been a few days since I've updated so its time for a catch up.... I'm currently in Columbus, Ohio working on a show out here. So once again its back to trying to juggle work, training, and travelling which is quite the challenge for me. When I travel and work I work very long days. Typically 12-18 hour days. 8 hour workdays are pretty rare around here. So training typically involves tough choices and lots of sacrificing sleep. This project is no different but at least it starts out with some 9 hour days.
Heres what I've done so far this week and whats next, and this is pretty typical of a week on the road for me.
Tuesday morning I woke up in my own bed at 5am and stumbled into my bike clothes. I was on the bike and headed out the door by 530ish. I headed for Blackstone boulevard which is about 5 miles from my house and then did a bunch of intervals. The boulevard is about 1.6 miles in each direction. So I would do intervals that were approximately 1.2 miles long and would use the last little bits of the boulevard for a short cooldown, U turn to head back the other way, take a sip of a drink, and then go hard at it back down the other side. The boulevard rolls a bit so its a good place to stay in the big ring and power your way up the rollers and down the slight descents. My goal was to stay in the saddle the whole time and go as hard as I could. I did that for about 19 miles worth of laps and then headed home. So in total it made for a nice 30 mile workout in the morning.
Then it was a quick 30 minutes of put the bike away, shower, throw my luggage in the car and head to the airport. Which means careful preplanning and laying out of clothes and whatnot to get in and out of the house in a hurry.
A couple of flights and a cab ride later and I was in Columbus by around 5. Check in, change clothes and hit the hotel pool. Ugh. The pool is only 10 yards long. Yep... 30' long. Its so short that I've avoided any type of turn whatsoever other than touching the wall and gently changing direction. If I turn and push off then theres only half the pool left to swim through. At most I can get three breaths in per length so its only around 8 strokes long as I sometimes don't get the third breath in. Worse than that the walls and floor of the pool are the same smooth white color and surface so its near impossible to see the wall coming. So you sort of know its coming after stroke 8 and stick your arm out and coast into it. Which means it can jam your shoulder if you forget to relax that arm a little. Not a great experience. That first pool workout was frustrating and short lived.
So I got online (thanks to Ray Maker's blog for helping me find http://www.swimmersguide.com/ which is a great website that helps you find pools when travelling) and found a better pool for the next morning that was only ten miles away. Sadly the OSU pool complex thats only a mile away is off limits to non alumni and students so I was out of luck there, and the close YMCA that I can get into for free has its pool closed this week for its annual cleaning. Ugh. I just can't win!
Wednesday morning I'm up at 5am and in a taxi by 530am headed to Life Fitness at the Easton town center. WOW!!! What an amazing gym! HUGE! spectacular locker room complete with attendants. Through the locker room and into the pool area. Again... WOW. Spotless brand new 5 lane 25 yard pool with spectacularly clear pool water, a large childeren's pool area as well as water fitness area that isn't the lap pool and two huge 20x20 hottubs. Nice! I got in a decent 40 minute workout in the pool followed by 10 minutes in the hot tub. I again did about a half mile worth of 50 meter repeats. My breathing is getting better and although I breathe better to one side than the other I refuse to give up on bilaterall breathing so I'm glad I'm imprinting that habit. My stroke still needs work though and I still need to keep finding ways to relax in the water but I'm getting better. My body position felt really good though so that was good. Then it was back into the locker room to get cleaned up and dressed for work and then back in the cab to the gig, grab a coffee and some breakfast and go right to work. All that cost me two 25 dollar cab rides and ten dollars for the day pass at the gym for a grand total of 60 dollars. Ouch! Who knew a ten mile cab ride was 25 bucks? Oy! The rest of the day was nutty, with two out our three semi's worth of equipment being almost two hours late which really delayed the day and made the morning a bit of a mess. But we got through it. By the end of the day I was exhausted and very much enjoyed the thai place we went to for dinner.
Thursday I was up early and out the door by 6am for a quick 5 mile run through downtown Columbus. I stumbled on a nice route that led to a bike path that followed the river. I managed to do the five miles at an average pace of 7'35s which was nice. It felt really good and strong too. I think I'll be ready to really race all out for the 5K I'm doing with my friend Chris at the end of the month. I'm really hoping for my first sub 20 minute time and I think my legs are up to the challenge. We'll see though. I want to do a test 5K practice at all out effort first and see what happens. And after the run it was a quick shower and off to work for another solid day. And then after that it was time to change clothes and do an hour of strength training in the hotel gym. After the hour in the gym I was starving and in serious need of protein so I wolfed down two chicken caesar salads (sans dressing) from the hotel cafe in my room and then went right to sleep.
Friday (today) I was up early and sadly back in the hotel's tiny pool. I made the best of it and did a bunch of 100 yard repeats. The worst of those being that they were ten lengths of the tiny pool to get to a 100 yards. Silly! So I tried not to push off the walls and do my best to focus on technique and use the time wisely. Not a great workout in terms of building swim fitness, but a good one in terms of technique work. So I made the best of it. Today is day one of the show and our first of three live broadcasts. So I'll get out of work around midnight, off to bed, back to turn on the rig at 7am, off to the gym for a 90 minute bike/run brick, shower, and then back to work till midnight again. These weeks are very tiring! But at least I'm getting the training in. Speaking of work... I should get back to concentrating on it!
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