drawing by Kane Lynch (kanelynch.com)
Training for long distance tri quickly becomes a fact of life, a keystone component of every single day. This sport is probably more in the training than in racing. That might be true in other sports as well…
Training becomes a daily necessity, and I go out of my way to get the daily allotment done and delivered. As training is not always convenient when traveling, I find myself in some interesting places and situations. Here are some examples:
Most recently, I had to sneak into a gym, a glass enclosure in a hotel’s courtyard, and hour before it was officially open, and ran on the treadmill in the dark to remain undetected.
I ran on a tropical jungle path in Singapore, knee deep in copulating monkeys.
I swam several hundred “laps” in a 12-yard long kidney shaped pool at an airport hotel.
I ran dozens of circles around the parking lot of another hotel, in sleet and snow.
I biked on a tiny exercise bike in a hotel’s basement, until it started smoking.
I once biked for 5 hours on a 5-mile stretch of road.
I ran the bridges over the River Thames in London in a serpentine (many times).
In general, I have amassed serious mileage running around airports, giant parking lots, industrial zones.
And I also ran in some of the most stunning places I have ever seen, with street signs that I could not even read, not to mention understand, getting lost in it all…. Which is a great luxury, right?