Colorado Training Camp ’06

As planning for the upcoming training camps progresses, I thought I would revisit a great training camp from a few years ago.  The basic idea for the camp was to start and end the camp with a race.  I was coming from SF and meeting my training partners in Boulder, so I planned to stop in Utah for the XTERRA, the proceed to Boulder for the meat of the camp.

I arrived in Utah after a long drive from Lake Tahoe on Thur the 17th of August, and quickly got my Santa Cruz Blur set up and ready for the weekend.  After that was a nice hour long run along the trails above Ogden, Utah as the sun was lowering in the Western Sky.  The next day started with a short open water swim at the race site on the resevoir, then a quick transition to the MTB and a moderate pre-ride of the race course.  I found the course to be rocky and dusty and new that heat and hydration would play a toll.  Afterwards, lunch with my mom and then a bit of leisure and catching up with old friends filled the day and evening.

On Saturday, the day started very early in order to get up to T2 which was up the mountain from the start/T1.  The race there (which is now the XTERRA USA Championships) is a real quality course that has tremendous elevation gain (bike and run) and is quite technical for an XTERRA.  My race was a bit of a shocker as I swallowed half the reservoir and ended up cramping badly on the bike and run.  It was a good, if not great start to the camp and I was quite shattered on my drive to Boulder the next day.

Sunday the 19th: woke up and did a short easy ride to loosen the legs and get some blood moving (especially as I had a 8 hour drive ahead).

Monday the 20: An early start with a swim at the FlatIron Athletic club, then on to the bikes for a ride from Boulder to Ward (Sunshine Canyon) then over to Nederland (Peak to Peak Highway) and back down to Boulder.  I really struggled with elevation and the steep climb up into Ward, and cursed my training partners out (who did not do the XTERRA) who kept dropping me.  Once on top of the world, the ride was stellar and the road in Boulder was fast and furious (too furious with the traffic).  We later did  a solid run around Boulder reservoir.

Tuesday the 21st:  This day was all about riding to Longs Peak (via Ward again!) and back the base in Boulder.  In the late afternoon, another good swim with very little kicking and a short run finished us off.  Long day!

Wednesday the 22nd:  Longs Peak again today, but this time we ran from the base as far as we could, the scrambled/bouldered our way to the summit.  I put myself in a tough spot, as I new we were going to do this epic run/climb in the weeks prior, but never took the the time to break in my hiking boots.  On the way down, we ran it as fast as we could and I began to feel the fire building in my boots.  Ouch!  After a good massage, and a great meal we drove to Winter Park for the next phase of the training camp.

Thursday the 23rd: The plan was to do a race up Mt Evan from Winter Park, but we were a little beat up (me) and tired (my buddies) and so a truce was called and we took the ride sensibly, until the last 8km, when I decided to repay them for the shellacking they gave on my first day in Boulder.  It was a super tough climb and went from hot to freezing cold by the time we hit the summit.  The ride down was fun, but it’s not a technical road so it wasn’t too memorable.  The day was, however.  We finished the day with a core strength session and a short run.

Friday the 24th:  Long run at 9500ft turned into a real death march where our pace dropped significantly, and then a nice high easy ride at elevation before lunch. After lunch we did a tough swim (any swimming at that elevation is hard!)

That evening, we made our way back to Boulder for a big dinner and a few drinks as the training camp was over (except for those staying to race on Saturday).  I had to return to Austin (and was quite shattered from the camp) for some work issues, but the others stayed and did the race, which turned out to be a super cold day up in Steamboat and one that I don’t regret missing! 🙂

The result of the camp was a great build for the half Iron distance race we did in October that autumn, where we surpassed our goals for the race.  The totals for the camp were: Bike (18.5 hours), Run (10 hours), Swim (4 hours)…