natbikes.com

First off, we are living here in Florida in a retirement village. During the day we hear the click clack of shuffleboard, and by 7pm the place is shut down. Defiantly different. (From anything I’m used to, as far as living/ training.) I’ll be based out of for the next 6 weeks.

We have just wrapped up another C3/ Personal Best Training Camp here in Tucson (the next starts up in around a month). So we are from a go - go - go, with extra room mates, and now back to the daily grind. Which is doing awesome training in a great environment. The wrap up day itself was my single hardest training day ever (correct me if I am wrong). I have been in colder, harsher, and longer conditions.

The final day of the camp Sean, Tyler Lord, and I, who had somehow become the newly christened 2 1/2 men (who or what makes up the half is not to be published, nor announced) set off into the water for a 1/2 ironman. That is 1900m swimming, 90km of biking (because I wasn’t using aero wheels I was OK with 86km of biking) and a legit 21km run, in 85 degree, really damn humid Florida weather.

The swim was OK. I grew up swimming in a lake, and I had my V:1 helping out… so rock on. Out on the bike, 6 laps got a little dull, and I petered off a little on the last one, but it was hot windy, and by that point it was just the 2.5 of us…. Sean, Myself, and Tyler, finishing up (with the 18h car drive home looming). Coach Barrie was there to pass out a few bottles, cheer, and take splits.

My secret goal is to win my age group at Oceanside Tri - there are 203 people, and one spot to Kona. If everything goes smoothly in the water and bike I need to run a 1h26 1/2 marathon. Of course I am hoping to rund a 1h24, and I headed off at this pace, snacking on a banana as I left. the first lap.. no sweat. ate a banana, swig some gatorade… 2nd lap still good, stopped for a pee, and some water, now 1h25 pace…. then … Booof. Stop to Vomit. Get up, keep running. Sure a little slower. It’s just training…. vomit again…. this is almost the feeling of when I passed out/ date-raped in Yosemite (long story, I’ll tell you later… later as in never). I end up with a 1h30 run.

The bottom line is that triathlon training is no joke. It’s harder than any of the other stuff. I never have suffered like this in any training day.

Not only is the training harder, the recovery is harder. After a day at the beach - I rocked out another workout… and spent the last few days water running for recovery

Catching up on a few Links:

Race report from last weekend: C3 Online: Escape from Florida
I talked to Matt Hansen a little over 2 weeks ago and I was happily surprised to see that our hasty interview hadn’t hit the floor of the Canadian Cyclist cutting room.

If you are coming from that interview, or a newer user here are links to the all-star blog entries:

• Setting a world Record in RAAM
• Bike Touring Central America
• Bike Touring to the Arctic

I forgot to mention Gears Bike shop last episode… Kevin and Ira are scrambling to make sure that I have something nice to ride in the meanwhile. You will hear all about it when my fantasy bike and I finally are able to hook up.

And why Clermont FL? Unknown to me before this, it’s the T.I.T. capital of the universe. The place abounds with Canadian, German, and other Triathletes, all, you guessed it, in training.