JH Tri camp report plus extra footage of the after camp in Green Valley!

Before i get to the disorganized blog entry...

I thought about bringing these socks to camp. I am glad i didnt. When Mary told me she was trying to put GOBIGGREEN together with me in the flesh i was double glad I didnt bring these bc I can be kind of a smart A$$ and dont think people know that about me...unless you know me....but i still love these socks and have some good stories from wearing them...

So be patient as i have alot to blog about but after 10 days in Tucson i may very well end up with bullet points and stuff you have already heard on FB or on other campers blog's.

We just got in last night and with Easter today ( yea!) and Mayo "Stuff" starting up again tommorrow the blog has been neglected, for good reasons. No time.

So I did my best to start jotting things down on my iphone while gone and this is what i came up with...I wont win any English awards for good sentence structure or a well designed story but have fun reading it anyways!

Wednesday: Arrival. Good friends, new friends, nice sunny skies and a busted bike box from Delta but at least the bike was fine. Yummy dinner thanks to Jen's forward thinking that nobody wanted to cook or do dishes! Kate O and I scored the master suite with a giant bed and an extra bath and were happy to have other campers use the poddy as needed, and for Tracey to crash her air mattress in the room the next night. Good times were starting!

Thursday:

Lemmon
Marco thanks!!! Marco is the best, to come up there and give us food and snacks and cheer us on!
1-14 to windy point with kari and kept thinking it got easier after that:) I remember last year being about 100 feet behind Renee and that helped me get to the top. Even if we went to the TOP and to the ski resort last year, oops, this year I knew to not climb more! And after 14 at least you had some times you could shift and pedal and as I told Jerome "get some free miles!" Jen said 1-5 is worst but I think 10-14 was the most unforgiving!
fun to ride with Mary ange and Jerome to the top!

Refuel and head down it was balmy must have been 50!!

A quick T run with Kari post Lemmon, and i mean Quick! I loved running with Kari, she is a speedy runner who runs with little effort ( or so it seems) and i felt honored to have her at my side.

Dinner at Blanco that night was great, those fish tacos are divine and it was fun to see everyone all dressed up:)

Friday dawned and it was swim then run time:

From my DOUBTS post this is what i arrived in Tucson armed to do, tape up my biceps and my pecs with the kinesiotape. Yup i swam with this. It was touch and go friday as it had been a full 9 days since i swam, horrors i know, but really Jen was great about it. She was the one telling me not to swim, to wait, etc.. and i was the one thinking "this is KILLING Jen, that i cant swim." Ha, wrong. Friday i took it easy in the pool ( no not really but i really made sure that if anything hurt i would stop) and it just felt tight. no pain and best of all no pain afterwards.

AFter the swim we hit Le Buzz, yum!

I got a cookie for after the run, had a nice bagel and PB and a banana and the best frothy capp i could ever want. Ooops. About 1 x a year i do that. drink coffee pre run. And learned my lesson again. Thanks Mary who said i was scared and had to turn back mid Telephone pole run but i was doubled over with GI issues. No espresso pre run!!

I was going to turn back down and run the road and then said "dang it, just slow down, walk if you need to and keep going." I met up with Cheryl and Sharon who were doing a nice pace of run and walk "When you think you may trip and die" and so i thought that sounded good.

When Super Kari and Jerome flew by us we knew it was time to turn around and try to make the descent in a safe manner. And I tell you i could not help but think that i loved descending Lemmon more than this. Seriously.

So 2 hour run done and home for? I cant remember, it all is a blur. Basketball? likely! Kari and i chose to stay in friday night and we went to the grocery store where i proceded to nearly run over a little girl whose mom was selling tamales in the parking lot. Serously? do you send your little kid into the traffic to get customers? I think Kari and I were a bit shaken at this sales technique.

Saturday:

The decision was made for the shorter riders ( ie short meaning not 118 miles!) to drive to an Alberstons and ride Gates Pass, MCcain Loop and some other climbs that were great. We had a few issues with the road cracks and Mel went down, but she was a trooper and got back up again and was good to go. It was a lovely course and after Lemmon I think we were all relieved when Jen said "there is the top." Seriously? Nice! AFterwards we had a nice FAST T run in the "hood's around the Albertsons to finish off a good training day.

Some TRX demo in the afternoon and some hanging out by the pool was just what we needed.

Zona 78 for dinner that night was perfect, and we got to hear the war stories of the 118 miles. I have to say, when we were in Green Valley riding i saw HOW Far they had gone. Whoa that was alot of riding teammates. you should be super proud of that training day, and if i am doing an IM in 2011 I am going to have to get my big girl pants on for a hundo. ( would prefer 100 to 118, ahem)

A few random thoughts mixed in here:

Ange has the prettiest hair color and crap she can ride...zoom zoom. Descent of gates pass and I couldn't see her and all the sudden when we hit flats she took off like the the batmobile.

Mel: brave and no pitty party...and then she goes home and rides a 100 miles this past weekend. You Go Girl!

Kate: cupcakes!!! Az stagecoach protected my bike her cc's...the lady driver told the guy helping us with the luggage...LOUD AND CLEAR...

" Jimmy we have cupcakes be careful!!!"

Sharon; Nurse extraoridnaire and hilarious mini van driver. I loved haunting her with the minute by minute weather report!

John ( poor John took a beating from the tough women as he was better than a garmin "when it's convenient... Get in the left lane.." and after I bashed him for working for Wilson not prince. Fed plays Wilson. My bad. Sharon offered him a great gig playing X box with her kids and he just laughed it off.

Mary is so tiny. But tiny in stature still means that woman is putting out some major power! Fun to hear about tri moxie too.

Tracy: let's ride 118 miles on nuns! Haha. While going up Lemmon she had this little boucning noise and Jerome and i were like WTF? And Tracy told us it was her NUNS. So of course my delusional head at about mile 16 was some image of her plastic NUN ( non NUUN) in her water bottle or some statue on her bike handlbars. Ok it was funny then.
And that chick has done 3 IM like "no big deal!"

Jen/rich happy anniversary how cool and riding 118 they won't forget!

Cheryl: who I liked before I even met her and love her dogs! What a kind well spoken I wish I had your shoulders athlete!!!

So sunday the final day of JHC. A nice run on the roads of Sabino after a nice swim that seemed alot harder than the first one. But I got to again share lanes with Kari, Sharon and Rich and we did the wko and my shoulder was good. Tape and all. The Van driver ( sharon) drove us home to our house and we all hustled to get cleaned up and get the place cleared out by noon. Most headed to the airport I was heading to my next camp..

RICH CAMP in Green Valley with my mother in law:)

It was fun for rich to meet Jen and Jerome, kari and others ( he knows KO) and at one point I called Jen, Lucifer. And I did not mean that. really. As others have said, Jen brings out the best in us and if I were to call her that it would be my own devils talking, not her's.

Sunday we went to get Fro yo at the place close to where we stayed last year and then drove south to Green Valley. with a stop at the in and out burger bc Rich was dying to try it. Big Lebowski you know. I was tired but not COOKED. I really worked hard but maybe this year i knew what to expect. I cant say I had ridden outside much but riding that dang cross bike maybe did me more good than i thought as I felt great on the bike, normal on the run and just plain respecting of the swim given my shoulder.

Monday: Time to head to Arivaca!!!

Its about 10 mies till we hit The ROAD TO ARIVACA. open road, sights 360 deg where you see nothing but the open road, moutains, Cacti, and....

Border Patrol!

FUNNY STORY : The funniest is seeing a border patrol wagon go kareening into taco bell and rich and I say " make a run for the border?"

26 miles of gentle climbing to about 5000feet and border patrol screaming back and forth The ridehome is fast and fun with a gentle downhill and a tailwind if lucky! I glad I felt good Monday after camp to work that ride bc it was so worth putting a few More nails in My reserves. No t run:) yeah!
Grilling outside rocks!
Sweet potaotes!! We had them EVERY NIGHT. Oh YEA!

Riding up more mtns is just as hard even
If u keep thinking it's not Lemmon. It's still hard.

Tuesday long brick...with two more mountains to climb. Magee Ranch road and Madera canyon.
88 degrees....
Richs front tire blows and the rear looks like tumorville. I descend Madera faster and get worried!

He usually gives me a head start and flies by making my 30 mph look slow.
Run 4 miles after and almost explode into zone 4. Ice bath sorta helps. I felt good riding and running i just was not ready for the heat. And I love heat....

Wednesday:

75 min run becomes 65 min...swim becomes 1500 recovery!
I am toast... and some eggs and oranges and peanut butter with that toast please? At this point i am really getting sick of instant oatmeal and am sustained by eating an entire jar of Laura Scudders Peanut butter on whatever...bagels, toast, bananas, a spoon...:) and smoothies and just about anything at this point.

Nap time starts becoming a daily event...

Thursday:

We wake to cold wind( 38 degrees) Yea 80 in MN!!! go figure

and Rich and I are a bit miffed thinking:

... but no rain to we head south to Tubac including some paceline pulls of 30-60 seconds to which I was grumpy and tired but did it anyways even if we were going 12 mph into a headwind in the small ring! And then you have a mile stretch in 19 where you ride on the freeway apparently that's legal!
Tubac and Tumacacarori were dead at 9 am but we got a quick coffee and cookie and headed back up the road past the border patrol checkpoint off our hi 19 TT and home. 42 miles no rain! Phew!

Rich did a t run and admitted he stopped for a mcd ice cream half way! Really! Why didn't I think of that?

Grilling!
Sweet potatoes ongoing
Wine at the store! Nice! That is pretty cool you can buy wine....and i start to crave

Take your pick...Yorks won. Or maybe i just miss Kari!'

I make Rich go to the MC D's so i can get an ice cream cone and i come out with a cone AND a McFlurry, so i can share it of course :) hehehe.

Friday: 90 min run needed a gel after 30 minutes! Stopped looking at my pace or hr ( it was solidly z 2) and just ran. Didn't feel awful but didn't have anymore gears instead focused on cadence and thought about feeling like thus on a half.. It could happen and this was good training to keep on trucking despite my less than normal long run pace.

Bailed of idea if one more ride (boo) ate something and headed to the pool. A tame wko awaited and after the wu I asked the pool volunteer the pool temp as it seemed hotter than normal.

Normal is 84-85
Heavenly muck

The night prior it was 37 deg so the pool was now 88. After attempting to do 2x250 then 5x50 on 30" usually just fine.. I said. 'nuf done. The swim ended after 2200. Crap I had to get into the 60 degree air to cool off.

This was a great block of training and I am tired...

In a few weeks I go to Galveston and I am minorly freaking about my bike as i have never travelled with my TT bike, but not about the race strangely....

If you think all we did is train, that isnt quite right. We had a great time spending nights with Rosemary and we laughed and had some fun nights out with her friends. She taught me all the different CSI and NCSI shows she watches. And i decided i liked CSI Miami the best.

We also took some nice walks and did some good reading. Just finished "How Evan Broke his Head" by Garth Stein, the same author of "The art of racing in the rain." Both great reads. ( Mary..not scary!)

We took walks where Rich tried to see how many pokey things he could touch without drawing blood.

We kept an eye on the morning dove protecting her nest in the carport...

Saturday we have to fly home, and Barf i mean it. The pliot had it in for us and i still feel queesy, I dont fly well and i tell ya i was GREEN on that landing.

Sunday Easter! Lovely run... lively easy spin!

Eggs bacon family tennis in the backyard. No we dont have a court, just agile nephews and two rackets, balls, a golden retriever RUBY and some sun and 65!

Monday Mayo! Tuesday surgery!

Prayers welcome!

I will update FB about that!!!