The Accelerate 3 Training camp has finished. It was a small camp open to just the guys and girls that I coach. Since everyone is scattered across the country and even in other countries, it’s great to get part of the group together and put a face to the name of the person you are coaching.
The purpose of the camp was to challenge each person with more intensity and volume over the four days of the camp then they would normally see. Add in the wind Mother Nature threw at us every ride and the fact that it snowed going into the final day and it became a pretty grueling camp. Those of us that had late flights out got to ride Sunday afternoon. Mother Nature snowed on us, then rained on us, then threw a stiff headwind that had us going at 3.0+ watts per kg maybe hitting 15mph….downhill. Then we got snowed on….again.
Snow low on the Santa Catalina's
The campers got to see some of the best climbs that are offered in southern AZ. Thursday we rode around McCain’s Loop and did a couple of trips up Gates Pass and it’s 14% grade. The next day we climbed Kitt Peak. That’s 20k of climbing averaging between 7-8%. On Saturday it was up Mt. Lemmon up to Windy Point in the very cold weather for another solid 20+km of climbing.
Throw in some runs with intervals, a long run through the Tucson Mountains and you’ve got the makings of a tough four days for the athletes.
Cory, Billy and Steve framed by snow before the long run
We swam in the world class facility at the U of A pool. It was interesting to see other coaches there and how they ran their squad’s swims. One coach, whom I won’t name but is based in Tucson and is a coach to several IM winners, must have gotten hold of my Thursday swim workout. I watched him write my Thursday main set for his athletes on Friday. Either I’m a genius for writing such a kick ass set (which I tend to think is true) or he’s a genius for recognizing geniusness when he sees it and decided to use my main set.
Since we were in Southern AZ, I wanted to show the guys somethings they may not see in their home ranges. While taking our clothes off at the base of Kitt Peak (don’t you wish you came to camp now?), we got to see some illegal aliens run across the road about 50 yards away. We had to go through a Border Patrol check point, some of us while biking. We ran through snow, which is a pretty rare thing to do in Tucson unless you go to the very top of Mt. Lemmon. We weren’t anywhere near Mt. Lemmon for our run. We climbed up and then descended down a 50 yard wide patch of black ice on the road to test our bike handling skills. Four of the campers climbed Kitt Peak for the first time and were able to look one way into Mexico and the other way looked towards Canada. Everyone got in about 20-25 hours of training over four days. Most of the campers reaffirmed my lack of climbing ability by spanking me soundly on the climbs. Some of the campers also got to see a Javelina. All in all good times for everyone while at camp!
Javelina
Wish I had a chance to go. Sounds like a blast.