire as we decended down the mountain (and the decent is supposed to be the fun part!!)

The official Great Western Ride was canceled, but 4 of us troopers headed out anyway.  According to my PowerTap I officially burned 1441 kJs.  I'm sure that's equal to at least a turkey leg and a slice of pie.  Right?  Haha.

It wasn't raining when we started but man did we get caught.  Here's the video to prove it: