Strava Track Club member and Elite ITU Triathlete Kevin Bishop gave us a look inside his daily routine. Warning, just reading this may make you tired.
6:00am - Hear my alarm go off. 90% chance I say “Alexa! Snooze!” to delay my fate.
6:10am - Have an existential crisis about whether or not I want to swim this morning, and get my ass handed to me by a bunch of high schoolers. “But they’re going to swim in college.” “But it’s good competition for me.” “But my swim really needs work.” Decide all these are true, but remain unconvinced.
6:20am - Switch off my brain, get up, eat breakfast, and leave for the high school pool.
6:50am - Arrive at the pool. Say hi to my coach, former Chinese national record holder Abi Liu, my fellow washed-up old guy training partner Matt Weiss, and the rest of Peak Aquatics. Abi first coached me when I was 13. She’s now coaching me again when I’m 23, so things have come full circle in an amazing way. If you do nothing else, read this article about her. Incredible person.
7:00am - Jump in and swim 200 warmup, doing 8 pullouts from the pool after each 50. Most efficient warmup ever. Glad to do it in a place that won’t get me strange looks from the lifeguard.
9:00am - Realize the main set wasn’t that bad, and that I actually did pretty well once I stopped overthinking things. Get out of the pool, and change for work.
9:30am - Say hi to Ann and Ashley, our office receptionists. Get Ann’s opinion on my shoe choice for the day (I’m a shoe collector). If I wear the same pair twice in a week, I’m in for an earful (and deservedly so).
10:15am - First meeting of the day at Amazon. I’m a software engineer. Super secret project, can’t tell anyone what we’re working on. Nefarious laughter.
1:00pm - Drive home for lunch. Oh, the perks of a 10min commute! Dad’s probably home, so I’ll swap small stories and jokes with him for a bit before he goes back to fixing people’s teeth. If not, switch on the TV and watch some UEFA Champions League soccer.
2:00pm - Go back to work. Realize I’m fricken tired, and lament the fact that work doesn’t allow for naptime.
3:30pm - Walk downstairs to the Boba tea place. Order a large #1, less ice, regular sugar. A coworker gave me boba tea for the first time, and now I’m hopelessly addicted. Given a choice between irresponsible nutrition decisions and the Olympics, I’m taking the sugar every time.
5:00pm - Leave work and drive to the Stanford track for Strava/rabbit TC workout. Time for my second shellacking of the day, this time at the hands of rabbitPRO and TeamGB runner Matt Leach, USA finalist and 13:39 5k man Collin Leibold, and 68min half marathoner Trevor Halsted. Typing that was scary.
6:00pm - Constantly marvel at how supportive and happy the group is. Try to match wits with Coach Dena’s sarcasm. Likely fail.
6:30pm - First interval. You wouldn’t think I could hang with these dudes, given that I run maybe a fifth as much as they do per week. But I’m aerobically fit from swimming and cycling, and I’m fresh from not running as much as they do. And I’ll usually surprise myself.
8:00pm - Haul ass to trivia night at the Rose and Crown. Will Drinkwater (yes that’s his name) is there already, having CalTrain’ed in from work in SF. I’ve kidnapped Collin and Matt as well. Proceed to lose all 6 rounds of trivia. On a good night, some losses will be by tiebreak.
10:00pm - Go get ice cream to drown our trivia failings. Carbs are life.
11:00pm - Bid adieu to the boys. Token attempt at a social life complete!
12:00am - “Alexa, set alarm for 6am”
