The Party's Over: Training Camp Ends

My three weeks in California are coming to an end. Training Camp was intensive, fast paced, yet relaxing as being away from home, you don't have the day to day chores and distractions like cooking, cleaning, scheduling, chauffeuring, and working. Being away from home was relaxing in every way except for the few extra hours we spent in traffic jams. It was actually nice to have someone else make my bed, wash the towels, and cook and clean for me and a GPS and iPad to get me where I needed to go. My only job was to complete my workouts and relax. I was able to complete all my workouts during week 2 of camp while my husband was working. I found the local pools and parks. California was definitely designed for fitness. On the weekends, we were able to sightsee while putting in long runs and bike rides in some amazing places. From ocean views to wineries, weekend 3 took us to Guerneville, CA in Sonoma County for some biking, swimming, and running and to watch my teammates race in the VINEMAN 70.3. My husband and I rode part of the course through small country roads through wine country. The roads were bumpy and rolling with the most spectacular views. I followed a 3 hr ride with a 30 minute run while my teammates went to pick up their race packets. Later we went to the Russian River where the swim would be held and I swam for about 40 minutes and then my husband and I took a canoe out for an hour so he could get a river view. We were staying in a rustic lodge right on the river. There was so much triathlete traffic through the town, we decided to walk a few miles along the river to the pre race party at the house my coach rented for a delicious homemade meal. The next morning, I headed to the start line to cheer my teammates on and tried to capture everyone before, during, and after the race on film and learn what I could about ironman from the outside. I alway find that spectating is often just as hard as racing from standing all day. It was nice to feel calm and not nervous and just take it all in. I was perfectly content being on the outside. I felt that I should have wanted to compete even more from watching, but I think all the traveling and work outs left my body satisfied and not begging for more. While we were waiting for our athletes to come out of the water, a boat pulled up to the shore and within a blink of an eye, a women in a wetsuit was lifted out of the water and CPR was being performed right as people were exiting the water. It was a shock and everyone around was full of worry and disbelief as we waited anxiously for our athletes to make it out of the water and praying she was not one of ours. It was baffling as we tried to figure out how this could happen. Our swimmers were finishing one by one and a name was finally called out and the athlete's daughter who was standing closeby screamed out "that is my mother". It was heart breaking to hear the girl cry out and I immediately thought of my son and how horrible it would be if it was me. I could not hold back my tears for the girl. Her mother was taken away by ambulance and we never learned the outcome, but it did not look good. We had to remain positive to support our triathletes as tragedy can strike at any time whether you are in a race, at home, or crossing the street and we cannot stop racing because of fear. We suspected the athlete suffered some type of medical problem vs an accident since much of the water was only several feet deep. I did not want to go without remembering this athlete and her daughter as they have been in my thoughts ever since. I tagged along with other family members who were watching the race that day and followed everyone during each transition and at the finish line. The next day, I did a scenic speed work out to a state park with beautiful redwood trees and then we joined my teammates for a day of wine tasting set up by our wine expert of a teammate who I have named Wineman. It was a really fun day full of laughter and an education about wines from how to hold the glass properly, swirl, sniff and savor, and let the wine roll down smoothly. My husband brought home a few bottles of wine to continue to enjoy. The next day it was time to head back to LA to follow my son's music tour. His camp performed at different venues during the week and we followed him from place to place. We were very impressed with the diversity of musicians and level of talent and what was accomplished in two weeks including writing their own music, recording a cd and music video and going on tour. All the kids formed great friendships and working relationships and hope to return next year. Music and Ironman have a few things in common...they are both expensive activities, you meet a lot of really neat people, and it can take you to some very amazing places. So even though I had the ocean a mile from our hotel in Marina Del Rey, I could not muster up the courage to try ocean swimming on my own, so I took a break from swimming as there was not enough time to find a pool and it was difficult getting around Los Angeles due to traffic. I did get some extra time in the saddle and had the opportunity to work on my technique and practice riding in wind and on lots of curves since we rode on the bike trails along the beach which covered over 20 miles from Redondo Beach past Santa Monica Pier. The last two days, we spent as a family watching my son body surf, napping on the beach, and walking from Venice Beach to Santa Monica viewing the many types of street performers and people from all walks of life. We saw musicians, skateboarders, dancers, acrobats, all types of bikes and wheeled vehicles, muscle beach, artists,along with marajuiana sales and lots of struggling people. I told my son to embrace diversity and then run for your life! Now that CA training camp is coming to an end, I will do the same...embrace diversity and run, bike and swim for my life! Only 119 days left to get my body in order. Let the triathlon season begin with races starting in August and time to build on the base.