Wrapped Up

I had the intention of updating each day of the Tucson Training camp. As you can see, that didn't happen. The workouts left me pretty smashed every night and all the energy I had was spent cooking dinner and foam rolling my aching legs.

So here is a quick re-cap (ok not so quick, but lots of pictures so it should even fit in your limits D)

Day 2:

We started off on the bikes and headed out to Gates Pass. This was a ride I had heard much about from the TriSports.com crew and it lived up to the hype. A nice steady climb got us to this spot and view.

Once down the descent behind us, we got into some really cool rolling roads and cactus fields as far as the eye could see. As this was one of our few mellow rides, it was also one of the few times we had to really take in the scenery, instead of concentrating on hammering and trying not to puke.

Apparently Arizona is suffering from similar economic problems as California and has adopted the "furlough Fridays" plan. This lead to the closing of the city pools, and our driving around Tucson while trying to iPhone-discover a place to swim. A call to TriSports.com led us to the local YMCA and the swim got done, albeit later than desired. This meant our evening track workout came a little later too, but the sunset behind the mountains was worth it.

Day 3:

Our morning began with a German lesson from a coffee machine. In an extreme showing of generosity, Hillary Biscay had let us squat at her Desert Casa while she and Maik (aka the GCM) were off racing Abu Dhabi. Hillary and I grew up in the same town, and she swam with my brother and sister so its an old family connection. Anyway, earlier this year Maik persuaded/earned himself a rather spectacular coffee machine like those he is used to back in Germany. However, it speaks German. We almost called Dirk to translate, but we knew he was busy with work. So instead, Google Translator came to the rescue and we had a couple insanely good cups of coffee to amp us up for the bike intervals that lay ahead. Out over Gates Pass again, and we found this long piece that was perfect. Here is the before:

The intervals went well for both Charisa and I, or at least right up until the climb out of the valley in her case, I think my "extra reserves" helped me out as at the end I felt like this:

And Charisa... Not. So. Much. This is her trying to convince me that ate enough not to bonk:

There was a swim after this ride, and I did NOT feel strong/good/human. The pool was hot and the whole time I had images of a hot dog floating in boiling water running through my head. I was happy to be out.

Day 4: We finally had an easy run on the schedule so we were able to hit the trails.

It was a beautiful morning and I now have a newfound appreciation for the desert landscape.

Following that was a 4hr "spin-out the legs" ride and this was my view almost the entire time

Aside from not getting to hang with them, the other bummer about Hillary and Maik being gone was that we stuck to the known/well established training areas and definitely missed out on some gems that only local knowledge could show us. I can't wait to go back and try and hold onto the German Pain Train all across the desert and see what it really has to offer.