Tucson Arrival Day

I’m seated on my flight out to Tucson. Flights can be very productive – I got a lot of work done this morning. In about one hour, I’ll be stepping out into the warm air – hopefully! I still have flashbacks of Palm Springs 2006 where it snowed on the first day. The weather looks amazing though for this coming week – it actually is supposed to be in the high 80’s tomorrow!

Today is travel day, get settled in and get the bikes assembled. We have a 5pm meeting tonight before dinner where we lay out the ground rules and expectations for camp. Anyone that knows me and/or has been to my camps know that I basically have three rules that the campers must adhere to:

1. No whining. Really, what good does whining do? I remind everyone that they signed up for this, and that this and that we are all privileged to be able to do this. If it begins to rain during a long ride, it does know good to bitch about it and to complain to your riding partners.
2. Check your ego at the door. I could care less who is the fastest and strongest. There is always a new person who wants to prove themselves on day 1. Usually, the lesson learned is a hard one as they crawl back after blowing up or when they are spent by day four.
3. Expand your limits, if not for this one week. The campers are all here to train with no other worries for a week, so take advantage of this. I prefer high volume at the camps over intensity. Once the campers get home, they can work back in more quality as their schedule usually allows for maybe a third of the volume that most will do this week. I want them to take some chances here and swing for the fence.

A few other points I’ll touch upon tonight are all about getting the campers in the right mind set. Most are intimidated on the first day, and I try anything I can to alleviate this tension. I want those here to not only make themselves better, but challenge themselves to make everyone around them better. This is something that we should think about each morning – “how exactly can I make myself and those around me better today?”. One of the keys to doing this is to free up ourselves mentally, so that we find a place where success and failure don’t matter. Only than can we take those uncompromising chances and really begin to learn about ourselves.

OK, enough philosophical mumbo jumbo. Some other things I wanted to write about:

Huge new discovery in nutritional science this week. I’m sure that you have all heard or read this in the news: To lose weight, it’s not so much what you eat, but rather it’s more about taking in less calories than you are expending. This is revolutionary! What a breakthrough!!! Finally, we figured out that if you burn more calories than you consume daily, you’ll lose weight.

I’ve been catching up on some movies while riding the computrainer. Keep in mind that trainer movies should be filled with action, and not make you think to much. I know there are scholars out there reading this saying it never hurts to think – if you become to distracted to focus on some quality (a trainer ride should be all about quality), then save it for the sofa. I saw a movie with Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie where they play assassins who can bend the path of bullets. It starts out as a combination of The Matrix, Office Space and Fight Club (yeah, it’s that hoaxy) and almost loses me, but I end up hanging in there for one reason and one reason only; Angelina. Goddamn is she stunning. Funny thing is the movie actually gets a bit entertaining. I recommend it for both sexes as I think just as many women find Angelina unbelievably attractive whether they admit it or not. I also saw Hancock with Will Smith which was surprisingly good - Will Smith plays the role well.

I'll be posting daily hopefully with some pictures and maybe some video as well, so stay tuned.

Cheers,

EH