Traveling to China

My alarm went off way to early! Seems like I just closed my eyes. The traffic in Atlanta is always so bad. This morning the traffic was not so bad because we were able to travel in the HOV lane. I live about 45 minutes from the airport so we arrived at the airport around 6:30 am. The trip to Chicago was only about 1 hour and 30 minutes, not too bad. When I checked in to the gate for my seat assignment I was told the flight was full and I would have to sit in the middle seat. I’m not a small guy and I’m not about to sit between two people for 14 hours. They had some business class seats available so I bought one and let me tell you they were not cheap. I was able to stretch out and the comfort was well worth the price!

I watched three movies, worked on my computer, ate some protein bars, finished reading a book, walked around the plane, got a little sleep, worked on my strength lecture for the coaches and rehab staff, and generally was bored to death! I don’t care how many times I’ve made this trip, it’s sooooooooo LONG!!!

Finally after 14 hours I arrived in China. I left Tuesday the 31st at 5:45 am and finally arrived in Beijing, Wednesday the 1^st of September at 3:00 pm.

We arrived at the Grand Deluxe Tian Tan Hotel, which has become my home away from home while here in Beijing, at 6:oo. I think I mentioned the traffic here on my last blog. Any of you that have read yahoo lately, read about the traffic jam in Beijing. A couple of weeks ago here in Beijing, they had the longest and largest traffic jam in the history of the WORLD. It was 60 miles long and stayed jammed for 9, yes I said 9 DAYS without moving!!! And I thought the Atlanta traffic was bad!

I unpacked all my food and vowed to try not to eat out. Wrong! We have to have dinner with one of the coaches. I did manage to eat light! We returned home around 11:30 and I jumped in the bed hoping for a good night’s sleep.

I forgot to mention that yesterday the 31^st of August was my baby girl, Summer’s, 22^nd birthday. Happy Birthday Baby! I love you!

Preparing for China!

I can’t believe it’s already time to pack and go back to Beijing. Seems like I just returned from my last trip to Beijing. Today, I’ve decided to plan my meals for each day of trip. The food is the only thing that I have trouble with, so, I am planning on bringing my own food. I’ve decided to try and live on EAS Myoplex protein bars along with some packaged tuna, nuts, dried fruit, and white meat chicken. I have access to bottled water, so I am going to get some Crystal Lite to add to my water. I figured I’d eat every three hours. For those of you that want to speed up your metabolism, try eating some type of protein, chicken, fish, or red meat. The more clean fuel you consume, the hotter the engine runs. It’s like shoveling coal into a freight train. You have an appestat in your brain that controls your metabolism. The more protein you consume the more fats and stored carbohydrates are burned. It takes about three hours for your body to assimilate and digest your fuel.

Off to Kroger today to buy some food for the trip. I have to be careful not to over pack my bags. The last time it cost me $200 to check oversized bags all the way to Beijing. I had met an American coach who is living and working in China on my last trip. He works with a couple of sports teams. I have been corresponding with him since I returned home from my last trip. He emailed me and asked if I could bring him some dark chocolate Milky Way candy bars along with some sharp cheddar cheese and a box of Captain Crunch cereal. I felt compelled to try and accommodate his request, knowing what I know about the food! After about an hour of shopping, I finally left the store with over a $100.00 worth of food.

Now the fun part starts, packing my bags. I have four bags to pack; one is my video camera bag. This HD camera has been loaned to me by my good friend, Bob Sharrett. Bob shoots all the training video for CES, he’s the best! He has loaned me his camera the last couple of trips and eventually we will edit the footage and make a video of this adventure. I also take my Cannon 35 mm camera and take hundreds of photos of the athletes. The last trip I had 10 to 15 photos blown up into posters size, 26x30, and had the athletes sign them for our wall of fame at CES. This time I’m bringing back about 25, 8x10’s to be signed by the weightlifting team members and a few others that will be signed by Gold medalist from different sports that I have trained. Because of the number of protein bars that I need to pack, 4 bars per day X 12 days means I need to pack 48 bars. I’ll pack 8 in my video bag to take on the plane. I’ve vowed not to eat the food on the plane this trip. We shall see!

I have to pack my backpack which will have my computer, ipod, all my cords, my kindle, (I love to read and have a bunch of books on my kindle), my reaction coach, which is the machine that I use for training reaction, and my Bose headphones my kids gave me for Christmas. They drown out the sounds on the plane and I’ll pack some more food in that bag. Both the big camera bag and my back pack are carry ons.

My training bag is the hardest to pack. Each time I’ve traveled to China I have trained different Olympic teams so it’s had to know what and how much to pack. It really depends on the number of athletes that I train and the sport. Oh, well, I’ll take a few pieces of all the training aids I use to train. I need to bring some 360 belts, 25’ cords, punch belts, shackles, Tripp release handles, black widows, edge swing harnesses, 8’ cords, anchors, and ladders. Remember, my bag can only weight 45 lbs. That’s the trick!

Lastly, I’ve got to pack my bag with my clothes. The weather in Beijing is much like Atlanta during this time of year, in the 80’s during the day and in the 60’s at night. I’ll pack shorts and t-shirts. I’ll pack the bulk of my food in this suitcase along with the gifts that I’ll bring to my Chinese friends. I think I’ll bring some UnderArmour t-shirts to the guys and girls who work at the training center. I really enjoy giving them gifts and they are all so appreciative of any thing I bring. This bag already weighs 15 pounds before I pack anything so getting all this stuff inside is quite a task!

My flight leaves Atlanta at 9:00 am for Chicago and then I leave Chicago at 12:00 pm for my direct flight to Beijing. I will get my son Zach to take me to the airport at 5:45 am so I need to get in bed early tonight. Night, night!