The Perils & Pitfalls of Business Travel....

I love my job!

I'm very lucky to head a small group doing global business development for a major bio/pharmaceutical company, but pretty much by definition my job requires a lot of travel, including to many international destinations.  When I was younger I used to absolutely love this and hunger for the adventure, but as I've got older.....   well let's just say that the novelty has worn off!

Firstly, I have a family now and am always very impatient to get home to them.  Then there's the sheer drudgery of airports, 13 hour plane rides, hotel rooms and so on (not to mention the jet lag that my tired old body doesn't seem to shrug off like it used to!).  And now....   there's the disruptive effect that it has on my triathlon training as well!



The demands of family life and work (even without travel) already mean that I'm probably The Puppeteer's worst nightmare as I continually have to "move things around" in my training schedule.  But add in the travel and the frequent short notice trips and itinerary changes and she's probably pulling her hair out!  

What's the point of this rant?   Well next week I will be in Washington DC for our biggest trade event of the year - the BIO International Convention http://convention.bio.org/ where tens of thousands of "suited and booted" executives and wannabes from all over the world will converge for presentations, tradeshow, receptions, forums and meetings.....   yes, meeting afer meeting after meeting....  breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, coffee meetings, meetings in the partnering forum, meetings at our tradeshow exhibit....   endless bloody meetings!

It's actually a great event - this will be (I think) the fourteenth year in a row that I have attended and every time I come back absolutely exhausted!  The days run long - starting with breakfast meetings and usually running long into the night with a huge array of networking receptions and events sponsored by all manner of companies and regions of the world trying to attract our business.   And now, on top of all this....   I have to find time to train??!!!

The other frustrating thing is that for the third time in a row I have to travel on a key training week just before an event (Triangle Triathlon on July 10th).   Ah well, not much I can do about it.

So what's the plan?  

The first good news is that I'm staying at a hotel with a good gym, so treadmills, stationary bikes (not expecting much) etc. are available.   There's also a pool, but I'm assuming that it's a typical 10 or 12 M hotel pool - not much use!   So plan A is to get up early and use the gym.   By early I mean 4:30 or 5:00 am (gulp!) because my first meetings typically start early and I'll need an hour or so to work out, then time to cool off, shower, dress, eat breakfast and get to the meetings.  The Puppeteer has, as always, done a great job of adjusting my plan to accommodate the situation and the available time, so I have a "run-centric" week planned with a lot of core strength work thrown in!



Next challenge is how to find a way to get to bed somewhat early.   If I'm traveling on my own this one is pretty easy, but it will be virtually impossible next week as not only will I be "on duty" at a host of networking events, but I'm also traveling with colleagues and sure to meet up with lots of old friends, so sleep will be at a premium.



Which brings me to my next challenge - eating right and staying hydrated.   Business breakfast, business lunch, business dinner and lots of opportunities to snack and over-indulge on the free booze in the evenings.  This one will just take will power - I can do it!   I will also be taking my water bottle and Nuun tablets and doing the sip, sip, sip routine all day.



Another piece of good news is that there's a chip timed 5K fun run associated with the event on Monday morning in Bluemont Park in Arlington, VA and I'll be doing this with my colleagues - every little helps!  http://convention.bio.org/5k/  Going to use this as a tempo effort and throw in a few extra miles before and after.

....and finally, at least this year the event leads in to a holiday weekend, so I'll get an extra day to rest on the end of things!   :-)

OK, I've steeled myself and I'm ready.....   bring it!   :-)  

A Good Day to Try Out a New Toy......

The Puppeteer had me scheduled for both a swim and a run today.   I was hoping to run early because the forecast was for highs in the mid 90s F here in central North Carolina, but a series of conference calls for work got in the way, so I settled for getting the swim in at lunch time and running later in the day.......

The day flew by and by the time I got to the end of the work day it was still hot as heck out and humid as well.   Not only that but we were under an air quality alert because of wild fires burning south east of us in  Bladen and Pender counties.   As soon as you walked outside there was a strong smell of smoke - not healthy to run in!

Here's a picture of downtown Raleigh today lifted from one of our local news channels....

So what to do?   I didn't want to miss my workout - just a 40 min session with drills incorporated, but every one is important!

As it happens I had a great solution....

Last week we found out that friends of ours had a nice treadmill that they never used and that they were in the market for an eliptical machine.   Guess who had a virtually unused eliptical in their spare room?......

One borrowed truck (and numerous adult beverages) later on Sunday afternoon, the Nordictrack treadmill with 3 HP motor, a good sized deck, gradients etc. was installed at our house and the eliptical machine was at our friends' house!  It looks like this....

So, as a result of the heat, humidity and smoke, today was the perfect day to put this baby through it's paces and it didn't disappoint!   Enjoyed a 45 min. sweatfest - definitely a good swap - thanks Karen & Kenny!

I guess this is my future.........

Re-assessing......

Before I start this post I need to say that I am loving this whole triathlon thing!   A great challenge; I'm enjoying the training (well, mostly....); I feel great; I've met some great people; I love working with The Puppeteer....   it's a lot of fun!

Never-the-less, I was probably a little over optimistic (over enthusiastic?) when I put together my race calendar.  After my experience in the swim at White Lake and chatting with The Puppeteer I have decided that I have bitten off more than I can chew by signing-up for Beach-to-Battleship in Wilmington in October.  No particular concerns about the bike or the run, but I just don't think that I will do myself credit in the swim and if I can't do it "properly" I'd rather wait until next year.   I'm in no danger of drowning and I can almost certainly finish the prescribed 1.2 mile swim, but I can't pull together a decent freestyle for the distance and I certainly won't be fast!

Along with this realisation I have also decided that working hard on "base fitness" is far more important than finishing races (especially if I'm "just finishing" rather than trying to be competitive in my age group).  I think that I've already come a long way, but finishing this season and having a good winter (and, perhaps, losing another 10 lbs) should really set me up for next year.

My run is definitely getting faster and I'm happy to be injury free and enjoying it.

I'm very excited about the bike and can feel significant improvement now that I've attained some base fitness - I seem to fly up hills that I struggled on just a few months back!    This is the discipline that I know I can shave some serious time from.

My swim is where I'm struggling.  My technique is (I think) improving dramatically and I have started to fly over shorter distances, but I'm still struggling with stamina and keeping it going over long distances.  That said, I can feel things improving and I'm determined to work hard on this for the remainder of this year!

So......    I'm making some changes to my race calendar.......

I didn't do Bandits Challenge last weekend (a good call I think!)
I will do the Triangle Sprint in July
I am still signed-up for the Lake Logan Olympic in August, but I'm reserving the right to change it to the sprint if necessary.
I will do the OBX Olympic in September, swim allowing.
The plan is now to convert my B2B registration to a relay - possibly with The Snitch swimming and The Puppeteer running with me biking in the middle?
I will now add the OBX Half Marathon in November with the aim of anihalating the 2:00 barrier!

An interesting part of this whole thing is that after six months of working with The Puppeteer I now have a much better idea of "what it takes" and I'm in awe of some of the other athletes she works with.  Not only that, but "the journey" has become much more important to me than "just finishing races".   It's a great challenge and I'm going to do it properly and without rushing things - watch this space!

Swim

Bike

Run.....

Race Report - Running of the Bulls 8K

This morning I did the Running of the Bulls 8K (~5 miles) race in down town Durham, NC. 

This was the third annual running and also the USAT NC 8K championship.

Got up at around 5 am, got dressed, made coffee, scoffed down a banana and some toast, and headed out towards Durham - the Bull City.  It was already 76 F when I left the house at around 5:30 am - not a good sign!

Parking was plantiful and I was soon picking up my race number and shirt at the Old Durham Bulls Baseball park.  Did some stretching and went for a 1.5 mile jog to get warmed up.   Soon ran into my colleague Phil and his wife Roberta, who were also doing the race, and also Lili Fernandez and her Mom Angie.

The start was on Foster Street, just up from the farmer's market, and there was a nice festival atmosphere as a brief shower of rain offered short relief from the heat and humidity.  The course winds its way through downtown Durham, going past the new baseball stadium and ending at the old one.  One nice feature of the race is that you finish by running around the warning track of the classic old Durham Bulls stadium (think Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham!).

 

The course was much hillier than I anticipated (and it was pretty humid out).   Not steep, but numerous long grades.  The start was up hill and I had to fight my way through slower runners for a while but I soon found a rhythm and put in 08:01 for the first mile and 07:45 for the second.  The third and fourth miles were tougher, with some sapping hills and I slowed to 08:22 and 08:43 pace.  Once the finish was in sight I kicked it up a little for an 08:11 last mile, but the heat and humidty had definitely taken some energy out of me!

Official times haven't been posted yet, but my Garmin had me down for a finish of 41:17.   Not too bad given the conditions - I felt that I put in a reasonable effort and was completely drenched in sweat at the finish! 

I was interested to listen to several people say that their GPS devices measured the race as slightly long.  Mine read 5.03 miles, which seems about right. 

I soon found Phil and Roberta and after rehydrating and enjoying some fresh fruit we headed to Alivia's Durham Bistro http://www.aliviasdurhambistro.com/ for a wonderful steak and eggs breakfast!   A great way to start the weekend!

I'm Getting a Better Coach!

What?  I hear you say.....    The Puppeteer is out?....    NO!   Not a chance!

I'm pleased to be able to report that Stacey is now promoted to a USAT Level II coach and, I understand, she aced her written exam and got 100%.!  (what a swot!).

This represents a lot of hard work and dedication and I'm very happy that she's still lowering her standards to coach this Old Fart as well as two national champions and all sorts of other awesome athletes!

Way to go Puppeteer!   :-)

You can check out The Pupeteer's blog at: http://tristacey.wordpress.com/

Why do I feel guilty?



This whole triathlon thing is voluntary - right?   There's no one holding a gun to my head;  it's not life or death;  I'm not trying to qualify for the Olympics......    so why, oh why, do I feel so guilty if I miss a workout that The Puppeteer has scheduled?   Why do I somehow feel as if I'm letting her down?  

I had a 2.5 hour bike scheduled for yesterday, but a confluence of events involving getting kids to camp and poor SWMBO being unwell meant that I couldn't fit it in - even on the trainer.  So this morning I find myself writing a guilty message to The Puppeteer letting her know.

Of course, she's totally cool with it.  Took a look at the Training Peaks website (where all my workouts are posted) to see if anything needed changing around and basically said "don't worry about it".  Cool....   but somehow I still feel bad.  Why is that?

I guess that I can conclude two things:

1.   That working with The Puppeteer does provide a great deal of motivation and (let's hope this doesn't go to her head) I want to do well for her as well as for myself.

2.   I guess this traithlon thing really has become important to me!

A nice long ride...

Went out for a really nice 58 mile ride with The Snitch this morning.  We left from our house once The Snitch and The Puppeteer (who is racing the Mooseman 70.3 in NH this weekend) stopped gabbing on the phone - what is it with women and the telephone???.

We rode up around the north side of Falls Lake to Butner before heading up to Stem, NC (which is in the middle of nowhere) and doing a hilly loop before heading south again via Creedmoor.  Nice morning - we managed to get out before it got too hot and kept on each other's case to stay hydrated.

Highlight of the ride might have been the guy mowning his lawn on his lawn tractor with an absolutely enormous garden umbrella attached to it to keep the sun off.

The Snitch got herself a nice tattoo.   No, not like this.....

More like this......

Although, admittedly The Snitch's legs look much better and are considerably less hairy!  :-)

So far I have managed to avoid oily chain/cog marks on my legs. but I'm sure my time will come!

All-in-all it was a nice effort.  We certainly didn't push too hard and managed a moving average of over 17 mph even with the hills.  Hopefully it gave The Snitch some good practice ahead of Bandit's Challenge in a couple of weeks.

Pleased to be done!

If you look carefully you can see the oil tattoo!   :-)