I caught myself thinking about all of the countries I have been to and while I certainly do not consider myself to be a frequent traveler, I have had quite a few opportunities to visit quite a few unique places. Among them include England, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and of course China. Not too shabby for this kid who grew up in a sheltered Colorado mountain town!
Okay, so just a quick update on my time in China. Since arriving, I have gone to the Olympic Village as my photos have shown and other than that, I have been staying at the U.S. training site in Beijing. Aside from my Village visit, I have not been doing what my traditional role has been for the USOC and it has been different and fun. Most of my time has been spent assisting in the set up of our training swimming pool that our water based athletes will be using along with helping set up the track and field events. Today, I found myself assisting in building the pole vault area and getting in the pool twice to assess our lighting situation and what would be best for our athletes. I did manage to get in about a mile swim in the process so that was a bonus!
So, my days now usually look like this: wake up around 5am (can’t sleep past that for some reason!), Skype my family, eat breakfast, attend our staff meeting to determine what is on the “chores” list for the day, head back to my room to Skype Sarah, catch up on emails (I do still have a regular job that I am trying to do while in China) then head off somewhere to provide assistance. In between my manual labor roles, I have some lunch and dinner and try to squeeze in a bit of a workout in our fantastic strength and conditioning room. I’ve been using the rowing machine (wow, that is tough!), the spinning bike and ramping up my weightlifting.
By the way, Skype (www.skype.com) is an amazing tool to keep in touch with people when traveling. I highly recommend it!
That’s about it from China. I’ll take more photos soon and post them so be sure to check back often.
Until next time…
Coach Bob
coachbob@fuel4mance.com
