Expiration World Record Attempt

As promised...here is the video.

The land of the rising sun....oh wait...isn't that Japan?

So I could not get onto blogger yesterday...but I found out a way to post blogs but I cannot view my blogs or anyone else's.  Too easy to get around the Chinese censorship.

Well the rain stopped here and the women are getting ready for their races.  I think that the race will be live on TV here...but who knows.  Training has been going good...everyone looks ready.

Not much to do here...just watch a bunch of 24 episodes and trying to beat each other in respiratory tests.  I am the champion with a lung capacity of 9.54 liters....Brent took a funny video of it.  I will try to post it on youtube later on.

BLOGGING FROM BEIJING!!! (SHHHHHHHH)

Do not ask me how I was able to get on blogger from here (Joel the computer hacker must have got around the firewall that blankets the country to censor their citizens) but I hope that tomorrow I am not blogging from the inside of some Chinese prison!  I'll just say that it was JONES!!!

The trip so far has been going well....I am sleeping good and we have a full support staff which is seeing to our every need.  We are staying in a wicked cool villa at the race hotel.  Our villa is basically a small hotel with lots of rooms.  It is good except that we have a bunch of Chinese sitting at our door (like a doorman) but all they do is sleep and sit there bored out of their minds...useless jobs.

There is a big sports complex on the grounds here....bowling, ping pong, badminton, 25m pool, treadmills, archery range, virtual golfing range, virtual kill and blow up aliens with big badass guns (which we are going to check out tonight!) after dinner.  Speaking of food we have been cooking most of the stuff in our villa although tonight I am going to check out the dinner in the hotel which I have heard mixed reviews about.  We went to the grocery store to get some foods with a camera man following us around and some guards at the entrance and exits.  Lots of the food in there was sketch....especially the meats.  Mystery meats are my favorite! mmmmmmm.....

We have checked out the course here....I like it a lot.  The swim course is one lap....WIDE OPEN with long stretches.  Bike course is hilly and a little technical and the run is mostly flat with little rises exiting and entering the dam.  Going to be FAST!

As you can see their english translation is not that great...they call it CHINGLISH.  Loads of it around and they are starting a massive crackdown on it before the Olympics here next year.  After the race we are going to a big market in Beijing to get our hands on some cheap Chinese knockoffs like these sandals!  I cannot wait!

Off to Beijing

This upcoming weekend is going to be the test event for the Beijing Olympic games next year.  They are treating this as if it were the actual games having the women and men race on different days and at the same time of the day that the race will be held next year.  We are also racing on the same course that will be used so it will be good to actually see what kind of race we can expect next year at the Games.

The field is virtually identical to last weekends world champs in Hamburg except that the conditions and course is going to be opposite.  Hamburg was cold and flat...Beijing is going to be hote, humid, and hilly which I am looking forward to...hopefully string out the packs a little more.  Unfortunately we just got an email saying that the water was 18.8 degrees celsius the other day which means that if it stays below 20 degrees then it is going to be a wetsuit swim.  Either way it does not matter too much to me but with a non-wetsuit swim usually people are more strung out in the water which means better chance for front pack to get away and stay away...it will take longer for other packs to form and get going.

I think that I have been recovering well since last weekend.  I got a couple massages last week and had some good sessions with coach Joel.  Joel has done an amazing job this year...just look at our squads accomplishments this year and you can see just how good he is.  Every year we are all improving and stepping up from the year before...next year with the Olympics...people should watch out!  All the pools in the area have been closed for yearly maintenance...WHY WOULD EVER SINGLE POOL CLOSE AT THE SAME TIME!?!?!?!?!  STAGGER A LITTLE PEOPLE!!!!  So....we have been swimming open water everyday this week and by the third day I was sick of putting on my wetsuit and getting in cold water....I was just thinking "Oh wouldn't Crystal pool be so good right now...it would be sooooo warm with all the old people peeing in the water keeping it at a nice bath temperature....oh how I miss you dirty, discusting, urine filled, old people shedding crystal pool!"

Well time to get going as Joel is picking me up soon for the airport.  If you want to watch last years Beijing World Cup race you can find the mens race HERE and the womens race HERE.

ENJOY!

Not many hamburgers in Hamburg...lots of sausages though

do race reports that come out this late still count?  or do they still matter?  will anyone read it?  ha...well I don't care...read sucka's!

I did the Hamburg race last year...I love this race because there is just so many people lining the whole course cheering for your, it can be deafening at times!  AWESOME!!!!  I had a great start again even though some guy beside me clearly left early (I was thinking "oh no you just didn't do that!" while I was in mid air and he was already entering the water) so as soon I got to the surface and got ahead of him I tried to squish him over to the other guys beside him.  THAT WILL TEACH YOU NOT TO LEAVE EARLY!  I felt pretty comfortable for the rest of the swim and exited around 6th place.  Hopped on the bike and started to chase down some early keeners that did not bother to wait for me getting on my bike.  It took a lap and a half to catch them and then it ended up being a big swarm of bikes.  The pace was on the whole time...hard to try to stay near the front out of trouble.  Fun bike but not nearly as fun as the run would be (if sarcasm could be shown through the computer then it would be smacking you across the face right now).  I did not feel that strong and fell off pace pretty quickly but the crowd still was giving me the pity cheer which was cool.  Even though I was far off the front I still received loud cheers....I could not imagine how loud it would of been at the front running with the Germans.  So that was that...to be honest I have not looked at the results yet so I do not know how I finished.  But that was my first worlds as an Elite (not any different than any other world cup...just a bundle of fun!)

Next up is the Beijing World Cup next weekend.  We are leaving this Monday for the infinite feeling flight over to China.  I have been looking forward to it all week....so exciting.