Training Camp

On March 12th of this year I turned 30. In hopes of avoiding celebrating this milestone I joined Barrie Shepley and other triathletes at a C3 winter training camp in Tucson, Arizona. Over my 9 day stay I learned many valuable lessons but the biggest one would be; DO NOT go to training camp with limited fitness! In the lead up to the training camp I had done very little training. I have been active since my win in Muskoka, but have not spent much time swimming, biking or running. In hindsight, I probably should have prepared for this season a little more before jetting off to this intense camp.

On my first day Barrie drove me and Kristen Marchant 70km from our condo into the desert. He told us to do a 50 minute run and then bike home. The run was fine. I enjoy running! The first 20km of the ride was good too. I did notice that my wattage was high but didn’t think much of it. At 25km everything fell apart and Kristen rode away. Fortunately, Kirsten is very kind and she rode back a few times so that I didn’t get lost in the Arizona desert. Finally, we made it back to the condo. I walked in the door, put my bike away and then passed out on the couch.

Day two wasn’t much better. We biked to the top of Mount Lemmon. Mount Lemmon stands 9,159 feet above sea level. The climb is a long and painful 38km journey to the top. The start of the ride was okay. The first 8km didn't hurt too badly - surprising after the previous day. As I climbed and the air began to get thinner, I started to suffer. The higher I went, the darker my mind went. At 5km from the summit I broke. Almost ready to quit I pulled over to the side of the road, wanting to cry. I scarfed down a cliff bar and took a couple of drinks from my water bottle and tried to get my mind in a better place. After 10 minutes I felt ready to continue. I clipped back in and rode on to the summit. I made it to the top where once again Kristen was waiting for me. We had a coffee and some food and then headed down. The decent was awesome! We flew down the mountain and then biked back to the condos. Over all it was a great day. However, with an increased fitness level, the ride up would have not taken such a mental toll.

Over the next week I swam, biked and ran for hours each day and slowly got stronger. I still have a long way to go this season, but this training camp has definitely given me a good kick both mentally and physically for this season.

Thank you to Barrie Shepley for putting me through the paces everyday in Tucson. Also, a huge thanks to Kristen Marchant, Taylor Reid, and Sean Bechtel for making me work my butt off in trying to keep up throughout the workouts. All in all, I went in with zero fitness and came out with a solid base to start the season. Oh, and the big 3-0, in the end it wasn't so bad!

#C3 #TrainingCamp #Tucson #Bike #MountLemmon