Tuscon Training Weekend

Adam gave me a most awesome birthday present. One that far surpasses diamonds, Prada, or a spa day. He knows me too well! A training trip to Tuscon to get in some big training miles without the pressure of fitting it in around work, kids, crazy schedules and the unpredictable Midwestern weather is enough to make this girl happy.



Its not for most ladies in their 40 somethings and I knew very well what I was getting in to. Every day is filled with big training, constant moving from one workout to the next, little time to shower, primp or be a girl. And, for me…..it means pushing HARD to hang with the boys. This leaves very little down time to chill, shop, or explore parts of Tuscon besides the beautiful trails or best biking routes.


I tried to hook up and meet my Wattie team mate Damie Roberts, but we both had busy training agenda’s and were trashed at the end of the day. A few times I thought I might even grow hair on my chest and my voice deepen as I was surrounded by males the entire weekend. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it is easy on the eyes, but for example I spent Fri night at the TriSports Power Conference where we listened to talks on aerodynamics and power given by SRAM, ZIPP and Quarq. ( can you hear the males grunting!)

The weather was amazing, the training even better. The workouts started Thurs afternoon with a killer run a few hours after getting off the plane with some all out efforts on flat and uphill sections. I had Adam and Ben Kanute, (his super fast junior who is attending U of A) chasing me down making me search for that dark painful spot I haven’t seen running in many months. We biked later and found our way to some awesome Mexican food to wrap up my birthday. Yep all in one day and I wouldn’t do it any other way :)

The highlight of the trip was a long bike that went from a 4 hr ride to a nearly 5 and a half hour ride with a T run in the dark. We mis- judged the distance from our starting point to get to the turn off to the Kits Peak climb.


There is KIT, way up there

We wanted to get in some climbing, but on this out and back ride we turned around at almost 3 hrs! At first I wanted to fuss, cuz… I’m not doing IM, I don’t like rides over 4 hrs….we are going to get back late…..I haven’t been doing rides over 2.5 -3 hrs! Whining gets you no where in that crowd, so I sucked it up really quick, swallowed the self pity, and said shut up and just DO IT. Just DO whatever the day brings, cause you never know what will happen in a race. The road to and from Kits Peak is a loooooong stretch of annoying highway with pissy, spine adjusting cracks making the experience even tougher. We were chasing daylight on the way home and the guys stepped it up quite a bit which meant I had to dig very deep late into this ride to stay on their wheel. We finished the ride with the sun nearly down, which meant the T run was in the dark. I did a few cruisy miles around the parking lot and track of Pima community college. Thank you for some street lights! Here is me happy to be warm and clothed again with my @BettyDesigns beanie and dreaming of the burrito waiting for me at the Taco Shop.



I often wonder if these little 4 day training camps are worth it. I sometimes think that coming back to reality and the regular training amount with the crazy schedule completely erases the hard work and big efforts. Truth is, it does count. I have done it enough times to know that coming home and a few easier days to let it soak in allows some adaptation to take place and then the regular workouts are then performed at a higher level.

I came home to a sweet package! 8 weeks out from St. Croix, reminding me... It IS time to Rock !