Pecularities of an Endurance Athlete

Most of the readers of this blog probably don't ride in elevators, believing that to be the lazy person's way to go up in a building. I don't like the feeling of being trapped in a small space, especially if the elevator is crowded (which basically means more than one other person is with me). So many things could go wrong in elevators.
On those occasions when my legs are beat from workouts and I do take a ride up a few floors I have a couple of habits. If I'm wearing a step counter I pace back and forth. If not I practice balancing on one foot. Try balancing, especially with your eyes closed, in a moving elevator. It's not that easy.
When I do this and other people are on the elevator it's really weird. For them. I could care less, I'm an athlete, or at least athletic. They have to adjust, not me.

Are you one of those people who ride up escalators? I hope not, that really bugs me, unless it's a person with disabilities or a small child. Walk along with the escalator, it's good for you.

I constantly check the weather on the web. It's surprising how inaccurate accuweather.com is, but I still go to the site. I check other sites too. I like to see the dew point, which a lot of weather sites don't show. If the dew point hits 60 I know the run will begin to get tough. At 65 I have to shorten my run or go to the track and do laps so I can stop at any time. At a dew point of 70 it's impossible for me to go more than 3-4 miles. I keep hoping if I run 3-4 miles everyday after work when it's 75+ degrees and 60+ dew point that come race mornings when it's 60 degrees I'll be able to go fast.

Have running shoes, hiking boots, bicycling shoes, bike helmets, bright vests, wet suits and an assortment of bikes taken over your garage? This year we added a heavy boxing bag and chin-up bar. Amazingly we can still park a car and pickup truck in there, though it's a tight fit to open the car door enough to get out.

Our water bottles, Hammer Heed and whey powder have two shelves in our kitchen cupboards. Gels, energy bars and Hammer Endurolyte tablets take up another shelf.

The basement recreation room (man cave - I hate that term) is not for video games, watching television or relaxing. A 10x10 foot space is filled with a weight machine. The treadmill is tucked between a wall and the weights. Up to three bikes could be on trainers. We do have a television and radio in the room, but typically in the winter we watch Spinerval bike dvd's or Lord of the Rings tapes over and over.

My briefcase for work is a triathlon backpack. At any point, like today, it could have my lunch plus swimming gear, or running gear. I might have bike stuff for a ride home. Seldom does my tribriefcase have work stuff inside, other than a pen and sometimes an IPAD.

This is all normal behavior for our family and only once in a while do we realize everyone is not quite like this.