2011 Arizona Training Camp - Year Five

Goodbye Tucson

2010-03-05T17:37:00.002-05:00

Well today is my final day here in Tucson. Camp officially ends tomorrow morning, but I am catching a 4:00 PM flight today - so I can back to the family and a busy sports weekend with them.

Woke up this morning expecting to feel very sore from a week of training, but surprisingly I felt great.

I was happy to hear that the group would be going for an early morning run in Sabino Canyon. We headed out at 6:45 and started our run at 7:00 AM. We were going to do the same run that we did on the first day of camp. This time the weather was not rainy, but sunny and seasonable warm. The mornings do start out chilly here but as soon as the sun comes up it feels like a summer day back home.

We were told to run 90 minutes to 2 hours this morning and Coach Hods gave everyone all kinds of options of trail, road or a combination. I chose the trail for the first hour or so and then ended up on the road. I felt strong the entire run, and this was a great way to end camp and remember Tucson until next year.

I packed my bag and called a cab to take me to the airport. The rest of the group was going out for a 3 hour ride. I have to admit I was a little jealous that they were going to get another great ride today.

My plane is boarding now - so I plan on writing a camp wrap up blog over the next day or so but until then take a look at this elevation chart from yesterday's ascent up Mount Lemmon:

Mount Lemmon Day

2010-03-05T12:42:00.010-05:00

Well it is Thursday here at camp- and this is my last full day here in Tucson. The training thus far has been great - but I was most excited about today - as we are scheduled to ride our bikes to Mount Lemmon.

The day started with our normal Starbucks run. We needed to go a little earlier as the van was heading back to the pool for a 7:00 AM swim workout. The air temp was in the 50's and sun had not come up over the mountain yet when we got to the pool. The water temperature was about 80 degrees so believe it or not it felt better to be in the water. I worked with paddles on my hands during the swim workout today. These paddles are used by athletes to build strength in their swim stroke. This was really good for me because it showed me what little power I am getting from my right arm while swimming. As mentioned previously I am walking away from this camp feeling more upbeat about my swim than prior years. I have some good drills to work on when I get to CT, and I believe that I have identified my limiters in the water. Now I have to work on them.

A breakfast today some of the rookies at camp were asking about today's ride. I do not blame them as all week we having been gawking at this 9000 ft elevation mountain while tooling around town on our other workouts. Today we are going to ride out bikes to the top. Having done this ride for the past four years - I felt more prepared than ever before. You need to make sure that you have the proper clothing, nutrition, electrolytes, and attitude before getting on your bike. We have a sag vehicle that will carry anything you need for the ride so you do not have to carry everything with you. A huge advantage. I went out with the first group of riders from the hotel at 10:00 AM. It is about a 10 mile ride from the hotel to the base of the mountain. The ride from the base to Summerhaven, AZ is 26 miles. The average grade is 4% and for the 95% of the ride you are going straight up the hill. You start at 2000 ft of elevation and will climb 6000 ft to the top. Here are a couple of photos of the road:

The idea for riding this course is to get into a steady rhythm and try and stay relaxed. Again it is not the grade that gets you on this trek, but the distance. Back home in Litchfield County, CT we have hills that make you think your heart is going to come out of your chest when you climb. Those hills last for 15 to 20 minutes at best. Here the climb is for over 2 hours. The temperature at the base was about 75 degrees. I was wearing a sleeveless bike jersey, and was sweating like a pig as I climbed the steepest part - which is the first 5 miles. After you get to mile 10 the landscape begins to change. At 4500 ft of elevation it begins to look more like Colorado with pines trees growing and snow on the sides of the road. As you continue to climb the temperatures really began to drop. At mile 14 the sag vehicle was waiting - and I changed my jersey to a long sleeve winter jersey - and winter gloves. The wind began to pick up as well which made the climb a little more challenging. At 6000 ft it was now frigid. The snow amounts on the side of the road were about 4 feet deep. They have the road in excellent condition - so there was no ice to speak of - but you certainly kept your eye out for it. This picture gives you idea of the scenery we had on the ride:

At mile 20.5 you have your first real descent on the highway. Not sure this was good or bad yesterday as the legs enjoyed the break, but the temperature changes was really noticeable on these downhills. The final 4 miles into Summerhaven rolls up and down until your reach the top. At the top of Mount Lemmon is a ski resort. Not a big one, but it certainly has plenty of snow. At the start of the winter olympics this year there was more snow at the top of Mount Lemmon than there was in Whistler, British Columbia!

When you get to the top there is a small village of vacation homes and residents that live up here. Sort of like "The Others" from the TV show Lost. There is a place called the Cookie Cabin that we all meet at to warm up and enjoy a home-made cookie that are about the size of a frisbee. The owners of the shop were still digging out from Sunday's snow storm while we were there. There was 4 feet of snow of the ground! Check out my bike parked at the Cookie Cabin.

Here is a picture of the Cookie Cabin:

Need to get ready for my flight back to CT - so will finish this blog later! Thanks for reading.

I'm back. Still a little time before my cab leaves for the airport.

I am not a big fan of descents so I took a ride down to mile 6.5 in the sag vehicle and descended from there. There was still plenty of downhill to experience in that shortened trip. Once we got to the bottom - of the hill - I just wanted to go - and for the first time all camp I hammered the 10 mile ride back to the hotel. My coach liked the effort and rode with me for about 5 minutes before his normal pace had me looking at the back of his jersey.

Once back at the hotel we immediately headed out for a 30 minute "brick" run. It is called a brick because your legs have a heavy feeling after attempting to run after a long time in the saddle. My pace was brisk which reminded me that my fitness is at a good level right now.

Since it was my last night in Tucson I got to pick the dinner spot. We returned to Zona 78 which is an Italian place within walking distance of the hotel. Calamari, Salad, Pizza and beer was enjoyed by most and a nice reward for a hard days work. 1 hour swim, 5.5 hours on the bike, and a 30 minute run. Not too shabby.

Every night at camp we cap off the evening with a trip to this Gelato Shop called Frost. Some great flavors to choose from - I wish we had one of these places back in CT.

An Epic Run

2010-03-03T19:28:00.008-05:00

Back in New England the weathermen love to list the top weather days of the year. Well today here in Tucson would have qualified for this list. Woke up to sunny skies and a forecast for warm temps (mid 70's) and not a cloud in the sky.

You could not ask for a better training day.

We headed over to Sabino Canyon this morning for a 2 hour run. We were going to run the Bear Canyon trail - which climbs through the Canyon and takes you for a view of Seven Falls. I have done this run now the past 4 years and I look forward to it every time. This year though was one for the record books.

We started out as group and headed out toward the canyon. This year in Tucson they have had record snow and rainfall which has the rivers and creeks flowing at above normal levels. Our run today has several crossing through the water to stay on the trail that best gets you to the top of the canyon. In prior years there was maybe 2 or 3 inches of water. Today we crossing through water that was at times up to our chest. With water temps in the 40's it made for a nice shock to the system.

There we probably 6 of these types of crossings. Some we managed better than others. Some guys turned back after 2 or 3 crossings, but a few us trudged on. After the last crossing you begin the real climb up the canyon. The picture here shows the switchbacks that you run to gain elevation.

The prize for running this course is the view of 7 Falls which is a ravine in the canyon that has 7 seperate waterfalls that cascade down the mountain. It took us a little over an hour to get to this point, but it was worth it. Here is a picture of Hods with his ascent behind him:

The trip back down was long for me as again my back does not like the rock hopping. I was running with Dan Frost who probably thought he had Monica Seles running behind him as I was grunting and groaning through every jump on the course.

The entire run was about 2 hours and 10 minutes - but to be honest the time flew by as the inner kid in all us was brought out by this adventure.

Headed back for breakfast - it was $1 oatmeal day at Jamba Juice. Hot oatmeal with fresh blueberries and blackberries on top - good stuff.

Mid morning we headed back over to the pool for what was as advertised a long swim session. I was video taped swimming to start the session and then went back to my lane to continue to work on my stroke. The swim session last 2 hours. That is about 2 months of swimming back home for me in the off-season.

Diggin Deep

2010-03-02T19:38:00.008-05:00

Day 3 of camp is always interesting. Everyone now knows each other a little better - and are beginning to let their guard down. On day 3 you start to get to learn what has brought these other athletes to the sport of triathlon and more specifically to this camp.

Today we had an early start with a run in Saguaro National Park. This is the park that we rode in yesterday. We left the hotel at 6:30 AM as the sun was rising and got to the park before it officially opened. The first part of the run is on the road - the course has more rolls than Kirstie Alley's belly in the first 20 minutes. You really cannot get into a groove at first. At the 20 minute mark we made a right into a desert trail and traversed through the middle of the park. You run on a single track trail with cacti and other southwest flora lining the trail. The course rolls through here as well, but the elevation changes are not as dramatic as the rode. The trail intersects with the road again on the other side of the park, and takes you back to the parking lot. I had my ipod on, but some other campers said they heard some coyotes howling this morning!

Another breakfast stop at Jamba Juice on the way back where the coaches notified us that they were switching up the rest of the days workout. We were going to have our bikes transported out to the Oro Valley Pool and we were going to ride Oracle Road this afternoon, and then would swim afterwards. A few athletes needed their bikes tuned after the first day of riding - so after the coaches tinkered with the bikes - we took the 20 minute ride out to Oro Valley. I have never rode this bike course before so I was excited to see what it was all about. Apparently many triathletes who train in Tucson use this route as it has a great bike lane with great road conditions. Probably the best way to describe this ride is to think about an escalator that just keeps going up! For 22 miles we rode a steady climb. The grade was not bad, but we gained over 2000 ft of elevation. There was never a moment to coast - and you just worked this ride for the first 90 minutes. My legs were feeling the first days workouts and I fell off the pack fairly early in the ride. No fears on this ride as there was only one turn.

At the turnaround you knew that the hard work that you had just done was going to be rewarded - as we were about to descend that 2000 feet in elevation. There was headwind coming back, but the ride back was still brisk. I rode with Bill whose is one of the coaches here at camp. I hugged Bill's wheel for the entire 20 miles back into town. Bill took on the wind on my behalf and that was appreciated. The coaches added a 10 mile loop at the end of the ride through a very cool neighborhood that was close to the pool. This planned community had some great homes to view and was built to allow athletes to truly enjoy the surroundings.

The ride ended up back at the pool. The idea here was to have some "active recovery" in the water from the ride. Most of us hemmed and hawed before getting wet - as we knew that cramping was going to happen after a long ride. The swim session was fairly short today, but we were warned that tomorrow would be different.

Headed back to the hotel for showers and then off to dinner. With no lunch today everyone was ready for some good mexican food. We returned to El Charro for dinner again tonight. This place serves up big portions of mexican food and has some great beers on draft. We arrived back at the hotel at 8:00 PM. I was asleep by 8:20 PM. A good solid day of training.

Day Three - The Journey Begins

2010-03-01T19:40:00.010-05:00

There is a saying in New England that if you do not like the weather - wait a minute. I guess the same is true for Tucson! After a day of down pouring rain and 42 degree temps - we awoke today to sunshine and warm temperatures.

The game plan was to hit all three disciplines today:

90 minute swim
4 hour bike ride
30 minute run

After our morning coffee run we headed over to the Oro Valley pool - which is about 20 minutes from our hotel. Check out this picture I took of the pool this AM.

It is hard not get motivated to swim here. Swimming is right up there with going to the dentist with me. I never swam competitevly as a kid, and only started to swim when I turned 40. Every year I put in just enough swimming to get through an Ironman swim in July. So as of this morning I had not swam since last July. The swim workout started out slow for me, but one of the camp coaches (Brian) jumped in the lane next to me and started to make some suggestions. This was a great day to try some new things and sure enough these suggestions started to work. For the first time in awhile I actually feel like I might have something positive happening for me in the water. The coaches put everyone through a solid 90 minute workout in the pool. This group of athletes has a great attitude and everyone seemd to enjoy the swim.

The temps continued to ride and by 11:30 AM we were in the low 70's. Time to get on the bikes. Today's ride was going to take us to Colossal Cave - which is a nice 26 mile steady climb from the hotel. A few of the athletes were christening their new bikes today - which was very cool. We headed out on the ride and after about 5 miles you are in southwest countryside with city views to your right and mountain views to your left. I have done this ride now for the last four years and I really enjoy it. I know the roads and realize that the hard work is done in the first 90 minutes. Here is the elevation chart for this ride and as you can see again this desert ain't flat.

The group spread a little but regrouped at the Cave - before heading back. The coaches told us that we were not going straight home - instead we would be making a stop at the Saguaro National Park to do 2 loops of the rolling 9 mile road that winds through this beautiful park. I got my second wind on the downhill ride from the Cave to the Park and the miles just clicked away. Once we got to the park we headed out on the loop. This photo shows just how great this park is:

We headed back to the hotel with the entire ride being a little over 60 miles. A quick change into running shoes and we were out for a 3o minute run. My legs actually felt pretty good on this run which surprised me as I thought that after the ride I was done. A good sign of my current fitness level.

I am a good tired right now - a solid day of training in the books.

Heading out to dinner shortly.

Sunday - February 28th

2010-02-28T08:41:00.006-05:00

Easy to wake up the first day out west after you travel from the east. Our internal clocks have us thinking it is really 6:00 AM when it is actually 4:00 AM in Tucson. It rained hard last night and showers are lingering here this morning. A coffee run at 6:15 AM to Starbucks was well attended. Tom and Huck from Missouri and Gus all understand that a little caffeine is one of the secrets to surviving camp.

We headed over to Sabino Canyon to run the trails in this magnificent park. This is one of two national parks within the Tucson city limits that have wonderful trails that show off this areas southwest landscape. The idea this morning was to run for 90 minutes on a trail called the telephone line trail. The trail starts out flat and then begins to climb at mile 1. At mile one we were at 2800 ft of elevation. Many people think the desert is flat this park redefines that. From mile 1 to mile 4.5 the trail climbs 1200 ft of elevation. This is single track trail with switchbacks all the way up. The rain intensified on the run and as we gained elevation the temperature began to drop. There a few sections of the trail that are a little dicey with little margin for error and a steep drop off below. The rain made it interesting and you certainly needed to stay focused on the run. At mile 4.5 the trails descends down to a road which is used for walkers and hikers to enjoy the park. I took it easy going up the trail as this type of running wreaks havoc on my back. The uphill is not that bad, but the rock hopping on the descent has me wincing from time to time. After you get to the road the run is a nice 3.5 mile rolling course back to the parking lot. At elevation here in the desert there is plenty of snow. This time of year the snow melts and when it combines with rain - it washes out portions of the road. On the way back we had to traverse through 5 or 6 of these wash out bridges - running through water that was up to our shins. That water had to be about 40 degrees which created a chill to the body.

Here is the elevation chart for this morning's run:

We headed back to the hotel for a quick shower - which took the chill off and then searched for any warm closed that we packed. A quick trip to Jamba Juice for a breakfast smoothie was enjoyed by all. Jamba also makes WheatGrass shots for the true health enthusiast. It has become an annual tradition to down one of these. Gus bought us all a shot. Think of the bottom of you lawn mower after cutting your lawn on a wet day. Now grind that grass up and drink it. Enough said.

Day One - Travel Day

2010-02-27T17:58:00.004-05:00

The flight from Hartford was at 6:00 AM. That meant the alarm was going to be set for 4:00 AM. For the past 48 hours CT has been under a Winter Weather Advisory. The storm though never really materialized. At 4:00 AM though the snow was falling and the temps were finally cold enough to support the snow. I got a little earlier start and headed up to Bradley Airport. It was a pretty cool ride being the only one on the road with fresh snow fall. I got a text message from American Airlines saying the plane was still on time! I was psyched as I have been looking forward to this trip for awhile now. This is the 5th consecutive year that I have headed out to Southwest for a week of triathlon training. This will be the 4th consecutive year in Tucson, Arizona. My coach Eric Hodska puts on this week long camp to allow triathletes from all different areas of the country get a jump start on their racing season. Tucson is a tremendous venue for training. The high desert has great weather, scenery and training venues this time of year - that allows you to put in a solid week of training without having to worry about weather concerns.

My flights out were on time and fairly uneventful. I flew from Hartford to Dallas and then caught a flight from Dallas to Tucson. On the Tucson flight I sat in the row right behind First Class. While walking on the plane I noticed the entire first class section was filled with what appeared to be a group that was flying together. In the row right in front of me was obviously some type of celebrity as he had his hoodie up and shades on. I did not think much about it until after we got off the plane, and the entire terminal was buzzing. The entourage was for Chris Brown the rapper who is best know for his hit on Rihanna. I snubbed him and refused to acknowledge his stardom. Call me old school but guys just do not hit girls.

Took a cab to our host hotel - the Comfort Suites. This is our 3rd year at this hotel and it is all about location. The rooms are acceptable and the location allows for easy access to riding and running routes. Got settled in and then went over and got some lunch. I was a little tired from the flight, but went for a 40 minute run to loosen up the muscles from the long flights. The majority of people are arriving later today - and we will have a group meeting to discuss camp itinaries and expectations at 6:00 PM. Afterwards we will head out to dinner. It will be great to see some old friends and have a few beers and laughs.