Undoubtedly triathlon is one of the sports that demands the most of your time. You have to train for three sports, and then if you train with us you have to lift. But that is not all; add time for massages and time for commuting to the pool or gym and fairly soon it starts looking like you should be getting paid for all this work. But no, we actually pay people to do all this. How can we find time for the rest of our lives and make a living?
This week I have been advising some of the online athletes as to what workouts to drop and how to move workouts around during the week so as to have some fitness progress and maximize time utilization. But the real reason for this post is that I been doing the exact same juggling act myself.
This past weekend my daughter Sofia turn one and we took her to the mountains for a five day trip. There is a lot of snow in the maintains this year. There we took her on a horse sleigh ride and we scouted our new hometown this spring for kids things to do. In addition next weekend I am going to Mexico for a camp with Mark Allen. That meant that my long rides last week and this week were going to be trouble since they are normally on weekends. I found myself rearranging my online program. I can always run anywhere but my long rides had to be moved to the weekday. Good thing right now all I need is a three hour slot to get that long ride in. Today we just got back from the mountains and after unloading and answering some emails I headed for the pool at 8:00 PM for my standard set of 6x500 with 45 seconds rest. The set is boring but the main reason I do it is because I want to get it over with. Besides I normally swim masters so this is a good way to get a nice aerobic swim. Needless to say no one else was at this pool. The club I go to has an outdoor pool with no lifeguard. It was dark and sort of lonely. I think I am really motivated. It is the only way to explain my behavior.
Tomorrow I am doing my long ride with Ed the doc that helped me with Sofia and then I take Sofia for her one year checkup. I may drop off my wife and Sofia at the doc and take my son Camilo to the pool for a swim. He loves swimming. Then I get back to start packing for Mexico and wait for Mark Allen who is staying at my house tomorrow before we catch an early Friday flight to Mexico.
Somewhere between all of that I have to answer emails, do some accounting, eat and perhaps get a lift in since I doubt I can lift in Mexico. I have enough equipment to lift in my basement so that will help. Yes sir or madam it is a huge juggling act.
Before I call this post to an end I have to tell you about my long ride last Thursday. I headed out from Boulder to Lyons which is Tim Deboom’s hometown and as I ride this small loop in Lyons I see a runner coming down from the hillside. Well it is Tim Deboom. I turn my bike around and rode next to him to catch up. I had not seen him since Hawaii. Tim and I go a long way back. In 93 or 94 (I can not recall which year) we actually ran together for some of the first miles of the Hawaii Ironman. Tim asked me how come I did not have head cover. I replied that in the transition rush I had broken the strap from my visor. Wouldn’t you know, Tim handed me a visor. To my luck Tim had a visor and a hat. He could not make up his mind as to what to wear and decided he did not need the visor. Tim went on to beat me by 10 minutes or so that day. That was one of my best Kona performances and one of Tim’s slowest times in Kona. I went on to put on 30+ pounds and Tim went on to win the Hawaii Ironman two times. That is interesting wouldn’t you say? Well, Tim is racing at Ironman Arizona. He wants to do an early Ironman and a late Ironman in Kona. He thinks that may be better for him. We will see. I always wish him luck.
So I continued on my long ride and did another loop in Lyons. There is a popular ride there called the fruit loops. If you come to my camp we will do this ride. As I headed out of town I heard a loud pop. My rear tire went flat in a second. No slow leak this time. I pull over and proceed to change my tire. I get the rear wheel out and lean over to get my spare and tools ready. All of a sudden I hear someone yell “are you ok”. I answered “yes I am fine” as I got up and looked over to see who it was and make eye contact, I realize the fellow offering some help in no other than Olympic Time Trial champion Tyler Hamilton. He was already 20 yards away by the time I felt like saying. “Wait I need some help”. That was nice of him eh? By the way both Tim and Tyler were training alone. Hey, so was I. I really felt motivated for the rest of the ride.
Ok gang, I will do my best to post on the blog and give you some Mexico updates. I have to brush up on my Spanish. I’ve been working on it as MarkAllenOnline.com is going live in Spanish next week. Nos vemos pronto. (Get that Spanish dictionary out)