Week One in Colorado

Tuesday I flew into Denver and hopped on a 90 minute shuttle to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was approved to stay at the center starting on 8/30, but I bought a plane ticket for the 25th.  I found a spare bedroom to rent out by posting a housing wanted ad on craigslist, and luckily the house was just three blocks from the OTC campus. I was on top of my housing situation, but finding food and making sure I was allowed to use the training center weren’t priorities in my mind until I was about 30 minutes from campus. After a couple quick phone calls I managed to get Jillian Petersen to give me a ride to the grocery store while I waited for my paperwork to be processed for facility access.

After I got settled in, went for a bike/run brick and began my diet of beans and rice (nutritious, delicious and economical), I passed out at 8pm and slept for 11 hours. It was glorious. Then Wednesday I did exactly the same thing, only without the travel, Thursday repeat, plus a good swim workout. By Friday I started to feel recovered from all the fun I was having (and sleep I wasn’t) back in Seattle. I saw the doc at Sports Med and had my wrist re-X-Rayed (it’s healing really well), and put together a plan with the med team for lots and lots of personal attention. I love all the PTs, LMTs, Docs and such that I see in Seattle, but there is definitely something to be said for being 400 meters away from their offices and being able to drop in whenever I feel like it.

Mike Done, coach of Andy Potts and Brian Fleischmann is coaching the swim practices here, which was a good surprise for me. I have high standards for swim coaches, and from what I’ve seen, Mike is great at his job. This week he’s helping me figure out how to get back into a regular swimming routine without jeopardizing the healing of my broken wrist.

I finished off the week with my first USADA drug test. It was exciting, and a little intimidating. Two guys came into my host house and ask for me. They explain the procedure and then ask me to give them 90mL of urine in a sterile cup. Unfortunately, despite not having used the toilet in a couple hours, I had terrible stage fright. I will be the first to admit that I lack a normal human being’s modesty, but something about lifting my shirt and pulling my pants down to pee in front of a stranger made my bladder harder to empty than the oil in Alaska. It was like this:

First Try:

I knew I needed to pee before the USADA guys showed up, so I offered to go right away. No dice. After standing in front of the monitor for a couple minutes trying to imagine running water, he told me we could go relax and try again in a little while. We sat in the living room for about 40 minutes while I drank copious amounts of water. My belly ached and I decided I was ready for

Second Try:

similar to the first try, only I was pushing so hard I let out a bit of gas – a few times. My face turned red with embarrassment and the monitor offered that I sit down as if I were “having a bowel movement, if that might help.” I sat and tried more. A dribble filled the bottom of the cup – 5mL – only 85mL to go!

I gave up and we went back into the living room. I drank more water and the men suggested I eat some food and follow my normal routine. So, more beans and rice (the root cause of my flatulence I’m sure), and more water. I relaxed a bit with food in my stomach and tried to make small talk with the USADA guys. They were really nice, and after a few more minutes of awkward conversation my bladder called me up to warn that the dam was nearing capacity. So 90 minutes after USADA arrived I went for my

Third Try:

We walked into the bathroom, closed the door, took out a sterile cup, dropped my pants, lifted my shirt, faced my new friend and let it rip. The cup was full in two seconds, but I wasn’t done yet. My bladder was like the energizer bunny. So after making these poor guys wait for me to pee all evening, I made them wait a while longer while I kept peeing.

Hopefully next time will go a little more smoothly..