If you'd told me 5 years ago that Tucson, Arizona would feel like home to me, I would have laughed my head off and asked what could possibly be in Tucson that's so special. Well, there's a mountain here that's awesome to train on (Mount Lemmon), incredible trails for running (Sabino Canyon), and a gorgeous pool at the University of Arizona. Not to mention the all-around good feeling of "this is the place that triathletes go to train." I love it here, and I'm already crying about having to go home to San Antonio and reality.
This long weekend was the last big training week before I taper for Norseman. Now all the work is in the bank and my job is to stay healthy for the next three weeks (and get all my plans in good order for the race). This trip was a girls' trip - Dawn and I were joined by Dawn's friend from college, Rene. We had a silly, giggly, matchy matchy time together while getting in some awesome quality training.
There were some new challenges on this trip - hill repeats on Mount Lemmon, a run at the top of Mount Lemmon the following day, and a trail run in Sabino Canyon that I was expected to RUN this time. Not to mention I was doing all of this 3 days after "not racing" at Buffalo Springs. On day one of this trip, my legs felt like they did at the end of day 3 when we were here in May. The weather was a challenge this time too - who would have thought that one month after our last visit, it would be monsoon season (that's really a thing - it storms every day), and that when it isn't raining, it's seriously hotter than hell here.
Rene, Dawn, and I took all this in stride and had a great long weekend of training. We also got to celebrate the 4th of July with some of Dawn's dear friends from here, which was super fun. And as always, it's awesome to shop in the Smashfest Queen warehouse (Hillary's guest room). This time we had the added bonus of watching part of the opening day of the Tour de France with Maik and Hillary - it was very cool and a little surreal to watch the bike race with live commentary from two professional athletes!
I'll be leaving tomorrow with some new happy memories (and some fabulous new Facebook friends)! I love this place. Dawn told me last time, build up your bank of happy thoughts to think about while racing...check. Particularly when I'm cold in Norway, I'll think about some of the training that we did on the surface of the sun here in Tucson and I'm sure it will warm me from the inside out!
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| Matchy matchy at the pool! Rene, Dawn, and I. Yep, those are 3 grown women wearing matching Rainbow Brite bikinis. Note the storm rolling in in the background. I was praying for lightning to strike during our 4K swim, but no luck. |
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| Every morning started like this - 4 am coffee and Facebook/Slowtwitch. We had to get out early to beat the heat! |
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| ...and every afternoon/evening went like this. OMG delicious tacos, fruit cups, and horchata at Pico de Gallo. I could eat this every day. |
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| We tried something new - carrying our running shoes up Mount Lemmon on our backs. Climb for 3 hours, run for one hour, descend for one hour. With some time in the middle for photos. |
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| The running at 8000 feet was so much fun. This happy face says "I'm ready for Zombie Hill at Norseman!" |
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| Surrounded by athletes and kittens at Gail's 4th of July party. For this catlady triathlete, it can't get better than that. |
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I got to practice with a Camelbak for the first time on our 10 mile run today. I'm sold. The backpack kept my water cold for over 2 hours. We started with Hillary, Dawn, and Sam McGlone, but Rene and I were soon left to our own devices in Sabino Canyon. A highlight was watching some tourists take up-close photos of a rattling rattlesnake - I forced Rene to just keep on running by.
On our last day, Rene and I waited just a little too long to go swim before the afternoon storm rolled in.
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