Racing around the world is lots of fun, but now on my 14th year as a professional and now a family guy with two wonderful children, the preparation for a trip away is much more daunting than 10 years ago. I am currently packing up everything for my first race of the season in Singapore this weekend.
It will be nice to blow the legs out and see where I am at. All the guys I am racing are a few events into their season so I am expecting it to be a tough challenge for me, but it is the beginning of my 2009 racing campaign and that is exciting from a racing and competitive perspective.
I am in solid form but intend to really race myself into peak condition over the next few weeks for a really focused European campaign this year that will begin in St Polten Austria for the Ironman 70.3 race and culminate in Ironman Germany and the European Championships on July 4th. Our focus has been about a very heavy European presence this year and some very tough European racing to lay down the foundation for my Kona block in August and September.
As my girls get older they start to understand what I do more and are now realizing that daddy will be gone for a few weeks. This is tough on them and on me as well. It really makes the time away tough and gives me the drive to ensure that anytime away is productive and solid time.
Even after 14 seasons I still hate packing my bike. I thought I would get a small blog done before I started the process. I really wish their was a simpler way to do this. You have such a nice bike and no matter how well you pack it, after a good season of racing, they always end up a little beaten up and scratched. I better get to it.
