MT. LEMMON

This is Mt. Lemmon.

In early March myself and about 20 athletes at our TBC training camp climbed to the top. We did a staggered start time trial to the top to try and catch as many riders ahead of you as you could. It was so fun to climb and climb, and yes climb, and did I say climb? It was just over 2 hrs of climbing pretty much non stop. The terrain changed from desert to forest, which I kind of noticed out of the corner of my eye when I wasn't sucking air. It was 1 tough ride, but I loved it.

Now we are back in Illinois. Unfortunately there is no Mt. Lemmon here. We have Campton Hills!!! ....you could kind of call that climbing, but you don't really have to get out of the saddle. And, we have Town Hall !!!!....yes that is climbing, and its a tough hill esp. on group ride nights, but it lasts less than 5 minutes.

What we do have is Wind. The wind that starts now doesn't let up until the end of June is our Mt. Lemmon. Riding into the wind here is like 1 big force rep that doesn't let up. The other day I was out riding and was freezing. Hey, at this point I was just glad to be outside and not on the trainer again. The wind was fierce like it is here in March, relentless. I tried my best to pretend I was just climbing MT. Lemmon again. Sure, no desert scenery, no forest, just empty corn fields that really let that wind roll! My data on the SRM might have even looked the same even, high watts, slow speed. Who needs MT. Lemmon we we have our wicked wind!!!

Some workouts say " go for a hilly run, or ride on hills stay seated....For us it should say...go for a windy run/ or ride in the wind and stay seated!!!!

Secretly I am dreaming of my next trip to Tuscon to make the climb again, with all the "wind" training it will probably seem easy!