We ride as a team, we FLAT as a team

Hey all,

One more post till I'm caught up with the blogging from the weekend training camp at least. No pictures this time so I gotta write more(a picture's worth a thousand words). So with out any further delay here goes nothing.

Monday finally came, with the promise of a shorter "easier" ride I wasn't too worried. I was just glad to get out there and enjoy the weather, nature, new friendships, flat tires?? Woops who put that in there?!?!? The ride started out great, we turned down green mountain road again. The plan was to ride up and down this road, get back on the IMC course and ride up yellow lake and then down into Penticton. We didn't get too far though before Kelsey had her first flat of the day. The night before Greg had examined her tire to find a staple still imbedded in the tired, which would totally explain why she flatted over and over and over. With that out we figured we had her curse beat,..... but alas it wasn't to be. Her rear tire was flat again so we changed it. We were all together so at least we could stick together. Today's theme I think should have been "we ride as a team, we flat as a team" since we all stopped to help change the tire, inflate it, and add jokes when ever we could. The mood was still good, I think everyone was relieved that all the hard work was behind us, now on to some pure enjoyment of the sport. Nothing, not even multiple flats would drag us down.

Anyways with the flat changed we kept going, but it didn't last long before she flatted again, or was she just loosing air. Now I can't remember, it's almost been a week since it happened. Anyways we finally decided to call it, I think we were already 20k out and we decided to just ride home(down hill) and hit the road. With the car this time, since there were reported road delays near Golden.

To summerize the camp, it seriously could not have gone better. Here are the highlights in no particular order;

1. Meeting a bunch of new friends, everyone got along perfectly I felt a close connection to everyone. It's amazing with the common interest how easy it is to chat with everyone. I don't normally meet new people that well.

2. THE TRAINING, I couldn't in a million years ever get all that accomplished in one weekend on my own. We deflinatly pushed each other to new levels. Like Greg has said, "We're going to make race day feel easy" The distance definatly won't worry me as much.

3. Beautiful weather and scenery, You couldn't ask for a better venue since it's on the course most of us are racing plus it's so beautiful and so many dif. roads, climbs, etc. The weather was perfect, I'm liking the heat more and more as I get more time in it. Almost to the point where I hope it'll be hot race day. ALMOST I said, riding is fine, but running in the heat still takes it's tole.

4. Training with people stronger then I. There's nothing like riding with and then getting your ass handed to you on a huge mountain climb to make you stronger. It's fine I knew it would happen and I really don't mind, but there's a small part of you deep down in side that says, "AUGHHHHHHHHH I'll get you next time!!!!" LOL Hey that's what competition is about, just admit it, it's there. If it wasn't we'd all just cruise along and finish at midnight and be content with that. I have nothing against 17 hour finishers at all, I don't want to step on any toes, my point really is that even the midnight finishers are going as fast as they can. It's a race to the line. Race against themselves, and the clock. Ok I'm getting off topic here.

5. Training with the coach. I guess this is more for Greg's benefit(he mentioned this to me in a msn chat). This is where he gets to watch us as a triathlete train. He gets to see our form, how we handle stress, fatigue and what happens to our bodies after say 100k on the bike. This will help him a lot when figuring out the plan. He'll know more about what we're capable of and what we're not.

6. Getting away, Being able to get away for a long weekend and simply worry about ONE thing is great. In a way we all get to go to a remote place and for a couple days pretend we're professionals. Eat, sleep, train. Not that we hate our jobs, spouses, work, other responsibilities, if anything we come back realizing how important everything is and maybe realize that a pros life isn't that easy afterall. lol This reminds me of the climb we did on saturday. I'd always wondered if i could handle a 20km climb like they do in the TDF. Doing it brought huge satisfaction, the little kid in me was pretending I was a tour rider climbing one of the big climbs, maybe the Alpe d'Huez.

EDIT: Greg found me a pic, wooo hoooo. Not sure why Kelsey's not changing her own flat, LOL :P Good thing we don't see the identity of the guy in the coffee jersey?!?!