Tucson Tri Camp 2015 - Easy Does It

I have to be honest, when I signed up for a third visit to Hillary Biscay's Tucson tri camp, I wasn't sure what I'd get out of it. In 2012, when Shelly and I attended our first-ever camp, my longest ride up to that point was 60 miles and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. That year was about surviving all the workouts (we did). I was super excited to go back in 2013 with Aixa, Linda, and Herb to do all the same rides/runs/swims. I wanted to see how much I had improved since the year before (I had - a lot). I didn't go to camp last year, but I did go to Tucson twice to train for the mountains I'd be climbing at Norseman. What more could I learn from training in Tucson? As teammate Chris and I drove towards Arizona last Wednesday, I wondered if I'd get enough out of the experience to make it worth the money and a week of vacation from work.

This year's San Antonio Tri-Belief crew - Chris, me, Dawn, and Kelley

Well, of course I did. It was exactly what I needed, in many ways. Getting out of the rainy, cold weather of San Antonio was a start. Spending several days focused only on swim/bike/run/eat/sleep was an amazing mental break. And as always, interacting with a group of 25 talented, driven triathletes was an inspiring way to kick off the season.

My main takeaway from camp was not at all what I expected, and it is this: sometimes, you're supposed to go EASY.

On the third day of camp, before a 25 mile ride from Starr Pass over Gates Pass and around the famed McCain Loop, Hillary told us that we were going to ride easy. She explained that there's a benefit to doing easy workouts, and that we were going to learn how to do it. Going easy on easy days means you can really go hard on hard days, and that's how you improve. I would guess that many age groupers, like me, tend to try to go hard every day - which means you really go "medium" every day, and that doesn't help you. It just puts you in a "grey zone" where you end up not having the capacity to ever go really hard, Hillary explained.

I was skeptical about how "easy" this easy ride would be. There's some steady climbing for about 8 miles until a huge descent...then a gorgeous rolling loop through a valley filled with Saguaro cactus, then an enormous half-mile climb before a fun descent back to the start. I've done this ride 4 times, and even when it was described as an "easy shakeout ride," it Was Not Easy.

I was assigned to ride with Maik (Twelsiek). The instructions were to stay behind him at all times. The athletes in my group looked at each other and almost laughed - yeah, we'd have no problem staying behind Maik. This is the guy we'd all watched on TV last October as he absolutely CRUSHED the bike at Kona. It might be an easy ride for him, but there's no way it would be easy for me.

Maik and his campers at the Gates Pass scenic overlook. 

To my surprise, we really did roll out easy, five campers like ducks in a row behind Coach Maik. We began the steady climb, spun up the hill in the tiniest of gears, with my power meter reading only 100 watts. And that's how it went for an hour and a half. I had to really concentrate on spinning behind Maik and not trying to crush it up any of the hills. Sometimes I held my brakes because I was terrified to accidentally go around him.

My legs weren't tired, my breathing wasn't labored, and we were climbing easy up towards Gates Pass. And around McCain Loop. And even though it took some work to get back up the other side, that part only lasted a minute or so, and it was back to easy spinning and flying back down to the start without even pedaling. A truly Easy Ride.

Right before the climb back over Gates Pass.

Ironically, the first time we went to camp in 2012, the main takeaway that Shelly and I brought home was that everyone works much harder at this than we ever imagined. We vowed to crush every workout from that day forward. It made sense at the time. I know it made us stronger. But I know now that learning how to go easy on easy days will make me stronger too.

Of course, I also realized that there's always something new to learn. So...see you next year, Tucson tri camp.

Chris checked Facebook on a gorgeous, sunny morning, and we congratulated ourselves for not having to ride in the rain like the folks doing the Castroville time trial that day. The weather in Tucson was perfect this time of year!

I met some of the coolest, strongest ladies on this trip. This is Whiting with me in our "before" picture for the 100x100 swim. We were smiling afterwards too. She, Cherryl, and I had the happiest of super happy fun times switching off leading our lane.

Coaches Emily Cocks and Hillary Biscay providing life-changing instruction (well, swim-changing, anyway) at the technique-focus swim on Sunday.

The L.A. Ladies - Cherryl, Terri, and Lynne at the top of Mt. Lemmon. They may look like your San Antonio matchy matchy Iron Whiners...but with one difference - these ladies race Kona like every year. It was so fun and inspiring to meet and spend time with them.

A trail run with Hillary wouldn't be complete without getting lost - this time we ended up climbing through a barb-wire fence trying to find our way back to the trail.

Super happy fun times on the trail at Starr Pass (before we got lost). 

Camp isn't camp without a visit to Frog and Firkin afterwards to celebrate.

Norseman: One More Tucson Adventure Before the Taper

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! 

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.

Every morning started like this - 4 am coffee and Facebook/Slowtwitch. We had to get out early to beat the heat!

...and every afternoon/evening went like this. OMG delicious tacos, fruit cups, and horchata at Pico de Gallo. I could eat this every day.

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.

The running at 8000 feet was so much fun. This happy face says "I'm ready for Zombie Hill at Norseman!"

Surrounded by athletes and kittens at Gail's 4th of July party. For this catlady triathlete, it can't get better than that.

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. 

Tucson Smashfest - Days 1 and 2

Ahhhh so great to once again feel the tired soreness that can only come from a couple days of smashing yourself at camp!

Yesterday, we met the other campers (16 total) and went for an "easy" 1 hour run. Easy - haha. My heart rate was sky high but I kept a happy face and kept up with Linda (well, she waited for me). Later I found out from the other kids that their heart rates were all super high as well, so at least I wasn't alone. But at least we looked cute! Nearly every female camper showed up in a pink Lululemon top. Here's a few of us (with Grand Coachie in the middle).

The girls and I have been so excited for months to get our goodie bags - imagine the joy when fabulous brand new pink Tyr swim bags filled with amazing stuff appeared after our run! Linda's expression says it all:

Out to dinner at El Charro with all the campers to get to know each other a little better and eat a giant burrito:

Day 2! We met first thing in the morning to ride. Here's a shot of our coaches, Hillary and Maik, and our sag driver, Gail, getting ready for the ride:

And here's Doug Friman, also coaching us this year. Here's a pic of him on his size 63 Team Liquigas Cannondale holding Linda's tiny QR with 650 wheels. He was admiring her pink cables:

Today's ride was 90+ miles out to Madera Canyon and back. This involves a 3-mile Category 1 climb in the middle of the ride. Everyone handled themselves like rockstars and we were happy campers at the top! Here's a shot of Aixa and Linda (Linda crushed this climb today - Coachie says she grew balls today. Haha!)

It was a beautiful warm day without the gale force winds of last year, so I had a remarkable improvement over last year's ride - finished it almost an hour faster than last year, which allowed me to do this before our swim:

Eating food and hanging around in recovery boots for 2 hours after a ride like that is amazing. Last year Shelly and I arrived back at the hotel just in time to hop in the pool for the swim. So this was wonderful.

The swim! - Linda led the fast lane and Aixa and I shared lane 3 with Jeff, Kate (whose nickname is Kat which means we have to be friends), and Taryn (Taryn is also a stepmom and is super cool and I want to learn a lot from her this weekend!). We were coached by Doug and swam 3250 yards of mostly band-only (ugggg) and pull (yay!). It was a good swim and I led the lane which was cool and scary because I felt responsible to count for the whole lane and also to not fall too much off the pace.

Here's a pic of the set because I'm a crazy fan, so I saved it:

And I have to post the picture of us before the swim in our Captain America suits:

At the end of the swim, Hillary asked me how many hundreds I want to swim tomorrow, and I bellowed "ONE HUNDRED!" without showing any fear. And she said ok. So now I can think about that all night.

Only one negative for the day - Coachie crashed and has some pretty good road rash and a black eye. We are now Arizona-induced knee-scar twins, so that's kind of cool.

Ok. Time to get some shut eye and get ready for tomorrow!

Tucson - We're Here!

We made it here to Tucson from San Antonio in one piece. Five people, six bikes, and a ton of luggage crammed into one Escalade driven by Coachie. Here we are at Jeff's house in Boerne, packing the bikes and stuff in tight. Note the cargo on top of the vehicle.

...about 2 hours later the wind ripped the thing off the top of the car, Aixa's suitcase tumbled out onto I-10, and the rest of it went swinging against the side of the vehicle. We salvaged our luggage and stuffed it all into the car and we were on our way again. Phew. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful (except when we stopped at the next gas station and learned that Jeff's bike was dangerously close to sliding off the back; we rearranged it all and drove to Tucson with our stuff intact. Dawn didn't even get a speeding ticket this time).

We don't have anything to do today until 4 pm when camp officially kicks off with a 1-hour run. We're staying in a condo at the JW Marriott, and it's really nice. Here's a view from our back porch (Starr Pass! It's right there!!!):

On our way out to get some coffee at Starbucks and stock up on groceries at Albertsons, we happened upon a famous Jumping Cactus (these things are real and they will hurt you - just ask Dawn!):

Here's Aixa, Herb, and Linda touristing it up at the JW:

And then we shopped our faces off at Albertsons. We have enough groceries for an army. Mostly chocolate milk and Gatorade!

On our way back from shopping we saw Hillary and Maik running on the side of the road. Can't wait to see them and run with them later today!