Road Trip. . . and back in the dirt

The last few weekends I have been back on the trail and loving it. I really did not feel "wipe out" after the Ironman and maybe it all just didn't sink in yet. Dang...I'm going to Kona to race. Cool. The week after was just slow "keep moving" activities and I was banking on the play it safe side although I felt like I wanted to HAMMER. Monique and I started last weekends activities early with a hike out at El Moro with some good old friends, Joe and Tiffany exploring the our new living spaces. Talking about going primal

I was over 50 days without being on my mountain bike! I could not think of a better way to spend last weekend than to watch some friends race and soak it up after with a BBQ. Monique, Beth and I rode to 4 corners to hand off bottles to James and Ryan who were racing The Traverse and then we picked up Kim on the way down. Yes, this was the ideal ride... cheering on friends and riding with the girls on the trails in sunshine.

We were all in full recovery mode a few hours later at Casa Bluesails and a few more guests to join us. Epic eating jacuzzi time and funny friends! I love summer!

The next day was more of the same with a brick workout with Jason and Monique at her parents house and I knocked out my fastest running mile to date. I am really enjoying running recently and I am planning on going a bit longer with it over the summer. runnin is funnin. After our sessions we were forced to eat again by Moniques parents. Routine is good

This weekend we had a bit more of the same. Monique and I got up early for a masters swim session and then headed down to meet a grip of people for a ride out at Lake Hodges. We met up with Beth, James, Ryan W again and Luke, Toby, Ryan D(i put an extra helmet in my truck this morning), Keri and Nick. This was the first time out there for a few of us and I know it will not be the last. Super fun trails and lots of options to climb or not to climb. A T-Run and a trip to the Stone Brewery finished off the day.

Just look at how happy Ryan is!! I am hoping we can make this a regular summer stop on the weekends. PERFECT spot to run too and I am dreaming up a way to fit a swim in the lake somehow...


Between these fun weekends I had to get back into some serious "work". I had a few meetings and some projects I needed to bang out last week and a huge geography to cover. I made the call to not fly back and forth and make it a road trip. Between the working week and driving down to Lake Hodges I rolled in over 2,000 miles on the road driving this week. Not cool! However, I took the projects, meetings and travel as a challenge and learning experience.

the other work

Many of us are traveling for work or races and it is often tough to keep up training and eating the real food that offers the real fuel for performance. Not to mention getting adequate sleep! If you know me you also know that I often(read once a week or more) misplace my wallet, keys, GPS watch(i am on #6), laptop or something else. Some of this has to do with being on the go all the time and as much as it hurts to admit, I guess I just have too much going on sometimes. Oh, maybe it is just me being a bit lame too!

I started to work out a travel and keep track of my stuff strategy so I thought I would share some of the stuff that has worked for me. Here is where you may think I am a little weird but I needed to come up with some type of system so I would not loose my mind along with my stuff. Every time I get up from where I am at (I am at a dozen or more coffee shops per week) I use my five finger count system. Only five because I count on my hand but it has worked.

1-keys, 2-wallet, 3-phone, 4-laptop, 5-bag

This is the essentials and I also found that keeping "like things" in bags helps me to stay organized. For trips, I usually pack one bag for workout clothes and one bag for normal clothes. One bag for my work projects, etc. I started keeping my training gadgets in a Rudy Project helmet bag and that has proved to be a help to speed my transitions as well as not forgetting one of these gems. What would I do it I couldn't train without my heart rate strap? Bag it and forget it!

Food is another big area that is hard to get right when traveling. Pack it in and pack it out works best for me so I try to shop before I get out of town. I also "graze" all day long so it makes it easy to have something within reach. A problem I usually have is hanging out at coffee shops a bit too much when I am on the road and that had my good sleep going out the window. I was averaging less than 5 hours of sleep last week. Something to work on the next go around...

Before I left I also posted something about this on the EC forum(I hope they are ok with me sharing it). Here are some other good ideas to make the miles a bit more tolerable for those long road trips.

- 1-2 bike bottles with water to stay hydrated and force you to take pee stops
- Healthy snack food - when I'm on the road I need all the nutritional help I can get!
- Invert/evert your gas pedal leg to keep your piriformis/hips happy (important if you are like me and don't have cruise control)
- I hear some people sit on a tennis ball with their "drive cheek", again for the piriformis
- Treat the traffic around you like you are on a group ride (kidding!..... kinda)
-download some podcasts/music or get a new book on tape(digital)
-If it is an "all day drive" I plan a workout after a short bit of driving (~90min) in the a.m. and something when I get "there" to shake out the drive
-find stops that have internet along the way in advance
-try to avoid drinking too much coffee... i already make too many stops at starbucks
-swimersguide.com -find a pool anywhere in the world! Love that site!
-i bring a foam roller and stick but never actually use it
-if I can arrange it with work I will schedule some con-calls or make the calls that I have been putting off for work, etc.
-I try not to cram a huge training session in before I drive anything over 4 hours. The drive goes a lot better if I am fresh.
-If I really get restless or sleepy I will pull over at a rest stop and take a nap or get out and walk around.
-I try to stay away from coffee as well.
-Use GPS. really takes away the stress if you are time crunched. They are cheap too.
-taper in / taper out
-Compression socks, really seem to help
-Plan meals in advance, drive with prepared dinner salad and prepared fruit salad - saves from eating road food
-Plan short training stops in advance
-Stop every 90 minutes for a short break


Hope it helps and hope to see you out on the road (not driving!) or even better I hope to see you on the trail!