I spent the last week in San Jose at training "camp." I'll go ahead and call it camp because I guess that's what it was, but really it was "Camp-O-Fun". Or really, maybe "Man-Camp-O-Fun". Yes, Michelle and I got to go to man camp. There was a lot of man-wheel (my favorite). Before I get going into it, I want to highlight two podcasts that I did last week in case you missed my posts on Facebook or Twitter.

One: Michelle and I were on Jim and the Other Guy. We are episode #34 and we just had fun. Jim's podcast is great because it's light hearted, people are having fun on there, and it's not overly serious. PIC and I talked about silly stuff and being moms, and just loving the sport.

Two: I recorded a Podcast with Tawnee Prazak on Endurance Planet as well. This one is a bit more into the nitty gritty of triathlon, my progression in the sport, some of my thoughts about the sport, and some nuggets about motivation. I've had a few emails that people are really enjoying this one, so maybe you will too.

So, enjoy those if you have a long ride on the trainer, or a boring commute to work! Onwards!

Camp! I hooked up with a great group in the bay area this week for a multiday block of training and it was a blast. The group was mostly men, although the few of us women really bonded as well. When lots of men are involved, lots of work gets done.

I like training with guys, I'll tell you why. When you are in the middle of the work, they just work, no tears, no judgement, no falling off the back in shame, they just work. In fact, every one of these boys just about ripped themselves to shreds over that week and they were so happy to do it. They have pride and they don't let others see them suffer because they don't suffer, they just keep their head down and work. They were like Labradors....happy go lucky, hard workin' mo-fos.  When the day is done, they have an easy time letting it go. Training with boys is EASY on the psyche. Nobody judges. Nobody complains. Everyone just kicks ass. I don't think a single person out there had a bad day, not one.

Also, being a girl who trains with the boys, at first they are kinda nice to you. They treat you like a chick, because they don't know if you are one of "those" kinds of girls. But by 48 hours in, I just blended into the bunch, they forgot I was there, and they had no problem talking about their balls. It was great. I like it best when I lose my girl status, and just become one of the bunch. Once that happens I really feel like I can work my ass off.

If you are familiar with the San Jose area, we climbed Sierra and Hamilton on back to back days. It was awesome, 150 miles with like 15K of gain in two days. Each day was a race to the top of Ham, and I just ditched the power, ditched the HR strap, focused on feeding the machine, and RODE. There was a lot of time spent climbing on my own, but I can't recall really thinking about anything other than doing work and being happy. I had my phone in my pocket and I would play songs on the climb out the speaker. It was fun passing people and they would laugh because they could hear the music coming. 

My favorite was riding with Darren and I'm just gonna say he "might" have known the words to a Brittany Spears song. MIGHT....I can't say for sure. My favorite photo of the whole camp is this one. SEE, this is what I dealt with folks. Really happy dudes who totally dig training.

When we weren't swimming biking and running we were laughing and playing around being silly. I went off the high dive at the pool and got lots of water up my nose. Headrush! I have a long way to go before I can do a flying squirrel! Prisoner ESCAPE!

Michelle and I went on a date night. Hahaha! Punk Rock Racing took us to the Sharks game. Actually he took me twice, once with Michelle on date night and another night for fan appreciation night with Jim Lubinski. That was especially awesome because Jim used to play PRO hockey, so I learned a lot that night....like what icing is....

Michelle's and I's date night ended a little badly with a 24 hour bug for her. But on the up side she got to recoup with my mom tending to her. Which I must say, my mom is the ultimate nurturer.

 

Interspersed between Sharks games we did a lot of eating! Whole Foods baby! It was great to get to know Gui more on this trip. He has recently been bestowed the honor of being on Team Timex. So you know he's a bad ass. I must admit it's inspiring to be around someone so young with such a zest for progress in the sport. He works so hard and kinda feels like my little brother after this trip. You can follow his blog here. Also, he works for Google, so you can ask him anything and he knows.

Towards the end of camp we did a 3 mile TT on the track. It was really fun because I did one on this same track the Tuesday after the Death ride. The track is long. I keep trying to convince everyone of this! Every time my Garmin beeps at the same spot on the mile and I SWEAR that 12 laps is 3.1 miles. My Garmin agrees, so if you run on this track in San Jose then guess what, you are faster than you think you are. I'm calling it a 5K. I know it is, I feel it in my bones, and my Garmin agrees. After camp I ran 20:28 I think. I could be off by 5 seconds either way but that # sticks in my mind. I was happy with that after the Death Ride and where I was at in my training. This week I ran 19:05. I'm super happy with that. If it's a 5K...and I'm saying it is, that would be a PR. What was even more amazing was getting lapped on LAP 5 by Jim and Stephen. Yea....LAP 5!!! Again, so awesome!

 

Of course, after the 5K on the track I ended up like this for awhile. Thank you mom for the sweet set up with the recliner desk and what not. I need to get this for my house. At that moment in time...life did not suck!

I just have to extend a huge thank you to everyone that pushed me this past week. It was one of the best training weeks I've ever had, not just because of the work that was done, but because of the attitude of the workers. Everyone was always ready to lend a helping hand, pats on the back were abundant, "good jobs" said often.  I also had some great conversations with pro athletes, with elite age groupers who want to be pro, with elite age groupers who don't wont to be pro and with a coach who's been in the sport 30 years. I got a lot of different perspectives and it really helped to hone some of my own feelings about the sport and my place within it.

Good stuff people! Train Hard! Have Fun!

As a wise man once said....It's just EXERCISE!