Last weekend I got to see Courtenay - which was awesome - but the bitterness of saying goodbye to her for the next few months marked the start of an unexceptional week. I had some knee pain that started after running in the snow in Boulder over the weekend, then right as that was subsiding I came down with a nasty stomach virus (hence the relevance of a potty humor post).

Now I feel great, thanks to the awesomeness of the Sports Med and Recovery Centers here on campus! Without them this could have been a couple weeks off, but they helped me nip it in the bud.

Some random things I noticed this week that made me laugh (all bathroom related):

• Gluten can make some people poop during workouts. Those people all like to recommend gluten free diets to anyone that has stopped to poop in the middle of a run.
• There was a notice posted on all the bathroom doors in my dorm (two per floor, one men’s one women’s), and while I agree it’s important, I’m not sure why it wasn’t posted someplace more immediately visible to the people it pertained to: “Attention Shooters: Guns are not to be stored in dorm rooms at any time. Violation of this policy will result in immediate removal from USOC housing.” I think it also said violators would not be allowed back ever. I’m glad they don’t have this policy with bikes.
• In my hallway bathroom there is a sign that tells me to wash my hands with warm water for 15 seconds, yet there’s no warm water in the bathroom sink.
• I was drug tested this morning at swim practice after already emptying my bladder. I wonder what a social encounter would be like with the guy that had to stand in the handicap stall and watch me do my morning BM after I told him I can’t produce a 90ml urine sample yet. (Probably awkward, but at least they’re really nice guys).

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Boulder right now with Courtenay Brown, Rory Seiter, and Mojdeh Hamidi. We’ve been spending the last couple of hours interrupting each other and getting stuff sort of done while at The Laughing Goat on Pearl Street. “Getting stuff done” consists of Rory interviewing me for the Checkmate Triathlon Team website (my side project that will be awesome once Rory and I figure out all the logistics of starting a team from scratch without start-up capital), Courtenay writing a blog, figuring out which graduate school she’ll go to and providing input to Rory and me (she started a women’s pro cycling team a few years back and has some great perspective), and Mojdeh generally being pleasant company.

What’s interesting is how we all got here. I met Rory when I was designing underwater robots in Honolulu and he was finishing up his degree in Environmental Management. I met Courtenay online through her ex-boyfriend, and Mojdeh and Rory met when he made an unexpected pit-stop in Boulder during a 2008 world tour. Last year Courtenay gave up her independent lifestyle in Lake Tahoe and moved in with me at my parents’ house in Seattle after dating me long distance for two months. Rory and Mojdeh had only been dating a couple months when they left Boulder to travel around New Zealand together for four months, and the trip went so well that they ended up spending all of 2009 living out of a van and dragging a trailer of triathlon swag to races for the USA Triathlon Endurance Mobile Tour. Sitting in a coffee shop figuring out what we’ll do next is much more exciting with this particular group than it might be with your average coffee shop dweller.

BURRRRRRR!!!!! Ben Collins getting ready to bike in the snow

A few weeks ago Courtenay got into a graduate program at CU-Boulder. This week they flew here out here to visit, so naturally I drove up from Colorado Springs to spend the weekend with her. I haven’t spent much time in Boulder before this weekend, but I’ve certainly heard plenty about it (more pro triathletes live here than anywhere else in the US). On Thursday I jumped in the water with Dave Scott’s group at Flatiron Athletic Club. The club is pretty cool. Plenty of cardio equipment, frequent yoga classes, open pool time and a well stocked weight room. The swim practice itself was a pretty typical master’s practice. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool to be in the same lane as Matt Reed and next to several other pro athletes (you’ll have to forgive me for not recognizing a lot of ironman athletes), but it wasn’t some mind blowing experience that made me rethink the way I’ve been swimming the past 20 years. Otherwise it was a well organized master’s workout (full range of abilities) with a famous person dishing out the sets to six outdoor lanes (sound cold? it was.) packed with 40 people. Still, I enjoyed myself because it’s swimming (which I love) and it was with cool people in a new place, which makes things interesting.

I also went for a bike ride outside - my first since leaving Honolulu - which was really fun. I did a flat loop to the east, hoping to stay away from the clouds that were hugging the mountains in the west. It didn’t work, I hit snow flurries within the first 10 minutes of the ride. I was stubborn, however, and a by 30 minutes into the ride I was under partly cloudy skies (they say that if you don’t like the weather in Colorado then you should wait an hour for it to change). I got in a great interval session, but on my last effort, as I was rounding the boulder reservoir, I found myself getting dumped on with thick cold flakes of snow. By the time I got back to Rory’s apartment (where I’m staying) my helmet was caked in snow, my bike was drenched and dirty, and my hands were numb. It was totally awesome.

Courtenay finished her recruiting trip today and is spending the evening hanging out with the two ex-boyfriends she has in Boulder while I relax and prepare for a hard weekend of training. Hopefully she’ll make it back here tonight

This isn’t the first time I’ve been to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, but it always seems to surprise me how awesome it is here! And now that I’m taking up residency at the Training Center, there’s way more cool stuff that’s open to me.

I got here Saturday after a long three days in Seattle of packing, family time, and a trip to Chris Tremonte’s Thursday Night Dinner (which deserves a catchier name). My flight out of Seattle was mid-morning, but I had stayed up late the night before stressing out that I had forgotten something important that would be the difference between a successful season and failing as an athlete (obviously a realistic paranoia). So when I arrived in Denver, and then waited two hours for a shuttle to Colorado Springs (there’s a good story about how the Southwest Airlines helped me out several times that day, but I’ll save it for another time) I was already exhausted. I arrived at 4pm to the center, and - despite how much I wanted to curl up and sleep for a few hours - I only an hour to get in a quick run before heading off to the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame Dinner (2nd annual, another great story for another time).

Needless to say, by Sunday I was in need of a good recovery workout to flush out all the stress and tension of a week of hustling my way from Honolulu to Seattle to Colorado Springs. I needed a great big exhale (unfortunately, the thin air up here is not great for giant sighs of relief), and on Monday I finally got it in the form of the NormaTech MVP . They have four on campus for athlete’s to use, and when you’re legs ache from a hard workout (or from standing around) a few minutes of dynamic compression with Norma is to muscular soreness what cuddling up by the fireplace with a cup of coco is for a stressful work week (And I do appreciate a good cup of hot chocolate and indoor fires).

Once all the athlete services were open (not sure why they all close on the weekends) I was able to schedule the 90 minutes of massage that I am now qualified to receive as an official resident athlete (Robbie, the massage therapist I’m seeing is incredible, and deserves his own post - another time). Additionally, I started frequenting the Sports Medicine clinic (which was available to me on my previous trips as well) for some help with continued hip rehab from my injury last summer. I can’t begin to convey how much of an advantage it is to have qualified medical staff available 10 hours a day (during the week). I certainly miss Inewmed and Spencer Chiropractic, but being a few hundred meters away from the med-staff with plenty of drop-in times is priceless.

On Thursday I went to a weekly class on meditation. We worked on “mindful thinking” and how to maintain focus and be aware of your thoughts while you try to direct them away from the outside world and into the current moment. It was hard. Really really hard. At first we were guided, and I could focus on the Sport Psychologist’s words to keep my head inline, but after a short time I started thinking about the Olympics (there was a TV on outside the room playing hockey) and how well I had done in my workouts that day, and what was for dinner…

Speaking of dinner. How could I possibly go this long without mentioning the centerpiece of life at the Olympic Training Center? The athlete cafeteria literally sits right in the middle of campus, and offers a plethora of food options for every palate and dietary requirement possible (within athletics - there’s no deep fried Oreo cookies or cheese wizz). We have protein pounding wrestlers (majority of residents are wrestlers), carb-consuming triathletes, salad-selecting gymnasts… Or you can order a lean ground beef burger and baked fries (I prefer the sweat potato fries). Everything is delicious.

Some things I plan to take advantage of that I wasn’t able to get to this week are: individual Sports Psychology, Sports Nutritionists, tuition grants for continued education (I’m trying to decide what Master’s I should work toward, or if I should keep doing medical-related classes), the campus rec-room (with a Nintendo Wii and a big TV and couches and a pool table), and off-campus extracurricular events like Bowling and movie nights. All of this, of course, is provided for me by the US Olympic Committee - and their sponsors* - in hopes that the support will allow me to focus on my training so that I can reach my potential. So the first priority is to train hard, and put everything else second. I’m just so excited to be here!

*The USOC is the only national governing body in the world that receives no government funding. So when you see a brand that says, “proud sponsor of the US Olympic Team” - they’re the ones providing me this opportunity - it means a lot.

I moved into the Olympic Training Center today as a resident athlete. Unfortunately, the resident dorms were flooded a few months back and repairs are not yet finished, so I have been relegated to the barracks. These three cinder block buildings – relics left from when the campus was an air force base – are normally for short term athletes, and are located away from the main athlete center. After two short-term stays out here, the barracks are old hat for me, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hopeful for a private bathroom, larger-than-twin bed and a cold-weather-free walk to the cafeteria.

Monday morning I said Aloha to my Canadian friends after a relaxing dip in the ocean and a muddy last jaunt through the cane fields of Paia. I came back to Oahu and decided that I would basically repeat the workouts from the week because I felt strong and ready to handle 7 more days of hard work. Also, I’m flying to Seattle on Tuesday, and to Colorado Springs on Saturday, and with all the travel plus the time it takes to acclimate to altitude, I figured this week was my last chance to really train hard for a while.

[Hawaii dirt is tenacious! I’ve worn these shoes every other day for the past 8 weeks and they are DIRTY!!] 

The week was a success, but I will be glad Monday night when I finish my last hard training day. It was a lot harder to train without a big group to push me, but spending time with Courtenay and my friends while I wasn’t training made the week fly by. I trained with other people for most of my key workouts this week, but it seemed like I just couldn’t keep up with anyone. I swam with the UH varsity team each day – much harder when I’m just as fatigued as they are – rode my bike with Tim Marr and John Flanagan a few times (John destroyed me with a sub-19 minute climb up Tantalus), and ran at the track with Tim and John, though we just cheered each other on while we each did different workouts.

Here’s the scoop on training location. Maui’s venues are better. There are more cycling options, fewer cars, wider shoulders, cleaner streets, and less road rage. The cane fields of Paia are wonderful for running (until it rains and you get 2 inches of mud caked to your feet), and the pools are free and pretty nice, and the open water swimming is second to none. Oahu, however, wins on convenience. It has a better track (at University of Hawaii or in Hawaii Kai) and better swim programs (UH Masters Swimming, Oahu Club Masters swimming, or any of the training groups like Team Jet or Boca Hawaii). And unless you’re traveling with a group, there are more people to train with on Oahu. What I like most about Oahu, however, is that everything is close. I haven’t needed a car here for my eight week stay. I can walk to the UH pool and track, I can run almost entirely on grass or dirt to a big grassy park, there’s a grocery store a block away, and all of the good cycling rendezvous are within 10 minutes of here. That, combined with the fact that I have three cousins, an aunt and uncle, and lots of friends on Oahu, make it my choice for a base camp over Maui. I can deal with repetitive cycling routes and lees-than-ideal running routes (It’s still 90% on dirt) if it means I don’t have to spend an hour (or even half an hour) in the car each day commuting to workouts.

Two more training days!

Ok, it’s not really party time when everyone has just done three 30 hour training weeks in a row. We are slowly cleaning up the mess we’ve made in the rental house and getting ready to fly out tomorrow. Today was out last workout, a 14 mile run with an hour of the fastest pace we could hold. I was finally “chicked” by Kathy Tremblay, who has proven herself as one tough little woman (though it turns out it was Kirsten Sweetland that nearly passed me earlier in the week during the 8:1 workout).

After breakfast we rode for 90 minutes on heavy legs, then piled into the van and went for a hike. Now, I remember going for hikes during hard training camps when I was a collegiate swimmer, but that was different. My legs are much more tired than they ever were as a swimmer, so trying to climb over rocks and weave our way up past a few waterfalls was a difficult task. We were moving quite slowly, but it was still a very nice change of pace from the swim/bike/run of the past few weeks.

Tomorrow I head back to Oahu for another week of hard training (since I showed up late to the camp I decided to just keep this training block going until I leave Hawaii) before I have to deal with winter. From Honolulu I’m headed to Seattle for a few days, then flying to Colorado Springs where I will be for most of the year. I’m a little apprehensive about training at altitude full-time, and about being so far away from my family and friends. But I am hoping that putting my head down and focusing on my training with the support of the Olympic Training Center will help me stay healthy so I can make the next jump in my racing this year. My first race is just six weeks away!!

I arrived today to Maui. It was a short flight over, but still tiring. I arrived hungry and without food, then went grocery shopping at a health food market nearby. I spent a lot of money, filled a camping backpack with food, then rode back up the hill to the house I’m staying in with a few Canadian athletes.

Andrew Russell is probably the reason I’m able to join in on the camp, which is otherwise just Triathlon Canada National Team members. Andy and I have been working together hoping to start an international team with a focus on qualifying for the Olympics, and through this process we’ve become friends. I really like how easy it is to get along with most triathletes. It helps, of course, that we’re both engineers, and whiter than Casper. I’m looking forward to the rest of the month and getting to know the rest of the Canadian athletes. (Let me take a moment for the soft-rock montage to play out in your head.) After all, their national training center is much much closer to my home than Colorado Springs. It’ll be good to know my neighbors.

[I don’t have any picture from Maui yet, but take a look at the pic above. nice shoes, right? Check back or follow me on twitter and you might just win yourself a pair of those Brazil K-Swiss K’Ona running shoes. – photo courtesy of Courtenay]

After a month in Hawaii, I’m certain that everyone needs a little sunshine to start off training for the new year. Hawaii may be a long way away, but I bet you can find a cheap ticket to Austin. Check out the Austin Endurance Ranch put on by Chris Tremonte – a professional triathlete from Seattle.  Chris has been making dinner for all his friends every Thursday for the past 3 months in preparation for this training camp, and I can say with certainty that the food alone – both healthy and delicious – will make this training camp worthwhile and memorable.

Aside from the food, Austin has some great training opportunities: roads with Texas size shoulders to ride your bike on, endless miles of soft surfaces to run on, and some really unique pools for swimming. It’s definitely one of the most fun places to do a winter training camp.

The first camp starts next week, and Chris is giving last minute deals on the camps. You may spend less for a week of training in Austin than you would staying home and keeping the heater on full blast.

Check out the website, contact Chris, and book a flight to Austin. You’ll be glad you did.

“When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet.”  ~Stanislaw Lec (Post WW2 Polish poet).

I was jumping for joy that I would get to go to Brazil with Chris Foster and Matt Chrabot to race the 11th annual Fast Triathlon, but I forgot to look down to see whether the ground was moving. Matt Chrabot backed out of the race at the last minute, leaving Chris and me with no teammate, and not enough time to get a visa for a replacement. Today we found out the race replaced our team with a team from Mexico, and will be cancelling our plane tickets. This leaves me in Hawaii without any certain plans, but, much worse, it leaves Chris Foster in Santiago without a return flight home! I have no way of helping Chris, but I feel really guilty for recruiting him to our team in the first place. I had no idea that there was any chance of us being in this situation, but after a week of phone calls to Brazil, to other American athletes, and again to Brazil, there is nothing more that I’m able to do. Perhaps there will be a silver lining to all of this, but, for now, Chris is up a creek without a paddle.

[above: last year’s Mexican and US teams at the Fast Triathlon in Guaruja, Brazil]

So… let the planning begin. I’m going to be here in Hawaii for longer than I anticipated, so perhaps it’s time to find a longer-term housing solution (currently I’m staying with Courtenay’s brother), or maybe I should head over to Maui and see if I can join the Canadian team during their camp, or maybe I’ll just get a flight home and drive to San Diego like I originally planned. I could conceivably just stay in Hawaii until the first races of the year, two months from now! I’d better start a pro/con list with all my options. Anyone have a good recommendation for how to spend the next few weeks? AAACCKKK!! This is like deciding what to eat from a Thai takeout menu: way too many good options!