Back to reality/work

Flying to Chicago today, in order to begin a mentally intensive 12 hour work day. Bouncing around at high altitude has it's unique challenges. Whereas the majority of individuals striving to attain the monica of Ironman have to deal with figuring the arduous training schedule in to a 9-5 work week (on the ground with nutrition at hand), the schedule I will have to endure will be unpredictable, inconsistent and prone to poor nutrition and dehydration. That is certainly not to belittle anyone's efforts at simply training for this event - like "Napoleon" says, the training is the hard part - it is simply to say that flying for a living poses it's own challenges that one may not encounter elsewhere.

A story from last year. I had just come back from a trip and went out on a training run with Napoleon. It was hot, but the pace was reasonable and the run length was decent. However, I had failed to compensate for flying the day before for 8 hours and had not taken the time to consume the 3 liters I should have or eaten well. With simply 10 minutes left I could not go on. Legs done. Lungs done. Shaking due to poor nutrition. I pulled off and would meet my running partner back at the ranch.

This taught me that training and flying four days a week demands that nutrition and hydration be a focal point of my schedule. From my point of view (a questionably educated one) it's not a simple case of downing water while I'm flying. Not least, that would lead to an awful lot of cross legged syndrome. An amateur triathlete (probably an overly flattering self description) in this profession must focus on not only hydrating with water, risking "flushing out" our sytems, but improve such sources as protein and sodium intake. Nice in theory, right?

Sometimes, with a long, taxing 16 hour day, hydration and training get left behind and the pillow is my best resource. Starting January, it will remain to be seen how the increased training volume can be coped with. There is no choice but to hold an increased focus on the nutrition side of things, particularly if workouts are getting moved around, with the time precious and the highlighted need to be meaningful and productive.

I'm going to be test running some food and nutrition over the next couple of weeks. And by that I mean my will power (or lack there of at times), to see if I have any or enough to say no to certain items when I know I need to be fresh and rested the next day.

Good luck to us all!