SoCal Training Camp Part Two

The last four days of training camp were unbelievable!   They included two "easy" days, and it's funny how that term has become relative.  Wednesday's easy day was a mere two hours :), a masters swim at North County Masters and then a run along the coast from Moonlight Beach to Cardiff and back.  Then some resting up in the afternoon/evening!

Thursday was fantastic - a group ride through Camp Pendleton and along the coast.  This was the only flat ride of training camp, but I still had to work hard to keep up with the group for five hours.  It was great meeting some new people and seeing some new sights (and some of my old faves through Carlsbad and Oceanside next to the Pacific).  I even got some time that afternoon to poke around the cool shops of downtown Encinitas!

Rolling through San Onofre.

Friday was another "easy" day, with a tough masters swim (thanks to Chris for being super welcoming all week), a core workout, and a tempo run around the Rancho Santa Fe golf course.  The soft chip trail around the course is deceiving, while the impact on the legs is minimized, the work isn't as you sink into the soft uneven chips, but a great workout.  Very pretty as well.

Today finished camp off with an absolutely incredible day.  One for the book of favourites for sure.  It required an early alarm as we had to drive over an hour southeast for our departure - we were doing a group ride over the Sunrise Highway up Mt. Laguna.

We met the group just before 8 a.m. (except for Stud Matt who rode 70 miles, leaving at 4 to meet us) just off I-8 on the exit to Pine Valley.  We rolled out and pretty much right away started climbing, even though it wasn't the "official" climb.  Once we turned onto the Sunrise Hwy the real climbing started, and we all rode at our own pace to the top.  Of course generously I decided to ride sweep :) and met everyone at the top where we refilled bottles and traded stories about the climb.  At that point Matt appeared, with 87 miles in his legs already!  

Starting the climb.

Summit looking down on the Anza-Borrego desert.

Deceptive elevation profile - doesn't really show
how much climbing there was after the summit!

The descent down the other side had a surprising amount of up mixed in with all the down.  We stopped for a few pictures, regrouped a couple of times, and pretty much hammered all the way back to the car.  My legs were totally spent by the time we got back and I was pretty shaky.  Good thing I packed a lot of food for the drive home... as I still had a run to do!

Training camp finished with a sunset run along the coast.  What a great way to end an epic (yes, overused word but TOTALLY applies here) week.  Eight days and just over 34 hours of training.  That should give me a great base to take me through the fall training for IMAZ!  Super huge props to Kiki for organizing an unforgettable training camp for me.  And thanks to old and new friends for joining me on some of my adventures this week!