The Arnold Sports Festival has come and gone and it was quite an experience. I had yet to attend the Arnold for EAS in past years, but I made a point to be there this year. The Festival itself is a consumer show for nutrition/fitness/sport companies combined with Athletic events including Bodybuilding, Strongman, Gymnastics, Power lifting, MMA, UFC, etc. While it is a consumer show; I also see it as a trade show as all the big guns in the fitness/nutrition are launching and pushing new products. EAS was introducing an additional Myoplex lined called "Myoplex Strength" that has different ratio of carbs:protein. I was pretty happy to see this as I think its better suited for endurance recovery needs. In the past I have combined the normal Myoplex blend with Rice Milk, but it appears that won't be necessary any more.

The EAS expo itself was quite impressive. It was put on by the same company that manages my website: the o2 Group. They had a basketball court (half court) surrounded by bleachers on either side with jumbotrons bordering the celing all the way around. The MC from the Pro Beach Volley Ball tour was on hand to run the show and he kept the folks at the expo really into things.

EAS had JD (me), Mark Weir (MTN Bike), Jen Perez (triathlon), Brady Quinn (QB for Cleveland Browns), and Matt Hasselbeck (QB for Seattle Seahawks) on hand for appearances on each day of the event (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Dick Butkus was also there on Friday with his son promoting their project, I Play Clean ; a nonprofit organization promoting steroid-free youth athletics.

Each day we showed up and did an interview and Q+A with the crowd. Following that, we would do various competitions with members from the crowd that resulted in cash, schwag and product giveaways.

It was definitely a unique experience to interact with a different crowd and atmosphere like this. I'm happy to have been aligned with EAS for the past four years and its exciting to see their future on the endurance side of things (as well as their continued success otherwise).

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I'm now in Houston getting ready to speak to the Houston Triathlon Club. The evening will include a brief chat about my own training and racing, a chat about putting together a successful season, and an interactive session of Q+A for as long as people have questions.

Then its one more day of visiting some friends and family before heading home to Boulder on Wednesday morning.

cheers,