helle_f wrote:
I can definitely see how that can and does happen, hence why I choose to read rather than contribute, most of the time :)Please come with the teflon wetsuit on before logging into ST and keep contributing. Nothing really sticks around here anyway. Then after your three espressos, you can hit the swim workout at full throttle! All kidding aside, unlike many sports, we're lucky to have a medium to interact with champions. Sure in many cases we will like what you are saying and in other cases we might ask some hard questions that are uncomfortable to answer. Personally I don't think you need to answer why you chose to do a race in Bahrain, or China (where was everyone asking ITU to pull triathlon out of the Beijing Olympics???) just like I don't need to answer why I might go on company business to China. The fact remains that our governments have not sanctioned most countries and international authorities that govern our industries (such as ITU in your case) say it is OK for commerce to happen in Bahrain related to triathlon. As a pro, if you don't use that opportunity, someone else will and in a competitive world, a professional in any industry has to seize the opportunities. If we were talking about human rights organizations or NGO's that's another story, but working in a commercial revenue generating side of industry, you either compete or get out. That's just how the world works.
So please keep contributing as we all learn what it is like to be in the shoes of the top athletes in the sport...
One more question....your Masters in Nutrition degree. Did this change how you approach your preparation for races and also the nutrition in racing. One of our posters, Rob Gray has done a fair amount of investigation on carbohyrdate utilization in long course racing and has modified his CHO intake in lead up to long IM events with decent success. I think perhaps I might look into this for IM racing although living half the time on the road, controlling any intake of food seems to be difficult as I have to eat whatever ends up on my plate or I can get my hands on passing through airports.