Monday I made my way to Colorado Springs to make it official and get my coaching certification through USAT. It was a 3-day clinic with some great speakers and some good info.

So, Monday at the Redmond Airport by 5 AM (thanks Mom!!), and in the air by 6. It was a long day of “air porting” as I connected though Portland, and San Francisco before getting into Colorado Springs at 6 PM. My accommodation was at the Olympic Training Center that was 5 miles from the airport. My original plan was to get in and get a swim and a run in before beddy bye, but the 2-hour, yes 2-HOUR drive in the snow/ice was unexpected to say the least. I checked in and headed to the infamous OTC cafeteria. This place absolutely rocks. Why isn’t Ironman an Olympic sport again? The food was amazing, and ENDLESS. I tried to control myself but I ate my fill for sure.

I gave my stretched out belly about 15 minutes rest then I decided to head out for a run. Headlamp in hand, or in head, I hit the streets of Colorado Springs. This was a pretty spectacular run, snowing hard and running on absolutely empty streets. Beautiful. And it actually got better. As I was running back to the OTC I ran up onto two foxes that where cruising the abandoned streets. Pretty darn cool, I watched them from about 20 yards, and followed them on their journey through some yards for a short time. Really fricken cool.

Tuesday morning I woke early and headed to a local pool for lap swimming. I didn’t realize (#### insert last paragraph here!!) that the pool at the OTC would be off-limits while I was there due to a ton of athletes being there because of it being an Olympic year. Lucky for me there was a pool right down the street open to the public. Besides the pool temp being about 83 degrees it was a great swim, especially when the sun came up revealing a panoramic view of the beautiful mountains of The Springs. Really spectacular, probably the most scenic pool swim I have ever done.

The next few days where spent in a meeting room at The Penrose House being clinicized by the folks at USAT. There was a lot of good information, and I enjoyed seeing different views on some aspects of the sport that I had not thought of before. 2 speakers stood out to me, Bob Seebohar, and Bobby McGee. And no, I am not bias to people with the name Bob in their name, but these guys not only knew their stuff, but they both had an absolutely contagious enthusiasm for endurance sports. If you ever have any questions on nutrition, go to Bob Seebohar’s “Nutrition Periodization For Endurance Athletes”. For questions on running biomechanics and theory go to Bobby McGee’s “Magical Running”, some great info in there.

I was able to get some good training in while in Colorado in between some great eating sessions at the OTC. Did I mention how cool it was to be around all these dedicated athletes. The drive for excellence just permeates those buildings it is really something else. It was cool seeing some of the athletes I look up to just cruising to the omelet bar. I am definitely going to try to get in a bike block or two in at the OTC in the next few years, it is just cool being around so many like- minded people.

Now to the paragraph that timeline wise goes about 2 paragraphs up. So I was sitting in the Portland Airport and getting a little too into writing this post. I am sure there was a speaker right above my head blaring out “last call for Bend passenger Lieto, passenger Lieto”. Yep missed my flight by about 3 minutes, I am not a smart man. Oh well, I weighed the options and decided although I wasn’t happy to pay $70 for it, I stayed at the Ramada at the airport and got a great night sleep and was back in bend by 9 AM. Note to self, do not blog while at the airport on short connection!!