The Early Bird Gets... Hungry!!

It is currently 3:50am here in Colorado.  Despite being up until 10pm local time (that's midnight for me - WAY later than normal), I've been awake since 3am.  I knew I'd be up early.  Our 5am start didn't phase me on paper.  However, I am now learning that my stomach may be an untold issue.  I can get up early, but breakfast doesn't start until 5am.  *sigh*  #EARLYBIRDPROBLEMS

I expected to write blog entries at night, but at this point, it seems the morning may be more likely. 

What happened yesterday?!

We got out of Hartford and due to the weather, we had a slightly turbulent flight the whole way into Denver.  It didn't bother me, but there certainly were some that disliked being told to stay in their seat.  I tried to do a bit of work, but as soon as I pulled it out, my body shut down.  My body was telling me something!  "You're on 'vacation.'  Stop working!"  Okay!  Okay!  I pulled out my audiobook (Relentless: Good to Great to Unstoppable) and spent the rest of the flight listening to that.  If you haven't checked it out, I suggest you do.  It is GREAT!!

The plane touched down, I eventually got off (In order to get an aisle seat, I was about 4 seats from the back row), I switched from audiobook to my "Pump Up" playlist and I was off. 

I walked into Denver International Airport with Breaking Benjamin blasting in my ear and the excitement of the weekend buzzing in my head.  I was IN THE ZONE!!  My focus narrowed, the world faded out around me, and man did it feel good.  THIS is what I live for!  God that felt good!  And man was I off!  And then I saw this...

AWESOME!!

I picked up my luggage (only one tie strap broke in the bike box, so altogether, not bad), found the Triathlon Research representative, and met the first two other campers; Ben and Kiersten.  ...or was it Christine?  Sorry!  It's Kiersten!  (I just checked the Facebook page)  Kiersten is from the St. Louis area and is looking to move into 70.3s.  Ben is from California, but used to live in southwestern Colorado and is also looking to break into 70.3s.  We were picked up by Mike, Ben and my squad leader and were off to Westminster, just outside of Boulder. 

Due to this weekend being graduation for a number of schools in the area, finding a hotel was a chore and a half for the Triathlon Research team.  I must say though, where we are is great!  We're staying in the Drury Hotel, a brand new building.  Nice digs!

We got dropped off, checked in, unloaded our stuff, and headed to the conference room where everyone was getting dinner and info about our first day tomorrow (now today).  It was great to meet some of the people I've been talking to on the phone as well as the other campers.  There are 45 of us, so we've got a lot of names to mess up.  =P 

The last thing they did was hand out our goodie bags!  It was a TYR acquatics gear bag stuffed with lots of things; Yurbuds, New Balance shoes, a very comfy Castelli long-sleeve jersey, a variety of GU products, a Headsweats visor, water bottle, and other little things.  AWESOME!!

After some info and food, it was already 8pm (10pm by my body).  I went straight back to the room to build my bike.  I cleared out some room, set down the towels (to avoid getting grease anywhere, put in my headphones, and went to town.  Twenty-five minutes later, it was built.  The real test will be today's FTP test.  I can just see my seat stem falling down as I ride or my aerobars starting to droop! 

BAM!  Bike built!  Let's hope she holds up!

What are we doing today??

From what I recall and what is on the schedule, we have breakfast at 5am, we head to Rally Sports (our host locale), bang out our main information gathering, individual form analysis and video for swim, bike, and run (1 hour each) including a bike FTP/lactate thresh test, then lunch, a seminar with Siri, and finally dinner. 

That pretty much sums it up!  Thankfully while I've been sitting here in the dining area to avoid waking up my roommate, they've let me start nibbling on what's out for breakfast.  Food makes an athlete happy!

Enjoy your day and I will check in again tomorrow morning most likely!

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Questions
1.  What is the longest flight you've ever taken?
Boston to Denver was my longest flight.  This came pretty darn close today.

2.  Do you ever find yourself up super early or super late while away from home?
I love going West because I'm always up SUPER early.  

3.  What are you doing for workouts today? 
I may need to live vicariously through some of you this week while we get buried in information.


DREAM.  BELIEVE.  ACHIEVE.