Osoyoos Training Camp

Last week, my coaches Sean and Tara-Lee were putting on a training camp in Osoyoos, so I decided to tag along.  It was Friday-Saturday-Sunday but I couldn't arrive until late Friday night; still I packed a lot into two days!

Getting off the rock

Have bike, will travel

Saturday morning we did an open-water swim in Oliver - my first OWS of the year.  It's always good to know that the wetsuit still fits and I still know how to sight in a lake.  I led the group around the lake, which was a nice way to start the camp for me!

Woke up to a cool, raining morning... not
typical conditions for that part of BC!

Next up was a long run on the Kettle Valley Trail.  Yep, I got dropped by most of the group pretty darn quickly... but the KVT is a pretty nice place to run without company.

Long run selfie on the Kettle Valley Trail

Back to my hotel, I had a bit of time to have a nap (yay!), then it was meeting the group for a ride over the Oliver half iron course.  Sean had me hang on to his wheel for as long as I could... and I lasted about 20km at his furious pace.  It was really fun riding that fast but I couldn't keep it going, so ended up doing the rest of the 60km at my own pace, spinning through vineyards and rolling hills.

Group social time that evening was a BBQ, and it's always fun to connect with like-minded athletes hungry after some hard workouts!  Needless to say, I slept well that night and was up early for the next day's sessions.

Sunday started with another swim - this time in Osoyoos lake which was colder, but a nice easy short swim.  Then onto bikes for a crazy "double summit day".  We rolled out of town and up to the summit of Richter Pass, which I had always thought of as a hard climb on it's on.  Not any longer... as we descended Richter only to ride through town and start climbing Anarchist Mountain on the other side of the valley!

The long & windy climb up Anarchist

Looking down at Osoyoos from about 1/3 of the way up

Double summit day - Richter and Anarchist.
Richter looks like a mole hill... I'll never complain
about it again!

Most of the group ended up bailing before the halfway point - boo!  I made it to the 20km turnaround, while Sean and Alex went on to 25km before they turned around.  It was a screaming fast and fun descent to close off a couple of hard days of training.  Then I drove back over the coastal mountains and onto the ferry back to the island!  Whirlwind but packed in a lot of good training!