Testing My Preparation for Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is fast approaching; it’s only 5 weeks away.  Pop quiz:  any idea what Cinco de Mayo is celebrating?  Contrary to popular belief, May 5 is not Mexican Independence Day.  It’s the celebration of the Mexican Army’s victory over the French in 1862.  I learned this on Spring Break in Acapulco between Tequila shots in college…ok, ok maybe they were Lemon Drop shots.  Anyway, I usually only get to drop my Cinco de Mayo knowledge once per year on May 5 but this year I have another reason to discuss that day.

Cinco de Mayo is the date of my first half Ironman.  As I mention in pretty much every one of my blog posts, this will be a 1.2 mile swim, followed by 56 miles on the bike, and then a 13.1 mile run (half marathon).  It will test me mentally and physically to limits I haven’t pushed myself in a long time…maybe ever.  900 participants are entered.  My brother is doing the race against me.  My parents are coming to watch. 

All 35 of my Schmeis35for35 goals are important but it’s not hard to imagine why this one carries much more significance than juggling tennis balls or chugging a beer in 3 seconds.  I’m not sure what would make me feel worse – drinking tequila with the worm, having my brother destroy me in this race,  or the shear pain of running a half marathon in humid, 90 degree weather after completing 4 hours of swimming and biking.  I literally have no idea how I am going to feel.  I have no idea how my body is going to hold up.  I haven’t ever swam that far, been on a bike that far, or ran that far…ever. 

I spent last week trying to adjust time zones back from my trip to Asia.  Sometime around 3am on Tuesday when I was tossing and turning in my bed, I decided I needed to test my readiness for the race.  I needed to know how my body would respond by doing the full distances.  My plan was to head to the pool in a couple of hours when it opened and attempt the 1.2 mile swim.  I then planned on waking up Saturday morning to drive to the race site (2 hours away) and ride the full 56 miles on the course.  I wanted to test myself in the run too but I already knew that answer…I can’t do it currently.  My knee just won’t hold up.  I continue to push the physical therapy to make it better but it’s slow progress. 

In any event, I at least needed to know I could do the full swim and the full bike.  Note that I just wanted to try the full distances on separate days.  Obviously, on race day I’ll need to do the swim, bike, and run all in a row.  Here’s what transpired in my practice sessions this week with the swim and bike:

The Swim – I headed to the gym at 5:30am armed with my Triathlon watch, Triathlon shorts, goggles, and a towel.  After a few quick stretches, a few deep breaths, and a few “Holy shit this is going to suck” thoughts in my head, I pushed off the wall to start the 1.2 miles. 

Quick math question for everyone:  If the pool at my gym is 25 yards long, and I need to swim 1.2 miles, how many lengths of the pool do I need to swim to complete the distance?  Please show your work. 

Ok, I’ll spare you the effort…the answer is ~7 million…sorry, that’s not right.  That’s just what it feels like.  The real answer is 84.5 (1.2 miles = 2112 yards for those who are curious). 

Back and forth I went over and over with nothing to look at but the black line at the bottom of the swimming pool.  The first 100 yards went by and I was feeling really strong and good until I realized I was only 4 out of my 84.5 lengths complete.  After 200 yards I started feeling out of breath which isn’t ideal with more than 1900 yards left.  Somehow though with swimming, it seems like once you push through the 200-400 yard mark it feels like you could go forever.  I have no idea why this is but it happened to me.  I settled into a nice rhythm and finished the 1.2 miles in 36 minutes and 39 seconds.  I didn’t stop at all and it was all freestyle. 

That time would have put me ~150^th out of 425 men in the swim portion of the event last year.  However, I didn’t wear a wetsuit which nearly everyone in the race will have on.  That should help me between 5-10% as it makes you more buoyant.  With that, I would have been in the top 100 which would be fantastic…I’d take that for sure.

The next day I woke up and really wasn’t sore…this gave me a lot of confidence about the swim that I’ve put in the work and can handle it on race day.  It’s crazy to think a year ago I literally couldn’t swim 100 yards straight free style without stopping. 

The Bike - Sue and I set the alarm for 5am and I popped up ready to go.  It’s hilarious that it wasn’t long ago that I wouldn’t even think about getting out of bed on a Saturday before noon.  Of course, that was partly due to the fact I was out every Friday until 4am but that’s for another blog.

Anyway, it was raining but we decided to make the 2 hour drive anyway and hope for the best.  It turns out that “hoping for the best” isn’t a good strategy.  Looking at the radar would have perhaps been more scientific.  If we did that, we would have seen that pretty much all of North Carolina was covered in green…lots of rain.  It poured the entire way there but we made it by about 7:30am. 

There was no way I was going to make it to the race site and not ride…no chance.  So, I got my bike out, put on my helmet, started my watch, and off I went.  The rain was ridiculous…it wouldn’t stop and there were puddles all over the roads.  To make matters worse, the quality of the roads was horrendous.  Every 10 feet or so there seemed to be ruts that I had to go over.  The first few weren’t a big deal but after I had gone over about 100 of them in my first minute of the ride, I thought there was a reasonable chance I would go insane.

I tried to block out most of my thoughts and just get into a zone.  I got into aero position and started hammering along at 20+mph for the first few miles.  I was feeling strong despite all the difficulties with the conditions.  By about mile 20, my neck and shoulders were getting very sore from being in aero position.  My lower back was starting to get very tight.  My ass from being in the saddle for an hour was really hurting.  The good news was that my cardio and legs felt perfectly fine. 

At mile 28, I hit the half way point.  I needed to go to the bathroom and knew that hardcore riders just go while they ride.  I decided I wouldn’t be that hard core and decided to pull over and find a tree. 

Once I got back on the bike, I was definitely ready to eat.  I likely burned ~1200 calories in the first half of the course so needed to refuel.  Proper nutrition and hydration on long rides is really important and I don’t have any practice with how to do that.  I found it really hard to drink consistently and eat gel packs while riding.

Finally, after 3 hours and 8 minutes, I arrived back at the car and had completed the course.  I wanted to finish in less than 3 hours but the conditions were definitely a factor.  The bottom line is I finished and was proud of that.  I hadn’t gone more than 32 miles on the bike in my life and I almost doubled it on this day.  Not bad.

When I hopped off the bike, I couldn’t even imagine having to run 13.1 miles.  My entire body was pretty much locked up and I could barely move.  That wasn’t a good sign.  Plus, one of my goals on Schmeis35for35 is to finish this race in less than 6 hours.  If I do the same swim time as my trial (~36 min), same bike time (3 hours, 8 min), take 5 minutes for transitions, then that means I’ll need to finish the 13.1 mile run in about 2 hours…9 or 10 minutes per mile.  I’m sure I could do that easily fresh and with no knee pain but, of course, I won’t be fresh and I will have knee pain.    

Sunday night came around and I sat in the hot tub staring at the stars; I was thinking about how far I’ve come but how much I still have to do.  I’ve got a lot of improving to do without a lot of time.  That seems to be a common theme with Schmeis35for35

I guess I just have to make it happen, BUSY NOTEPADS style.

Schmeis

Rumbling and Shaking Through the 2nd Half of My Asia Trip

After a great few days at work and several solid workouts in Hong Kong, I was ready to see what the HK nightlife had to offer.  My flight to Tokyo was Wednesday morning so Tuesday night was my last chance to have some fun in HK. 

A girl on my team took me to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) which is a really cool and famous area for nightlife.  The weather was pretty terrible (rainy, foggy, and chilly) and it was a Tuesday so there wasn’t much going on but it was awesome to see.  There are lots of bars and clubs on hillsides and they shut the area down from cars and other traffic on the weekend.  It’s basically just a huge indoor/outdoor party.  My drink of choice for the evening?  Stella of course!  It always reminds me of being in NYC.  That beer is taking over the world.  

At one bar I overheard a couple of Aussies having a discussion about Ian Thorpe.  Many of you swimming fans may remember “The Thorpedo.”  He is an Australian swimmer that won a bunch of Golds and set several world records at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics but retired from swimming in 2006.  Well, apparently after he watched Michael Phelps win 8 Golds in 2008, he got the itch for a comeback.  He hasn’t swum competitively for 6 years and is now trying to make the Australian Olympic team in the 200m and 100m.  He was 21 when he won in 2004 and is 29 now…looks like he is opting for his own version of the Schmeis35for35…I’ll call it the ThorpedoLaunchfor29. 

Hearing all the swimming talk made me decide to wake up the next morning at 6am and do an 800 meter (1/2 mile) swim for time.  Note to self, time trials the morning after having drinks probably isn’t a great idea.  I ended up doing pretty well with a time of 14:20 and could have definitely pushed it more.  I was pleased overall though as my pace for the entire half mile was as good as my best pace for half that distance from a few weeks ago.  Progress is definitely motivating.  Plus, I was glad to squeeze in one last cold swim in the 70 degree outside pool at my hotel when the air temp was only 55…great mental toughness training.  After freezing my ass off in the pool, it was off to Tokyo. 

Tokyo, Japan

I think being from the United States makes us think that once you’re in Asia you must be really close to every country, but it was still a 4 hour flight from HK to Tokyo.  I watched Bridesmaids on the way which I heard was great from a lot of people.  I will no longer be friends with those people.

After arriving at Narita airport, I still had a 1.5 hour drive to the Hilton hotel in Shinjuku…a neighborhood in Tokyo.  The drive was interesting and it makes you quickly realize that Japan is really another world.  English is not widely spoken and many signs are only in Japanese.  It was obvious that it was going to be much more difficult here than Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong had been from an English standpoint.

One of the first things that stood out was all the people wearing face masks.  I’d say ~15-20% of the people wore them from what I saw.  One of the more hilarious things I’ve seen in awhile was some guy smoking a cig while his mask was pulled to the side.  Can you say ironic? 

I’m pretty sure this would be like a guy walking around 24 hours a day with a condom on and only deciding to take it off when having sex.  Think about that one for a sec…I think my disturbing analogy is actually pretty accurate!

The other funny thing about the masks is that people tend to not wear them indoors.  I really don’t get the logic of wearing it when you’re walking around outside with great circulation of air but not inside where the circulation sucks.  I guess the air quality is that poor.  I’m also not sure I get the cost/benefit analysis of the masks.  Let’s say, for argument sake, that wearing the mask makes you less sick for 3 days out of the year (that seems generous by the way).  Even if that were true, is it really worth wearing it 365 days for that benefit?  I think one variable that would need to be factored in is how good looking you are.  Clearly the uglier you are, the more sense the masks make.  Also clearly, my face is far too pretty to hide behind a mask…

Anyway, I got to the hotel around 7pm and checked into my room on the 27^th floor.  I was absolutely exhausted so ended up flipping mindlessly through channels on the TV before bed.  It seemed on most channels, the only thing I could find was continuous coverage of the insane Earthquake and tsunami footage from 2011.  Almost a year ago to the day was the monster 9.0 quake that hit Japan…this was the anniversary.

Unbelievably, I fell asleep around 9pm my first night in Japan and was woken shortly after by my room shaking violently.  The glass of water by my bedside table fell to the floor and a loud rumbling filled the air.  I tried to stand up and realized the entire Hilton was literally swaying back and forth to the point it was difficult to stand.  It was an Earthquake…and a big one. 

My room was on the 27^th floor with a view overlooking Tokyo.  It had full wall windows and I was staring out to the city as the Hilton was rocking back and forth.  I could clearly hear screaming from around the hotel…people were freaking out.  Now, I’ve been in several earthquakes before and they’ve got my attention, but I’ve never felt threatened.  This time was completely different…I was petrified.

The swaying and shaking literally went on for over 3 minutes.  If that doesn’t seem like much, count to 180 slowly while being several hundred feet in the air thinking the building you’re in is going to collapse…let me know what 3 minutes feels like then.  I didn’t know whether to try to make it out of the building, somehow find cover, or what.  Getting in an elevator didn’t seem like a great idea but the thought of trying to run down 27 flights of stairs didn’t make much sense either.  I was basically just frozen. 

Finally, it all stopped.  Silence was followed by the sound of sirens a few seconds later.  I don’t get easily freaked out by anything (one of my self-proclamations is that I would be the world’s greatest Fear Factor competitor) but this did it.  It scared me…a lot. 

I can’t even imagine what the quake and tsunami the year before must have been like.  Remember, this was almost 1 year to the day after the Japan quake that a 9.0.  Many scientists are predicting another huge one in the next 3 to 4 years in the area…who knows when that will come.  I later found out that this was a 6.9.  That is a ridiculously big earthquake for sure but nothing compared to the 9.0.   

I went back to bed with my heart seemingly beating faster than it does even on my most difficult runs or swims.  I couldn’t sleep.  I lied flat on my back staring at the ceiling.  I had no blackberry reception so couldn’t call anyone.  It literally shook me up.  After not being able to sleep, I ended up just going down to the gym at 4:30am and riding the stationary bike for 25 miles…crazy boring but I figured I may as well get something accomplished since I couldn’t sleep. 

A few hours later I made it to the office.  The #2 guy at Amex was also scheduled to visit the Japan center that day on the corporate jet.  He cancelled last minute due to earthquake but I still went ahead with everything.  When I got to the office, many people were talking about it.  After the quake last year, Amex now provides all Japan employees with hard hats and a first aid kit that has several days of water and other supplies.  Everyone keeps this at their desk…jeez.

Anyway, I had a great 2 days meeting people who I’ve worked with by phone and email many times before.  One thing that was clear to me though is just how little many of them are likely getting from big phone meetings in English.  Seeing their faces, they clearly can’t follow the conversation but they obviously do better than I would do in Japanese.  Case and point:  for lunch one day I walked to a restaurant, sat down, and was handed a menu 100% in Japanese with no pictures.  Ummm, yeah.  I decided the best move was to just get up and walk out…throwing darts at a Japanese menu to select my meal didn’t seem like a good strategy.

Finally, I’m on the plane back home.  Despite an Earthquake, language barriers, being exhausted from 2 weeks of travel, and having a hectic schedule, I still managed to stay on track with all my workouts.  I ended up hitting it hard on 11 or the 13 days of my trip which is likely what I would have done at home as well.  I plan to do my first Sprint Triathlon on April 14 and then have the huge Half Ironman with my brother on May 5.

I’m definitely on track with everything with my only concern still being my knees on the run.  But hey, if this Asia trip and earthquake didn’t stop me, it’s hard for me to imagine that anything will.

It’s good to be home,

Schmeis

My Asia Trip: The Halftime Report

When I last left you, I had made it to London and was waiting to connect to Kuala Lumpur.  The flight to KL was 12 hours from London which would have been a disaster had it not been for my seat being able to convert itself into a full bed.  It was literally like a scene out of Transformers watching my seat turn into a California King.  In fact, I told the flight attendant on Malaysian Air to refer to me as Optimus Prime.  She had no idea what I was talking about but I had fun with it.

She brought me sheets, pillows, and blankets and that was all I needed to sleep for the next 10 hours.  I woke up to breakfast being served with 2 hours to go.  I can’t even imagine doing that flight in Coach.

Anyway, I arrived in KL at 9am Malaysia time on Tuesday, March 6 which was 8pm Monday evening (13 hour time difference) on the US east coast.  After waiting for my bags, going through immigration, and making the hour drive from the airport to the hotel, I was finally able to check in around noon (a quick 30 hours door-to-door).  What’s the first thing I did?  Check out the gym of course! 

It was really sweet…great pool, awesome facilities, etc.  Workout number 1 of the trip took place at 1pm local time (midnight the night before EST).  I did a quick 15 minutes on the bike, 15 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes in the pool, and then 30 minutes lifting.  Schmeis35for35 Asia was off to a good start.

The next morning I was scheduled to go into the office.  All I knew was that it was located at “Menara Weld”.  The concierge pointed me in the right direction and said it was a 15 minute walk but I ended up walking for 45 minutes and still not being there.  Keep in mind, the temperature was literally 90+ and the humidity was about 16,000%.  I was absolutely drenched in sweat and hadn’t even made it to the office.  I kept seeing the word “Menara” on buildings so figured I must be getting close. I was guessing that Menara was the neighborhood or something.  I later found out that “Menara” means “Towers.”  Ha, no wonder that word was pretty much on every damn building I saw!

I finally asked for directions and the locals were all very friendly but everyone kept telling me I was “very close” when it turned out I wasn’t at all.  The joke is always on the white guy.  I finally got a cab and realized how lost I really was…I was in the cab for about 25 minutes (KL traffic is obnoxious) before reaching the office.  In the end, my cab ride was literally less than $3 US…really happy I tried to save that by walking. 

When I told people in the office how long I was wandering the streets, they pointed out that motorcycle theft is extremely common in KL.  No, they weren’t talking about people stealing motorcycles…they were talking about thieves on motorcycles zooming by and ripping off purses and laptops from people walking along the sidewalks.  Women have been literally dragged to the ground and even killed from this when their purse is hooked to them.  Crazy.  Luckily, the motorcycle thieves noticed I’m built like Thor so I didn’t have any problems.

After work that day, a few people from the office took me around to see the city.  We walked to the Petronas Towers which are still today the tallest twin towers in the world.  Seeing them in person, I can verify that they are indeed very tall. 

After some quick site seeing, we stopped at a bar for a few beers.  As the night went on, there was a mix of girls from Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam that kept walking through the bar trying to make eye contact with every guy.  Let’s put it this way, I don’t think they were doctors or lawyers.  

When one Thai woman stopped at our table, I took the opportunity to ask whether there were South East Asian rivalries…turns out, our table then had a fascinating conversation where she told us that Vietnamese women are really mean, Philippines women are nice, and Cambodian women are “in middle.” 

I said “it sounds to me like Thailand and Vietnam are kind of like the Red Sox and Yankees.”  No response, but I laughed.  I have a great time saying things to people that I know they don’t understand.  The things you learn while traveling… 

Yadayadayada, the next morning I had breakfast at the Shangri La hotel where I was staying and had a phenomenal meal…an omelet, a banana, some chicken fried rice, 1 piece of wheat toast with peanut butter, 2 pieces of sushi, a yogurt, and a glass of orange juice…breakfast of champions! 

I spent the week in KL with my body being completely confused what time zone it was in and what foods I had been feeding it.  I had one workout at 4am KL time because I couldn’t sleep.  The gym was open 24 hours (probably because so many foreigners stay there and are on different time zones) so that wasn’t a problem. 

Overall, I had a few productive days at work and really thought the city was cool.  It is mostly a Muslim country but seemed very progressive and diverse.  English is very widely spoken even though Malay is the official language.  Most people seemed to be from China, India, or Malaysia but it wasn’t uncommon to see Europeans and Americans as well.  It would be a very livable city for English speakers and extremely cheap.

Saturday morning came around and I woke up with a ridiculous plan to somehow find a place to watch the Big10 Basketball tournament.  No joke, I turned on the TV in my hotel room that morning and before the picture was even on, I heard the voice of Gus Johnson announcing…it felt like I just saw a long-lost friend for the first time in forever.  I nearly cried.  I never would have guessed it, but the Michigan vs. Minnesota game was somehow on in my hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.   

I watched basketball for awhile and then went to check out and wait for my car to the airport to head to Hong Kong.  After 15 minutes went by with no car anywhere to be found, I called the company and waited on hold for 20 minutes.  When I finally talked to someone they said they were having trouble locating the car…no shit.  After my car was an hour late and still hadn’t shown up, I finally ended up jumping in a taxi and barely making my flight.  I called the company again furiously and the lady told me that the good news was that if I called their billing department I may not be charged for the car.  Wow, that’s awesome…I have to call billing to tell them to not charge me for a car that never showed up and that I was never notified was nowhere to be found.  Sweet service. 

Anyway, I made it to HK and it is very different from KL.  People often compare it to NYC and it’s very obvious why…skyscrapers everywhere, expensive, beautiful views, lots of diversity, etc.  Very cool place.  My hotel is pretty amazing.  To say it has embraced Apple would be an understatement.  Macs and Ipads were used at check in and my room has a built in iPhone in a dock to use for the alarm clock, music, weather etc.  I’m pretty sure Apple would have been a good investment at $6 in 2003. 

Currently in HK it is about 13 degrees Celsius (~55 Farenheit) and the hotel I’m staying at has an outdoor pool.  Both mornings here, I swam at 6am outside in the cold.  The pool was about 70 degrees which is definitely not warm.  The first day was pouring rain too.  The staff looked at me like I was nuts…I told them “I’m not nuts…I’m going to be an Ironman.”  Ok, obviously I didn’t say that…

So, for the official halftime stats, I’ve worked out 6 of 7 days so far in Asia…pretty solid.  Here is the breakdown:

·        

      Day 1 Arrival in KL:  30 min swim, 15 min bike, 10 min run, back & biceps &abs (in KL)

·         Day 2:  30 min swim, 10 min run, 40 minute chest & tris & legs  (in KL)

·         Day 3:  45 min swim (in KL)

·         Day 4:  Rest Day

·         Day 5 Departure for HK:  20 min bike, 10 min run, 10 min swim, 30 minute back & biceps (in KL)

·         Day 6:  1 hour bike, 40 min swim (in HK)

·         Day 7:  15 min bike, 10 min run, 30 min swim, 40 minute chest & triceps (in HK)

Not bad all things considered!  I’m still having knee pain which is preventing me from running more but my biking and swimming are coming along. 

I’m off to Japan on Wednesday and then head back home on Saturday.

Until next time,

Schmeis

Taking Schmeis35for35 to Asia

When I decided to embark on this year-long journey in December, one of the things I counted on was getting ample training.  As most of you know, I work full time from home which comes with a variety of challenges but also the huge benefit of flexibility to make sure I can fit in solid workouts.  With a commute time of about 16 seconds to get from my bedroom to the office, I really don’t have an excuse to miss any training sessions.  These next 2 weeks are going to be killer though as I’m headed to Asia and traveling really makes it difficult to stay on track.

For those who are curious, I’m headed to Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Tokyo over the next 14 days.  It’s going to be a fantastic trip and one that I’ve been looking forward to for awhile.  American Express has call centers in all 3 places and I’ll be visiting each for a variety of reasons.  This will be my 3^rd trip to Asia in the last 5 years with previous trips to The Philippines and China. 

As a quick aside, my China trip was phenomenal.  I felt like a giant in Shanghai and Beijing and had multiple people stop me to get my picture.  I also had one family come up to me at a restaurant, stare at me for a good 30 seconds in silence, and then motion for their ~6 year old son to approach me.  His words to me?  “Hello, I am a boy.”

Now that was funny.  I told him that was great to know.  I liked that he was short and to the point.  Too bad the chick I’m stuck sitting next to on my flight can’t use the same short and to the point approach when she speaks.

If you haven’t figured it out, I’m sitting on the plane as I type this.  I haven’t flown business class for awhile but American is now handing out Samsung Galaxy Tablets to everyone preloaded with movies, TV, etc…not too bad.  My plan was to immediately put on head phones to somehow avoid the inevitable dreadful conversation with the person next to me but, of course, the chick didn’t take the hint.  My next strategy was to answer every one of her rambling questions with at most 2 words (preferably only 1 where possible) but this didn’t seem to faze her either.   

Now, I know a lot of people jokingly say they hate talking to people on planes, but I really mean it.  I should be President of the freaking PAPWWSTFU (Passengers Against Passengers Who Won’t Shut The F Up).  I really can’t stand it…and yes, I would absolutely rather stare at the seat in front of me and do nothing in case you were wondering.

In addition to firing unlimited random statements and questions at me at lightning speed, this woman has also somehow managed to lose her magazine, her pillow, and her head phones in the first 45 min of the flight and she keeps looking at me as if I were someone who cared…hilarious.  Apparently she doesn’t realize I hate people. 

Anyway, unbelievably, I only have one connection between Raleigh and Kuala Lumpur.  I’m on a direct flight to London now and then it’s on to KL from there.  Even though I booked my own travel, I somehow managed to schedule my departure time directly overlapping with some of the best sporting events of the year.  Purdue (where I grew up and went to college) is playing Indiana (easily our biggest rival), Michigan State is playing Ohio State for the Big Ten title, the Lakers are playing the Heat right after D-Wade broke Kobe’s nose in the all-star game, and Tiger just shot a 62 to come roaring back with a chance to win at the Honda Classic on the PGA tour.  Each of those sporting events is either just starting or getting ready to end and I’m missing them all.  Kill me.   

Also, how can so many planes still not have WiFi in 2012?  American, a quick FYI if you’re listening:  I’m pretty sure nobody actually uses a scolding hot towel to wipe their hands before they eat but Billions use the internet every day.  I’m just saying…thanks again for the hot towel.

All things considered, my flight actually isn’t that bad.  At least I’ve got a few brews and some movies that can make me forget about the games.  By the way, is it frowned upon to do shots by myself on the plane?  Calm down…that was a joke…I’m much classier than that.  I’ll stick to chugging beers for today.  Hey, don’t judge me.  You’ve seen my list and chugging beer is in my goals!  What’s a guy supposed to do to get better?

Since I’m bored, I may as well tell you some of the things I packed for the trip related to Schmeis35for35.  I’ve got my swimming goggles, Triathlon shorts, workout watch, heartrate monitor, running shoes, regular tennis shoes, and 10 different workout short/shirt combos.  In other words, I’m finding a way to continue my workout madness in Asia…guaranteed.  Sure, there are going to be some impediments, but that’s life. 

13 hour time difference?  No problem.  95 degrees with heavy rain every afternoon in Kuala Lumpur?  Piece of cake.  Packed work schedule?  I’ll figure it out.  Work dinners and drinks?  Of course they’ll get in the way, but I don’t have time for excuses. 

I’m exactly 2 months from my first half Ironman at White Lake and the calendar doesn’t lie (assuming it’s not Mayan).  In case the other 43 times I told you the half Ironman distance wasn’t enough, I’ll remind you that it is a 1.2 mile open water swim, 56 mile bike ride, and then 13.1 mile run.  I’m pretty sure that adds up to about the same distance as my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Anyway, if I can’t get workouts in while I’m in Asia I’m essentially giving away 2 of my last 8 weeks of training before the race.  Even with perfect workouts, the half ironman is going to be impossible so missing 2 weeks right now doesn’t seem like a good strategy. 

So, where am I going to find the time?  Who knows, but I know I’ll find it.  That’s what winners do, bro.  See you back in the states in 2 weeks.

BUSY NOTEPADS,

Schmeis