The TRAVELING Athlete: Going to Barcelona, OLÉ!!!!

Omg guys... I'm going to SPAIN!!! I booked a last minute ticket last week, and I leave a week from TODAY!  I am so excited; I've only ever been to Canada and all over the US.  I've never left North America before, and I'm super stoked!

But there are going to be some challenges (and no, they don't include bulls with horns!), so I'm using my blog as an excuse and extra motivation to keep me on track.  I'm going to kind of be winging this, but I'm going to document all of the temptations and challenges that come with all-day travel to get from one side of the world to the other.  I'm really excited to do this!

My flight itinerary is as such:
10:20am:  Leave LAX, and 4 hours later arrive at Chicago O'Hare at 4:20p local time.
9:45pm:  Leave ORD, and 7 hours later arrive at London Heathrow at 11:25am local time.
3:25pm:  Leave LHR, and 3 hours later arrive at Barcelona at 6:30pm local time.

Now, I know what you're thinking:  Holy connecting flights, batman!  But there's a reason I did this - First of all, I'm traveling with miles and my only options included two stops.  But I scheduled large gaps so that I didn't have to worry about missing a flight, and also I wanted my longest flight to be a red eye so I could drug up and dose off. (I'm a fairly good plane sleeper).  But what this does to me is eat up an entire day of travel.

I'm going to go for an early AM beach run before heading to the airport, but I have every intent and purpose of staying active while trapped in terminals far and wide.  I'm not really going to plan anything, I'm just going to wing it.  And if I look like an idiot for doing tricep dips on the the terminal chairs, or constantly walking in loops around the terminal to keep my heart rate up, or if it means finding a quiet corner to charge my phone, drop a towel and start doing push-ups and sit-ups, so help me god I'm gonna do it anyway!

And then there's the matter of airport food.  I can only carry so much with me, and with customs not allowing much in the way of fruits, nuts, animal products, etc.... I'll have to find some fresh options at the airports.  I don't wanna load up on protein bars because those are dehydrating enough.  So I'm going to experiment and put together a list of tips and tricks for those arduous travel days that we all inevitably have to go through.  I know it's easy to come by fresh fruit, but what if you're restricting sugars?  Finding fresh veggies, healthy carbs and clean proteins will be a challenge.  It may be a matter of a $20-salad, but I'll find a way!

Once I get to Europe (which might include a couple day excursion to visit friends in my beloved Sweden!), I'm going to hunt out a new physical activity to do each day, which I will also blog about.  On top of the list are finding some locals to let me in on some volleyball games, finding a local building to run the stairs at, some seeeeriously long urban runs (which will have to be all mapped out), renting a bike and cruising to the far reaches of the city, and then just some good old-fashioned foot travel to museums and such.

I have a pretty decent inkling that this trip is going to be a total gongshow given the circumstances.  I didn't exactly plan a mid-trip Swedish excursion, which may or may not happen still, I'm not sure.  But ya gotta keep life interesting, eh??

So, stay tuned as I compile a Traveler's Guide to Staying Fit and Awesome, as I can assure you that it will be overflowing with pictures of me actin' a fool at the airports for the benefit of lookin' like a total babe when I re-board the plane ;D

This trip is part of a larger 24-day "Break from The Real World" that I have elected to do just after all the things that have happened this year.  There have been a lot of ups and downs and a great call for soul searching in my life before I turn 29 in a month and begin the count down to 30.  I've always been one for wanting to stay ahead of the game, and I feel the need to take a breather and rethink what matters to me in life, and how I want to spend the rest of this precious time I have.  Not to get overly dramatic,  it's just that I feel like life is going at light speed and I don't want to wake up tomorrow and realize I'm 40, single, and not really doing what I love as a profession because I never really made those bold decisions in my life that I knew would alter the trajectory of my life indefinitely.  Whenever I think about these things, this song always comes into my mind; I'm not really sure what it means, but yet somehow I feel like it perfectly defines how I feel inside.

If you care to follow my travel journey from a non-fitness centric perspective, I've created a tandem blog that I'll find a way to link up to this one in the future... check out my "other" blog HERE :)