Keeping Calm

Yeah...that's room service. A burger with an egg on it and a beer. Shanghai is killing me! My training has gone straight down the Ironman porta-jon. I am trying not to go ballistic as my body is getting soft. Traveling is hard enough. Traveling around the world and trying to stay fit is almost impossible. The time change, the odd food and less than tolerable workout facilities are daunting challenges to any athlete. Keeping clam is key and pre-planning is paramount.

Squeaky wheel rule applies when tying to train on a trip, especially a business trip. Emailing hotels and investigating the facilities online is a must. Keep in mind that photographers are paid to make the tiny pool look like an Olympic size swimmer’s dream. On this current trip to Taiwan I even went as far as using Google Earth satellite maps to see the actual outside pool.

When I crossed over to Shanghai for the remainder of my trip I ran into a glitch. The hotel I booked has a 25 meter pool but it isn’t conducive to proper training. It is located upstairs from a KTV (Chinese disco-karaoke). This means if I want to swim I have to walk through a night club (afternoon and evening) with…um…”ladies of the evening” asking me to obtain their services. Not a scene you want to enter into wearing a Speedo. The pool’s water quality is questionable at best. The chance to get sick is very high. My last trip to Asia gave me a stomach parasite that worked me over for a month.

With swimming out I decide to try the gym to run on the treadmill. Same issue with the disco, but a new glitch is found upon arriving to the workout room. The weights, bike and single treadmill is next to the pool and the air is like a sauna. Now the interesting mix: The room is also a hang-out for those wishing for “men of the evening.” Not a scene you want to enter into wearing super short Brooks running shorts. As I arrived to the sub-par treadmill there are four shirtless males wearing only swimming suites very excited to see me. The only workout I got that night was jogging back to my room. For the record, this is a 5-star hotel and the nicest in the area. Shanghai Surprise!

The food is a disaster when traveling. At least it is for me. Half my suitcase is my own training food. Energy bars, bagels, pretzels (none in China), Fig Newtons, G2 powder mix and Power Gels are a must in the land of rice and…um…is that beef? Some handle the fried octopus at the Pizza Hut better than others. I stick to steamed white rice and corn soup as much as possible. Until I recover from this trip...happy training and thanks for reading.

Balance

Life is all about balance. Eat too many salty foods and you need to balance it out with water (ok…beer). Stay up too late and you need to sleep more. If you drive a big Cadillac Escalade and wear $150 jeans you are probably trying to balance out the fact that…well, you get the idea. Live near the mountains for great training and you get some funky weather…and this past weekend it snowed. It was supposed to be 50 degrees and sunny, and out the window it is all snow.
Training is tough. Training for a huge event seems to find a way to make life even tougher. I’m not complaining…more of explaining. Explaining why there are clothes on the floor, gel packages in piles and water bottles around the house like small monuments of the damned. The bed is always in a constant state of twisted sheets with The Stick defiantly ruining the comfort of down pillows and fine linens. Showers are usually at the gym with unwanted onlookers and meals are shared with a PC to update the latest yards, miles and kilometers. All in all the life is good.
Of course this life isn’t cheap. It takes gear, a coach, race fees, plane tickets and food, food and more food. It takes a lot of coin to support the road to the Ironman. So having a good job to balance the expense is important too. The best part about work/career time is that you can turn off the training and sink into another world. You know for 8-10 hours a day you can forget the taste of chlorine, staring out the top of your eyelids on the bike and the pounding of the legs on the ground. Being a dedicated athlete makes for a dedicated employee. When you are looking to bring out the best on race day the same applies to one’s work.
If you train hard you have to rest and recover just as hard. So as I awoke from my afternoon nap and went to my massage I was feeling a little guilty. Who am I to be taking naps and getting massages? Shouldn’t I be organizing the garage, washing the car or doing my taxes? Sure, I could be doing more chores instead of swimming, biking and running, but what would I look back on as I dance with the Grim Reaper at the end of my life? Would I think about the amazing days of training and racing? Or would I remember the moments wondering if my red pillow cases are going to bleed in the wash? Yeah, the guilty feelings went away pretty quick.
Find your balance!

I am at the Red Robin Restaurant staring at a huge Whisky River BBQ Burger that is covered in fried onion strings perched high above a bed of fries. It is hard to believe that this is the road to the Ironman. You know the Ironman: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a little 26.2 mile run thrown in at the end just for kicks. My coach, Carole Sharpless, is across the table from me squirting a huge stream of ketchup into the basket of additional fries we ordered. “Eat” she says, “you will need it.”

This journey will take me to Ironman Louisville in August. That is if I can get to the start line healthy and alive. The race is a little over seven months away and the training is already absorbing most of my life outside of work. There will be injuries (currently a bad right hamstring) and drama (newTommaso prototype tri bike arrives in March). You have to respect the race. I know this because I have been around the sport for a few years. I've taught clinics, wrenched for the pro athletes and even raced (all but the big one) when I wasn't working the race. Trust me when I say you want to be in on this ride.

During my time preparing for the Ironman I will let you in on my training and the development of Tommaso’s first tri bike that will debut at Ironman Louisville. Along the way sponsors and my coach will chime in with in-depth thoughts on the training and the technology I will employ on this great journey.  There will also be video of cool new products and concepts you will see here first.

Bookmark this BLOG and check in when you have time. For now I am back to picking colors for Tommaso’s 2010 mountain bikes. This is a new addition to the Tommaso family and I think you are going to love what you see. I’ve only traveled around the world 4 times to put it all together.

Stay tuned!