Tuesday, February 21, 2006

It's the day after IronCamp West Coast's official end, and we are wrapping up all of the loose ends. We have shipped my bike home to MA and are doing all that left over laundry so my suitcase won't be deemed a biohazard by the TSA. Before we get too busy with the rest of work, I wanted to capture some final IronCamp thoughts...

1. Location, Location, Location. Monrovia was perfect. It's not home to an Ironman, but if IMNA ever wanted to put a race out there, it would rival IM USA for beauty. Just awesome. If you were on the fence about this year's camp, you gotta make the redux in 2007.

2. Rich Can Talk. Seriously though...the dude is a walking triathlon encyclopedia. A few hours of talking with him and you already feel faster. I think his perspectives on building a solid training schedule and on training with power were particularly useful. He just got a new Ergomo, so I think after his SRM and PowerTap experiences, he will be ready to school everyone at IronCamp East Coast on training with power.

3. Less Structure is More. We had a massive agenda for the weekend. We were ready for anything. Yet when the ball got rolling, we quickly pulled the plug on the formal schedule. I think most folks learned by doing, and pulling people aside during the camp for some one-on-one input was almost better than entire sessions.

So now it's time to regroup and to start planning for IronCamp East Coast in June. IC EC will be held in Lake Placid on the IMUSA course and will be an excellent chance for folks racing IM USA or IM Canada to hone their training for the maximum effect on race day. The weekend will include course rides, strategy, and will culminate with the option to participate in the Lake Placid half marathon on Sunday.

See you in Lake Placid!!!!

Monday, February 20th, 2006

All week I kept saying that southern CA was "better than advertised." I was partly poking fun at Rich as he had gone to great lengths to explain to me how much better it was to be living and training west coast style during the winter months. You know the story, I say, "Dude, it's 15 degrees and I can't see more than 10 feet b/c of the snow!!" and he says, "You think that's bad, I am worried I might have gotten sunburn as the 50m outdoor pool!" Typical smack talk....but today, well today, I concede defeat. After a few rain showers on Sunday, I thought our run of good weather was over. Boy, am I glad I was wrong!

Rich had been pointing out "Mt. Baldy" all week, and the Sunday AM rain meant that there was actually snow up in the mountains for the first time in a long time. It's usually pretty cold up there, but with the precipitation it was definitely looking picturesque.

We set out at about 8:30, zero-ed out the torque on our PowerTaps and started the ride. We started out on a bike path until we started climbing...the first climb was scattered over 4 miles, so it wasn't all that bad. We turned after about 8 miles and made our way over to our first--and only--water stop for the ride. We had been pounding water for the first hour, so it was time to fill up for the climb.

The main section was a 6.5 mile climb over Tour-de-France-like roads. Total switchbacks, steep inclines and every turn had you looking up to see...more up. In a word, it was AWESOME. Rich and I made the summit first and took the time to shoot some pictures of the scenery and other campers making the summit. After we re-grouped, we started along the ridge, with LA off in the distance to our right, heading for Mt. Baldy. This would be a 12 mile ride on a good day, but with snow and ice over the last few hundred feet of the first climb, we knew that reaching Mt. Baldy wasn't in the cards today. So we rolled along for about another 5 miles until we had to stop. We fueled up, took a ton of pictures, put our vests on an made for the descent...a nice 9 mile drop.

The descent was insane...the road was closed to traffic, but there were still a few pedestrians hiking and one or two other folks climbing up. Rich and the others bombed the descent like pros, leaving me clutching my top tube between my knees and using the classic "death grip" on my brake levers. Man, that can exact a serious toll on your forearms after 20 mins!!! We regrouped at the bottom, dealt with a flat tire and then rolled back to IronCamp HQ.

After another monster lunch and the requisite rest period, we did more email and then went out for a late PM tempo run. Same route as on Saturday PM, but with no dogs this time, so a lot faster. We definitely ended up going sub-7 min pace by the end. A few recovery shakes and some beers at dinner marked the end of our first IronCamp.

More photos coming soon!!!

Sunday, 2.19.2006

We woke up the sound of rain outside, and with the weather report claiming a 70% chance of rain all day long, we had to cook up alternate plans. No mountain climbing in the pouring rain!

So we kicked things off by visiting the ADT Velodrome at the Home Depot Center in Pasadena. Man, what a place...first of all the whole Home Depot Center is amazing. There is a David Beckham school of soccer, the LA Galaxy plays here, there are baseball, softball, tennis and track & field facilities. Oh, and the best dang international-caliber indoor velodrome in these here Americas. I think the photo on the outside of the building (above) gives you an idea.

Once inside, we got a free tour of the entire track and training facility by Rich Sawiris of Wheelbuilder.com, who supplies many of the athletes who train here with support and wheel sponsorship. In fact, the 200m pursuit champ from England was in town. This dude puts out a peak wattage of 2400+. They train for 1/2 laps and over-distance work is a whole 400m. I told them we rode 4 hours and he was like "why would you do that to yourselves?" I guess it's all relative...

After the tour, we hit the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center and the gorgeous 50-meter outdoor pool. We hit the water to loosen up from yesterdays 4.5+ hour effort and dialed in a main set of 5x200 with 6 hard strokes at the 50 + 150 meter marks. Great solid main set and just hard enough.

We returned home to get some lunch and talk training strategy for a bit...then it was time to lace up the bike shoes again and get a short riding clinic done. We head out on a local bike path to the Santa Fe dam...the path is about 3 car widths wide and is just over 3 miles long...perfect place to work on aero position, pedalling skills, and drafting. We spend almost 2 hours out working on our technique and terrorizing the other recreational athletes outside enjoying the day! :)

Off to the mountains tomorrow....in the meantime, enjoy the rest of the velodrome photos!

Patrick

The tail end of the Montrose ride turns the corner at the top of Winston in Duarte.

Saturday, 2/18
Pretty straightforward today. We rolled at 7:30, met up with a bunch of other riders from the Pasadena Tri Club at Encanto Park and then made like roadies. We rolled for about 45 mins (+ one flat) and then split into A and B groups. The A group continued on, paceline style with Rich at the front, at a much more tempo pace. No more time for chit chat. Some serious work here...and a lot of fun.

At the 2/3 point, our group of 12 ran into the tail end of the infamous Montrose Ride, a 25-year tradition here in the SoCal area. Lots of folks (at least 80) in the group. We joined up and the no-drop light was off for real. Even though some super nice folks from PTC gave us a heads up on the upcoming tempo, it was a bit rough. I definitely got caught out, thinking I could play Macho Man and pull some of the stragglers back up to the main group. I am not a roadie. :)

And when the folks off the back caught up, it sure didn't help that I took them the wrong way. Oops! Anyway, turns out we were only a few miles away from the start...so that wasn't the end of the world. We regrouped at mission control, dodged some midday showers and had a huge lunch. Huge.

With some coffee to cut off the inevitable midday crash, we hit the Internet for an hour and then regrouped for a PM tempo run. Back to shower and out to dinner, we must have talked for 1.5 hours about training and cycling with power.

Up tomorrow: Possible showers and a Mountain ride. Not looking great...

Patrick

OLD TOWN MONROVIA, CA

IRONCAMP WEST COAST: PREPARATIONS
I flew into LA on Wednesday night, met Rich and we rolled into his hometown of Monrovia. It wasn't until 30 mins into our ride the next morning that I lifted my head and saw the moutains (above). Sha-zaam! Like I told Rick, this place is better than advertised.

Thursday morning started off with a nice tempo ride with Rich and our mutual buddy, Rich Sawaris (of Wheelbuilder.com fame). About 35 miles of riding with more UPs than DOWNs (or so it seemed) and definitley more time above my FT than I thought was possible on day one. :) The rest of the day was spent hooking up Rich's new Ergomo power device and doing basic administrative stuff.

Friday had us up early, heading our for a nice 10-mile run up to a fire trail (in them thar mountains) with Riley, Rich's black lab. Super fun. Then after a nice breakfast -- and more work -- we rode off to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center for a masters workout. Round trip is just under 20 miles on the bike and we got in an hour at the pool. Both of us talked good game and when we got out, complained of massive calf and hamstring cramps. So much for being tough.

Campers come into night and we fire up the camp with a group ride in the AM. More soon...

Patrick