I've had a ton a stuff thrown at me this week. I was put on a forced break from riding due to a mechanical issue suffered at our training camp last week in St. George. Its also been a big week for race planning with various meetings with municipalities and sponsors. A new opportunity to rep for a great product has also come up. I'm now the Utah Dealer Rep for Mercury Wheels! So even with the forced break from the bike and no blogging, its been a busy week.
Our first ever Excelerator Sports/Plan 7 Training Camp was a big success. We took a small group of ladies, mostly triathletes, to St. George for an all inclusive cycling weekend. The goal was to have the group show up, ride and worry about nothing else. We wanted campers to gain some training knowledge, get some great miles in and most importantly, have FUN! I think we accomplished all those things and then some. The ladies really were the perfect group to ride and train with.
Day one of the camp saw us traveling in the snow from Salt Lake to Cedar City. The weather usually only improves about 30 minutes outside of St. George, but it was a good drive. Once at the house we immediately went out for a 2 1/2 hour ride just getting warmed up for the weekend. Some drills and intervals made for a fun ride. A pasta dinner and some training tips took us into the evening and a good night's rest.
Friday saw freezing temps and huge winds so we put off our long ride until 11:00 am. Riding the Ironman course backwards, we encountered cold winds that really slowed us down but made for a challenging ride. We huddled in Veyo at the pie shop for warmth and of course, PIE! Its a tradition for me to eat some delicious pie midway through that ride. Once back on the bikes we got a nice tailwind for the ride down Gunlock then hit the Utah Hill with some motivation. I think a few ladies surprised themselves with how well they climbed the 7 mile road and then it was back to town. It was with 20 miles to go that my shift level broke loose and I was stuck in my 11 cog, so all I had gearing wise was hard and harder. No matter, we plugged along eventually taken in 80 miles and hours of saddle time. For one camper it was the longest ride she had ever been on by 30 miles! Her and the rest of the group hammered it.
After a well deserved meal at Texas Roadhouse, we all hit the sack exhausted.
The third and final day left us with stinging legs from the prior day's effort so we took a mellow ride up to Zions National Park. We spent some time with paceline drills and some final hard effort on the last climbs. I was thoroughly impressed with the group we had. They pushed themselves, were open to learning new things and came away from the weekend better riders.
We'll do more camps next fall and winter so be looking for dates at the end of the season.
Speaking of the season, racing has begun in earnest with the Utah Crit Series out at Rocky Mountain Raceway. Here's a cool Friday video showing off the riders and courses that make this series so much fun. Enjoy!
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