Man Camp Day #3

2 Pass Day

After our swim session and massive breakfast, a mandatory nap was called before the morning rollout. I have to say that was a nice way to start and given the delay (and a little Linkin Park) I rolled the 1st 8 miles to the beginning of the switchbacks on Berthoud Pass at a good clip. I did feel a little better today than the past few and took advantage of the perky feeling.

Having done a few camps in the past, I'm well aware of what training load I can typically back up. Just to hang on the past few days on a couple of Gordo's pulls and to complete the climbs was all the intensity I needed. And generally speaking, I enjoy leaving the camps in better shape than I come. For me, this means a lot of humility and taking it easy through the 1st part of the week.

In any case, 13 miles, 2,500- 3000 feet of climbing, and 60 minutes later I hit the top of the pass. I was able to crest before the rest of the MEN except Gordo (who dropped me like rock when we hit the steep stuff) on the account of my sneak attack right out of the gate.

After regrouping, we cruised together until the base of Loveland Pass. Needless to say my earlier effort doomed any attempt at a fast ascent up this one. We got a group pic at the top and cruised into Dillon. I gave it a shot at the city limit sign sprint, but even dead assed tired Petro can easily ride me of his wheel, though the attack was quite far out and equally as sneaky as mine at the rollout.

We finished up the day with our standard 5 mile run before dinner. Gordo & Petro were feeling a little peppy and negative split the way home. Unfortunately this generated some later dinner discussion and JD has now introduced sprint primes into our runs. Look out folks, I think this may cause some damage.

J

ManCamp Day #2

A tough day today...there is nothing tranquil about 130k of riding with 7500 ft. of elevation gain, 5 miles running, and pool session.

My plan was to remain as steady as possible, but all those went awry after beginning the climb out of Estes Park into Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful ride, peaking out above 12,000 feet, but there is no way to take that easy. We regrouped right before the top; JD & Gordo rolled over the top together and a fortunate road construction stop allowed Scott & I to go over the top just behind Petro.

An awesome descent into Grand Lake and a good stop for a bona fide breakfast. Of course, Gordo drilled it out of town and pulled a very solid pace. The heart rate frenzy to stay on created a bit of issue with the digestion...needless to say the massive shunting of blood to my gut kept the legs pretty anemic. I was definitely "shunted" and as we hit the climb into Frazier I was happy to voluntarily pull the plug and cruise back into town with Scott. This was my only shot at normal gut peristalsis resuming this evening.

We headed out for 5 mile run; nothing is easy at 8,500 feet. The swim was certainly no better. Fortunately with self-appointed medical waiver for my shoulder (Camp Doc has its privileges!), I took it a bit easier than the rest of the boys.

Heading to dinner...we are all salivating at the dinner aroma Jen has all cooked up. More tomorrow.
J

ManCamp 2010

I will be blogging this week from Colorado as we do some training there @ the 1st Annual Mancamp. For info on the genesis of the camp, check out Gordo's Blog. The basic gist goes like this...

"the idea for ManCamp came when Justin (Daerr) and I were drilling it up a mountain. I can’t remember where but the climb was long, and hard, so I’m guessing it was Arizona or Colorado. We were smacking it and J leaned over and said, “this is man training.” Something about his tone made me laugh and the concept of man training was born. I suppose there’s a little boy living in me and he likes to be a man every once in while."

Having trained with the boys in the past, this will be a solid week of swim/bike/run with a heavy emphasis on the bike.

I'm recovering from a nasty GI bug last week that threatened my presence at the camp, so the first few days will be as tranquil as the terrain will allow. Today we started off with a little "renegade" training, as my kind 1st night Boulder homestay (thanks Brooke) JD revolted from the 5:45 swim. We got a nice 5 miles on the Wonderland Trail before meeting up with the boys for our ride (JD says renegades of Funk by Rage Against The Machine should be in the background of all of our renegade sessions from hereafter).

Mayor meeker, Taylor & Chris from SC joined in for the ride up to Estes Park. It was a nice steady pull up Big Thompson Canyon until Glen Haven, then I took the caboose over peak into Estes. Solid 3hours and change of riding to ease into camp. More to come.