Olympic Training

It was a 4:30 am wake-up this morning for my early flight(s) to Colorado Springs by way of Houston, and the result was that I had a few hours to kill after checking into my dorm room at the Olympic Training Center for the annual Local Associations "Summit." Of course, the first thing we did was head for the cafeteria. One thing you can always count on at any sort of training center is lots of cheap, or in our special case free, food. There are a number of interesting historical displays scattered about with photos of practically every US athlete who ever competed in the Olympics. I'm sure I'll end up spending some money at the gift shop, which, like the rest of the complex, loaded with things promoting the Beijing Olympics. Off to the west are the mountains with just the slightest hint of snow way up around 10,000 feet, while to the east everything just looks flat and brown. The aquatic center looks pretty nice, and next door they are holding the Future Stars gymnastics meet for boys, which is a big deal for those age groups. This evening we have a welcoming dinner, and then tomorrow we go pretty much non-stop from 8 am until 8:30 pm. Silly me, I thought it was supposed to be cold in Colorado in November. Well I'm sure it will get there, but since I've arrived it's been around 65-70F, I guess. That, of course, makes me wish I had my bike, but we all know that if I had gone through the hassle of bringing it, there'd probably be snow on the ground right now.