This past week I had an opportunity to go to a triathlon training camp, so I took it. It was quite the experience. Several of the people attending were pros or almost pros, and they were so fast! Then there was a group of really fast amateurs, and then several of us not-fast, but amateur, athletes. We made our own special group!

It started on Thursday with swim drills and working on your form in the water. This was great, because I always need a reminder that my head should be down and not popping out of the water. We had a great time and learned a lot. Then we had lunch and got ready for the afternoon ride. We split up into two groups for this one -- a fast group and a slow group. I was in the slow group since I cannot maintain 20mph on my bike over a mountain like Gates Pass. I am ok with this. So off we went. Now, Tucson in the spring is windy. I don't mean breezy, I mean really windy -- usually 15-25mph in the afternoons. So that is what we rode in. It wasn't very much fun because it was always a headwind. I was dropped almost immediately, but got back with no problem.

Friday, I didn't go down to the hotel because the plan was to ride up Mt. Lemmon. I know I have talked about Mt. Lemmon before, but just in case you don't remember, it is the mountain about 4 miles from the house and it goes up 25 miles and about 6000 feet. It is a tough ride. Here is the grade chart of the mountain (if you double click on it, it will blow up to a readable size):



The last time I went from the base to the top of the mountain, it took me 5 hours and 13 minutes of climbing. On Friday, it took me 4 hours and 38 minutes!! This is a huge improvement and I was THRILLED. I was not so thrilled about the fact that it snowed on me up there, and that it was so cold on top of the mountain. The wind was blowing and someone told me that with the wind chill, it was only 22 degrees. I was only wearing two shirts and didn't have my gloves, so my hands were freezing.

On Saturday, I went to the hotel and met up with the group for lunch since I wasn't going to do any track workout. Then we had transition practice which was fun, and then we got ready for a ride. Again, we split into groups. The hard core group planned on doing a 90+ mile ride from the hotel to Kitt Peak, including Kitt Peak, which means that they would go to the top of the peak, a 12 miles climb at a 12% grade. Nutsy. I was in the sane group that planned to do a 35 mile ride around the west side of Tucson. Well, that 35 mile ride turned into a 48 mile ride into a headwind for every single solitary foot of the route. It was brutal. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was exhausted! It was good though -- I rode a lot of miles and worked hard. I racked up 125 miles over the three days, and it was even fun.