Travelling

Well this is another entry in the same day. The reason for this is that I am now sitting in the airport lounge and I thought it would be beneficial to capture some thoughts on travel and the time and energy it takes travelling. Obviously over the last 12 months I have been involved in high amount of travel particularly to train with Duncan in Queensland. Work also requires that I do many trips interstate to work with clients. I do enjoy the experience of working with and engaging in a variety of groups and individuals and the challenge of rowing with someone who lives 2hr by plan is something that I like. Sitting in an airport lounge is not really that bad as long as I have things to work on. Normally the mobile phone gets a work out as I try to keep up with work opportunities. Today I am capturing my thoughts. So this is a little off the usual rowing type of input and what I have considered are the influences that when travelling can make a short trip seem long. What I have noticed is how impatient people can be and it often becomes uncomfortable how stressed and frustrated people can be at airports. I know that I certainly can get wound up at time, but honestly it is what it is. Can we change it? The fact that I have to ask for my coffee to be only warm and as almost every time it is so hot that it burns the inside off your mouth. The fact is that I am a warm coffee person who makes everyone laugh when we go for coffee after a ride or training. Well at an airport when I am running late anyway a hot coffee will almost always go to waste. I don’t me to complain because today I said warm and the wonderful lady made it perfect. So down the hatch it has gone. As a competing athlete travel is a big part of our lives. A good book and some music are great ways to spend the extra in airports and moving around. The last year I spent in total, 5 months away from my home in Melbourne, of which 3 months was up here on the Gold Coast. Actually it has almost become a second home and I feel comfortable spend the time here and enjoy the training venue a lot. Our coach Chris O’Brien joins us regularly, but some of the trips it is just Duncan and I out on the water. Some times I think that one of the reasons I have taking on the challenge with Duncan in the pair is because it forces us to spend time away preparing on our own. This gives us the freedom to explore our own motivation and enables a greater balance with family. The travel in between is just part of the equation that I have come to appreciate as a the way to come together and when the time is used to plan, reflect and to stay in touch by phone, it does seem to be a negative at all. And as I write this I have some ideas for the next few weeks of training over Christmas and so can wait to get into the next stage of preparation over January.