KIMbia Athletics

This is my last day in Dalian, and I must say I have really enjoyed it. It has been very relaxing, which is good, because I think if I had stayed in Beijing it would have worn me down. The excitement and anticipation that is built up in the village is great, but only in small doses. That is why it was good to get away so I can use that energy over the next week.

When we arrived in Dalian, we were pretty impressed with the setup. Right from the airport we were told to expect tight security, and it was, but did not affect us at all. Whenever we travel we have cop cars and SWAT surrounding the bus, with the street closed us just for us. Traffic is even stopped as we roll through intersections; that is pretty sweet. We can’t even leave the hotel to go run without someone on a bike or in a car following us.

Because of all the security, we are pretty much confined to the resort; it is not too bad because they have a lot for us to do. We have access to a swimming pool, bowling, ping-pong, golf simulator, movie theater, board games/cards and the Internet. Between all of that, running and eating, it keeps us occupied.

We went bowling the other night, and it was horrible—I bowled four games and broke 100 only once. Jorge Torres and I did a warm-up game, and he was trying to act like he had not been bowling in awhile; however, I knew from Ritz that the Torres brothers go bowling all the time. They even have their own bowling balls and shoes; he was trying to hustle me! Anyway, after I had bowled 87, and then backed that up with 84, I figured I could not get made fun any worse than I already had, so we got a little team competition going. I was with Torres, and we were against Galen Rupp and Brad Hudson. Well, I started lighting it up and bowled 140, but I wasted my good game on those guys, who only bowled a combined 110. My coach, Jerry Schumacher, got added to their team, and they were going to take the two best against Torres and me. I laid an egg and choked in that game and bowled only 96; it was a pathetic night. Torres lead the way for the night and bowled a high score of 164–not bad.

Schumacher and I have been playing a lot of ping-pong and I apparently suck at that too. No wait, I mean he is really good! We have played like 15 games, and I have not won one! The closest I have gotten is overtime, and still lost 22-20. He has this stupid spin serve so when I hit the ball it shoots off the right side table out of bounds. I cannot figure it out and I almost whipped the paddle across the room. As you can see we have been keeping each other company and entertained.

After all the working out and playing, we are hungry which is good, because there is never a shortage of food. USATF did a great thing this year and flew a chef over here to cook for us. We have a buffet for every meal, which is dangerous, and the food is great. I have had to try really hard going up for only one plate, and it doesn’t work all the time. It has been a little easier with Jerry around, because he gives me the evil eye, but that sometimes doesn’t even stop me! The chocolate chip peanut butter cookies always get me!

Oh yeah, that running thing. Running is good over here; the best USATF has ever set us up with, anyway. The golf course is there but you can’t really run on it because the ground is very uneven and it is hilly. Running on the cart path is not bad; combine that with the sea wall and it is a good mix of hills and flat. The best is going to a horse track, where they have rolled a 750m section of the infield so we can do loops on it. It is pretty flat, nice and soft, and actually goes by pretty fast. Then we also have the boardwalk, which is nice because the boards are soft and it goes a long way. I am not saying I would want to do base training (or marathon training, for that matter) here, but it is good enough for this time of year.

There you have it—USATF training camp. I am looking forward to getting back to the hustle and bustle of the Olympic village. I am feeling good and workouts are coming along great. I will be back in a couple of days!