PREPPING FOR BEIJING
I’ve trained for four different Olympics but none have been quite like this. Being a part of the CBC team has been a job I came into with little knowledge but a fair amount of time to figure out. Now, with a little more than a week to go until I depart for the Far East, I feel as ready as I think I need to be for the job of ‘talking’ about the races instead of competing in the races.
It’s been a gruelling process of spending hours on the computer researching and learning, practicing and soaking in all that I can of the three disciplines of cycling that I have tried to become an expert on: road, track and mountain bike. Why gruelling? Well, because I’ve fit this work into the little spare time I have after the daily cycle of eating, training, eating, therapy, training, therapy, eating and sleeping are run through over and over again. There’s not much time left for anything else and for the past nine months I’ve squeezed in hundreds of hours of scouring the internet in search of bits and pieces that may be of interest to the viewers come August and the 8-8-08 at 8:08pm time of lift-off passes.
Because of this trip to China, I’ve had to put in some extra miles in my training regime. This weekend, instead of 3 days of respite from the training grind that began on April 14, I will spend 7 hours a day riding through the Rocky Mountains to put some money in the endurance bank. It’s safe to assume long days on the bike will not be possible while staying in the media village in Beijing with the 5,999 other journalists.
This morning, I met with friend and hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser (who will be covering the softball sector of the Games for CBC) to compare war stories of our preparation experiences. We both agreed we’ve never had to work so hard for something other than our own training for our respective sports. Hayley echoed my bewilderment at the state of exhaustion this job has entailed. Though she is not a speed skater, she is a training machine and one of the toughest athletes I know.
Along with our analyst roles in China, we both have some training to do in between races, and plan to hook up for some workouts. I offered Hayley my bike and trainer in the media village and we hope to lift some weights and possibly do some runs.
It is so strange going to an Olympics and not having training being the number one and only priority, other than of course competition itself. The regime that rules my existence as long as I continue to compete will have to play second fiddle from August 5-25th. As much as I want to think about the fact that I only have nineteen more months until the 2010 Olympics, this dream has to temporarily be overridden by names, stats and stories to fill the (hopefully) hours of cycling on CBC. That’s the challenge- to leave my athlete self behind and morp into a journalist version of me.
Not an easy feat.
I hope I can do the sport I love so dearly justice next month. I can honestly say, just like I have for all of those other Olympics I’ve been to, that I could not be more prepared going in. I have a pretty good track record as an athlete but I know this role is far different, so I’d be lying if I say I’m not nervous. But, just like in competition, nerves are often a good thing.
Wish me luck!
