Arrival Into Beijing

Yesterday our team arrived into Beijing and had a wonderful surprise….clear, blue skies! This is my third time racing in Beijing; however, it seems as if this is my first time really “seeing” the country. The view flying into Beijing, we could see lots of rolling green hills and even mountains in the distance! The triathlon race venue is absolutely picturesque with rolling green hills, many trees and ancient temples scattered across the mountains. I really hope this weather holds up through Monday and Tuesday for the races. It would be great for the world to see how beautiful the venue truly can be without thick smog.
The past several days, Beijing experienced lots of rain, so I think that lead to clearing out the air. In addition, the city has worked to clean up the air by reducing driving and shutting down factories inside the city. We never know what race day hold, but we can only hope for conditions like today. The temperatures are very nice for racing as well, with highs in the mid-80s and lower humidity!
Today we had a busy day: training at the venue, the race briefing and media events. The race briefing was different than world cups, in that we had to pick our swim spot at the end of the briefing instead of picking the spot on the starting line race morning. I picked spot number three and I will be starting on the right hand side of the pontoon. The first swim buoy is 560 meters out, so we should not have too much congestion at the first buoy.
Some of my family members arrived late last night and are spending the day sightseeing. My parent arrive tomorrow and will probably be a little jet lagged, since this is their first oversees flight. The longest flight they have been on before this trip was under three hours, so I hope they are doing okay on the plane as I type this now!!
Tomorrow will be spent with training in all three sports and getting my muscles activated and ready to race on Monday. I have less than two days before the gun goes off (in our case horn). My race will also be shown at 10:00EST (8:00MST) on Sunday night, Aug. 17th.
I am looking forward to representing the red, white and blue!

Cheju Update

This is my fifth day in Cheju and hard to believe I only have two days until I head to Beijing. The past few days have been very challenging training in the heat and humidity, but I am beginning to feel like I am getting adjusted to training in this climate. The other day while I was doing a track workout, the heat index was 105 degrees----and those temperatures have been pretty consistent here every day. With the high humidity, it has been difficult to stay hydrated, although I have been adding additional salt to my sport drinks. Bob has been hard at work monitoring our hydration levels and letting us know if we need to drink more or add even more salt to our diet.
While training in Cheju, we have crossed paths with many other Olympic Triathletes from other countries….this little island in Korea is a popular place. Athletes from Luxemburg, Germany, Russia, New Zealand, Denmark, Great Brittian, Spain and Switzerland….are just the countries we have seen. The plane on Friday will be filled with Triathletes headed to Beijing!
During our downtime, Nate and I have been keeping up with what’s been going on in Beijing. There have definitely been some exciting races going on….especially the men’s 4x100 meter relay. That was a phenomenal finish and exemplifies the Olympic spirit. I am going to be watching Michael Phelps every step of the way in his quest for winning eight Olympic gold medals.
That is it for now---enjoy the Games!