"So, Why are you Training in Dalian?"

So I get off of the plane in Dalian and go collect my bags.  I am heading out of the baggage area and there is a woman with a American Track and Field sign there to greet me.  As I get closer I realize that there is an American man standing right behind her with a video camera.  As I get even closer I realize that he is filming me!  I walk up to the lady and tell her who I am and she proceeds to lead me to the car that is waiting to take me to the resort.  As we walk, the man starts to ask me why the Americans are training in Dalian instead of Beijing.  He then asks if it is because of the pollution.  That was the first time that I've been able to say "No comment" and it was great.  The other people there to greet me proceeded to shoo him away and then the lady asks me who that man was, as if I knew him.  Crazy!  The funniest part about this is that I was going to post something this morning about how beautiful it was in Beijing this morning, titled: Where's the Smog?  You be the judge:

This is from my hotel room this morning.  Looks pretty clear to me.  I wish I could say the same about Dalian.  Visibility seems to be about 500 feet, but I could be wrong.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Shani gets in this afternoon with quite a few of the other athletes, including Kenta Bell, an athlete that I worked with at Florida for a bit and helped during the Trials.  Dan Pfaff, my mentor at Florida arrives tomorrow so it will be good to see all of these guys.  Just so everyone has a visual, this is Dan:

Finally, Carrie Lane will be arriving in Beijing on the 6th.  She is the throws coach at UVA and has been working with Adam Nelson for the past two years.  She'll be my traveling partner as well:

Should be fun!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Beijing

After almost 30 hours of traveling, those words were like music to my ears.  I think I am now officially a Airplane movie aficionado.  Lets see: Run Fat Boy, Run (pretty funny), Drillbit Taylor (surprisingly funny), Young at Heart (sad but hilarious), 21 (terrible, but they try to sell BU as MIT so that was fun to see), plus a few short movies about the Olympics.  I got in around 10:00 and jumped in a cab and asked them to take me to the nearest hotel as my flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10 for Dalian.  Leave it to me to not make any plans for my first night in the city but it has worked out well.  Didn't get to see anything out of the cab window other than people riding their bikes on the highway and workers sleeping on the side of the road at their construction sites.  Not much else.  I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself for the long flight, so that made it bearable, and I tried the long socks that are supposed to reduce swelling, and they seemed to work.  I'll be sure to take some pictures when I get to the camp.  That's all for now.  If anyone has any questions about anything, don't hesitate to ask.  Also, pass along to whoever might be interested.

Well, here goes nothing

Thanks to little Michael Salem, one of my throwers at BU, I have decided to start this blog to keep all friends, family, and athletes updated on my travels and experiences while in Beijing.

First things first. Operation Beijing has been written on the top of Shani and Amanda's workout sheets for every cycle of this entire training year. It is amazing to think that I will be leaving at 7:55 tomorrow morning to head to freaking Beijing!! These past two years have been amazing. After spending five years at Wake and three years at Florida, I'd be lying if I said that I knew I would be coaching an Olympian at 29. Obviously I've been blessed to collaborate with such great athletes, and I chose that word specifically. It has been more of a collaboration than anything. Shani and Amanda needed some guidance when it came to training, lifting, and technical sessions and I was more than happy to team up with them. I couldn't be any happier with the results. Shani won the Trials this year and became the 3rd farthest American triple jumper of all time and Amanda finished 5th at the trials, the first time she has ever made the finals at an outdoor national championship!

As I said before, my flight leaves bright and early tomorrow morning. I will fly from Boston to San Francisco. Then on to Tokyo and then to Beijing. I will be in Beijing for about 10 hours before I head to the Training camp in Dalian. We will be there from the 1st - 8th and then back to Beijing for the duration. Shani competes on the 15th in the prelims and then on the 17th in the finals!

I am also lucky that I will have friends who will be traveling there as well to either coach or compete. I will do my best to update this as often as I can and hopefully include some photos as well. This is my first time doing anything like this so we'll just have to see how it goes!! Everyone, please keep your fingers crossed. Thats all for now.