Spring Training Camp

Spring Training Camp with Shaun and his gang from Pacific Rim Multisport was really great!

Gen, Jason, Lawrence and I rented a mini van (actually they didn't have the booked mini van for us so we got a fair sized SUV instead) and headed out to Osoyoos early (really early!) on Friday 13-May and arrived well before noon at the Sandy Beach Motel. There the three guys got to share a suite and Gen was with two other girls in the suite below ours. The suites were great! They had everything we needed to cook and make breakfast and whatnot. A very well run and not at all expensive place to stay. I can highly recommend it.

After a quick introduction and going over riding and camp rules, we headed out for our first ride for about 3 hours up and over Richter Pass and a few of the rollers and back to Osoyoos, only to go up Anarchist Mountain for some 8k before heading back to the Motel. This was then immediately followed by a 30 minute brick run along the shores of Osoyoos Lake.

In the evening we had pasta dinner outside where Shaun went over some more camp details, some trivia and draw prizes, and we all got out camp swag bag. All the bags had printed and laminated name tags on them. I thought that was a nice touch but really didn't get the point... Until Sunday that is when we went on our longest ride and used those bags as our "special needs" bags. Clever!

Saturday morning started with an hour and a half run. After that a lot of milling around before we had a talk about wetsuits with a TYR rep who also had a line of wetsuits to try. I didn't bother with trying a new suit as I have a good one and am not in the market. The swim as extremely short as the water was really (really!) cold still. The afternoon brought us a 2-hour ride to Oliver where we stopped at the transition area and swim start for the Oliver Half in a few weeks to review some of those details and then rode home via the Black Sage Road stretch of the Oliver Half bike course.

The most important part about Saturday though was that it was my birthday of course! So in the evening we went to a nearby pub for dinner and a few pints. By now tiredness came creeping in and we decided to make it a somewhat early night. When us boys got to our suite we still had to have another quick drink... And sure enough, all of a sudden there was a knock on the door. Of course we thought that Gen found a second wind and decided to have another drink as well. But this was not so! It was Shaun to come and see what we thought of the camp so far. Then we proceeded to geek out on nutrition, power based training, and triathlon in general. Shaun sure knows his triathlon and it is fun chatting with him about that. So much to learn!!

Sunday was the Big Ride Day: up and over Richter Pass, all of the rollers, Barcelo and Upper Bench Roads, and up Yellow Lake. From there we turned around and went back home the same way for a ride of about 5 hours and 130k and, more importantly, some 1,600m combined elevation gain. This, then, was followed by another 30 min brick - the same as Friday.

The evening held Margaritas sponsored by the fine ladies from TriSports.com and some general socializing and BBQ-ing and more prizes. Good times!

Monday was departure day. Some - like Lawrence - went a bit toward Oliver and then turned around to go back up the Anarchist, while others - like Gen and myself - opted for the more sensible ride out to Oliver and back via the Oliver Half course again; making it a short 2-ish hour recovery ride. This was also the only day where we really had rain plus we had to check out in time. So that ride was perfect for me.

Back on the road to Vancouver we decided to stop for proper breakfast at some Greasy Spoon Diner in Keremeos (I think it may have been the K-Cafe? Good breakfast!) and generally mellowed out in the car back home.

Can't wait for Summer Camp!! :-)