There's No Place Like (The) Home!

The season has been over for a while now, and it ended in disappointment. Fortunately, the sport lends itself to redeeming moments, and the new season is almost here. To get ready, though, you need to train, to learn new things, to work on your weaknesses,to polish your strengths. But, it is tough to get outdoors and train hard in the middle of a cold NE winter. What to do?

Easy - do what has been done for years - go someplace where it's warm! The perfect spot would add solid facilities and equipment into the mix, and a great training table, because nutrition is vital. There should be a bunch of recreational opportunities near-by, because even the serious don't train every minute of every day. To top it off, you absolutely need good people to share the experience with you.

I know the perfect spot: since I am talking about triathlons and not baseball, and me and not the Mets, the perfect spot is not Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie - it's Doris's Rest Camp at "The Home", in Boca Raton.

To be fair, it's not really called "the Home". That's just the verbal shorthand my sisters and I use, because its real name is the A.C.T.S Retirement Life Community at St. Andrews South. For the last nine years my mom, and until last November, my dad, have lived there and at least once every winter, I go down to visit. Often I go down in January, to celebrate my mom's birthday, which is on January 22. Sometimes we get a twofer in, because my sister Tammy, who lives in FL, but 8 hrs away, has her birthday on the 23rd.

I like The Home - I'm not ready to move in yet - but I like it, and I think it makes a perfect winter training location. First, the weather in January is terrific. Mom often frets and tells me the weather is fickle and it can be chilly in January - daytime highs could drop way down into the 60's!

The facility has it's own training room, too. It's not fancy, but it has treadmills and an elliptical - both brand new on this trip, and recumbent bikes. It has weight machines for all the essential body parts, and an ab frame, so you can get down on the mats and crunch away. It's air-conditioned, of course, and you can go any time of the day or night.

They have three outdoor pools, too, all within easy walking distance, and two of them are heated. I admit that they are short, and only one is ok - barely - for lap swimming. But that's not really a problem, because the Boca YMCA is only two miles away, and it has great pools, and just about every kind of fitness equipment available. Of course, the hours at the Y aren't quite as good as they are at The Home, but you've always got to make trade-offs.

I think the food at the home is great, too. They have a full service dining hall, staffed by a terrific crew of polite, friendly and very nice local high school and college kids. If you don't like the daily specials, you can have chicken or fish or prime rib every day. You can choose from a half different kinds of salad every day, and get the dressing of your choice.

Lots of drink choices, too - water, coffee, hot or iced-tea, lemonade, and my personal favorite - buttermilk. ( No booze, but a fair number of the residents gather in each other's apartments for cocktails before coming down to dinner) I always get a large glass of buttermilk when I eat there - cold and tangy and contrary to what you might think, very low in calories.

Add to that a half dozen different sides, including white or sweet potato every day, and a half dozen different desserts - you can mix and match those too - pie ala mode, anyone? You can tailor your meals to any diet or dietary restriction you can think of, including regular, low sodium, low sugar, or any combination. And you can have a half portion or a double portion - just ask. When you're done, the nice staff clears the dishes and does them! How can you beat that? The only down side - you have to dress for dinner - that means a blazer and shirt for men (no tie required, though), every night except Monday or Friday - you can go Casual on those two nights. Or you can eat in the new Cafe, which is casual all the time.

As far as recreation, pick it: beach, shopping, theater, movies, golf, clubbing, bingo - you name it, it's five minutes away. Don't laugh: my mom turned her 50 cents into $7 one night while I was there!

On this visit, I also helped my mom pack to get ready to move. She is staying at The Home, but moving one building away to a smaller, one-bedroom apartment. So, I added weight lifting to my training - sorting through the hundreds of books, CD's, cassette tapes and video tapes my father had collected, boxing them and either getting them ready to be moved to the new apartment, donating them or tossing them. Great for the arms, quads and glutes.

After getting all the books of the 7 foot bookcase, I got to get a little speed work in, too - chasing after all the dust bunnies! My mom is 86 - even though she is in great shape, you don't think she was going to be getting up on the ladder to dust, did you? Although, knowing my mother she might have - I had to fight with her so she didn't try to carry boxes of books to the dumpster!

The people there are not only nice, they are also bright, and active and very interesting. Lots of them were CEO's,lawyers, doctor's, ministers, etc. before they retired - you name it, they came from a broad cross-section of professions. Makes for very stimulating dinner conversation.

Very good for my ego, too - they think I'm superman in the gym - and yes, many of them are right there in the gym with me.

Finally, you know I've always maintained that once I hit middle age, I became invisible to women (not that I was any great stud muffin when I was younger). At The Home, I noticed that there is a corollary to that rule - once the women hit 85, I am suddenly visible again! And given the way the sexes age, there's a lot less competition, too.

In conclusion, I think The Home is the perfect winter training spot. After all, I lost 5 pounds and came back stronger and faster after my last visit.

In all seriousness - as I said earlier, I'm not ready to move in yet, but I am very glad that my mom lives there. Be great if I had a place to go like that when I needed it, too. God willing, I hope that I remain a visitor there for many years to come.