This weekend found me at camp again. This time it was the Team TriSports.com camp. 25 of the 29 sponsored athletes came from around the US. This camp was a little less grueling and a bit more social...an opprotunity for the team members to get together, meet each other, do a little training, some photo ops and a fun little race. All this led up to the Annual TriFest which is a gathering of athletes, tri industrie guys and an expo.
Thur. was day 1. We got to pick up all of our new gear...tri suit, bike kit (shorts and jersey), and other asorted goodies. Followed that up with a nice run on the Hidden Canyon trail in Starr Pass.
Fri. was the big ride. The ride is open to all. Over 150 cyclists rolled out of TriSports and headed off to one of the nations best rides...Mt Lemmon. The weather was perfect...mid 80's! The ride was a "no drop" pace from the start to the base of the climb. Once we hit the base it was everyone for themselves...you decided your pace and how far up you wanted to climb. As the group got rolling on the climb I got caught up at the tail end of the group. By the time I weaved my way forward the faster group had already opened up a large gap. I tried to bridge the gap but ended up stuck in no mans land between the two groups. So I rode mostly on my own picking off people as they dropped off the front group. I rode to the 18 mile mark which was my planned turn around point (the entire climb is 27 miles). The descent was awesome...40mph of twists and turns to the bottom. By the time I got back I had racked up 4.5 hours. Upon the return the team was treated to some great sandwich's from a local shop...yummy! We then all met up at the JCC for a fun swim workout. We did a warmup, then a 100, 200, 300 and 400 interval. We followed that up with some fun stuff. Started in lane 1 with "heads up" swimming, moved to lane 2 for some various "sculling" drills, moved to lane 3 to play "team catch" (two 2-3 person team...start in the center going opposite directions circle swimming as fast as you can until one team catches the other), then moved to lane 4 to play tug of war (to swimmers linked with a stretch cord swim in opposite direction till you reach the wall)...all of these lasted 8 minutes each. We then picked our fastest swimmer who was tasked with doing the "get out" lap. She had to swim a 100 in 1 minute or less...if she did it we all got to get out, if not we had to do another set. Luckily she was super fast and did it in :59 and change. A few hours of rest/shower/nap time and then the team was treated to a catered dinner at TriSports. The dinner was capped off with a little sponsor history and a tour of the huge shop/warehouse. We had to leave a bag packed for a "mystery" workout to take place the following morning.
Sat. we met at TriSports bright and early...6:30am! We then rode to the mystery workout location...the JW Marriott resort in Starr Pass. The mystery workout turned out to be a mini triathlon race for the team members. This was one of the funnest races I have ever done. No one really knew what the exact distaces were...even our coordinator that put it together. The staff at the Marriott graciously allowed us to use their facility. The race had a "time trial" start...each person started in 20 second intervals. The swim started with a fast trip down the resorts water slide into the "lazy river" pool in which we swam just over 2 loops against the current (to make it a bit tougher). We then mounted our bikes for 2 hilly loops around Starr Pass. This was followed by a run on the Hidden Canyon trail...the first half is all up hill, the whole thing is rocky and technical. It was a ton of fun. It also doubled as a photo shoot to debut the team and our new uniforms. We followed this up with a leasurly group ride over Gates Pass (another iconic Tucson ride) returning to TriSports for the TriFest activities which included free taco's! Sat. night was the VIP party where we got to mingle with the triathlon industry guy's, TriSports employees, and others that were invited...lot's of finger foods, liquid refreshments, a band and poker night. I made it a short night since I was pretty tired.
Now I have a few weeks to ge ready for the USAT Duathlon National Championships.
Here are some pics from the Team presentation photo shoot/mini race. I am the second from last pic (on my bike).
Here are some pics fro the Lemmon ride.
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