Arizona Camp 2012

I spent a significant portion of last year in Arizona. Primarily in Tucson, but a few weeks in Scottsdale as well.

While I had no plans to spend such a long time in the A. Z. this year, I knew I wanted to get out there for some time.  Last week was my first chance. Given that Charisa and I were hosting a clinic/training camp weekend with our new sponsor TRIBE Multisport in Scottsdale, I took the opportunity to head out to Tucson a week early and get in a little mini-camp. Thanks to good friends Hillary and Maiki, who graciously opened their home to me, I got what I was looking for and then some. It was fantastic to be back in Tucson and hanging out with my Tucson friends.

I took the week as an opportunity to get in some solid hours on the bike. And I did. With visits and summits of Gates Pass, Mt. Lemmon and Madera Canyon combining for over 15hrs in the saddle over 4 days.

Mt. Lemmon never gets old

Madera Canyon. Tough ride.

Of course I also got in some running and no trip to the Biscay-Twelsiek Desert Oasis would be complete without some insane post run waffles from the GCM himself.

The man has SKILLS!!

Tucson has some great coffee shops. Not surprisingly, Maiki's favorite is a little German place called Cafe Passe which served up one of these little delights after a hard swim.

YUMM

This is a little "hobbit house" near the top of Madera Canyon.

 It was with a bit of sadness that I had to pack up the car and head North after such a short trip. But I was excited to head up to Scottsdale and get the weekend clinic/training camp rolling. Again due to the hospitality of some awesome friends, the Dunns, the weekend was spent in the lap of luxury.

We kicked things off on Friday afternoon with a nice 10K run and a little talk giving some background information on ourselves. Where we came from and how we got to the pro level. Thankfully the audience quickly bored of hearing about us, and we moved on to a Q & A session covering a wide array of topics.

 Saturday began with a swim and was followed with a great catered lunch, and fittingly enough, a discussion re training and race nutrition.

I think I have a cookie in my hand.

In what could only be described as "when the going gets tough, the tough get 'rolling'" fashion, after the nutrition discussion, and once peak heat had arrived, we rolled out for a long ride in the comfortable 105 degree temps. A beautiful day ;-)

Staying in the shade as long as possible

We capped off the weekend with a Sunday morning run, breakfast burrito feast, and some friendly chat. 

All in all it was a fantastic week in Arizona. I have some great friends in Maiki & HB and Brian & Jamie to thank for their overwhelming generosity, and a great sponsor in TRIBE Multisport to thank for providing us such a cool platform to share the sport I love.