Tri Camp Day 2

Ride Baby Ride There are many reasons I chose to attend Tri camp, and among the top...test ride the bike course.. So at 6am, I woke up and headed downstairs. After an informative lecture on nutrition last night by Paul Huddle, I decided that today I would experiment with my nutrition while riding the course. CarboPro: my new favorite bike "food" It's amazing the stuff on the market for endurance sports. Carbo Pro acrually dissolves in water and tastes kind of like sugar. Only it's pure complex carbs. So using what little math skills I have, since two scoops equal 224 calories, I used nine scoops in an 18 ounce bottle. Using a marker I marked off 5 equal parts on my water bottle. I guessed my body needed about 175 calories an hour. So I gulped each "mark" per per hour. It worked. At some of the stops I did nibble on pieces of twizzlers and "swedish fish" (gummie type candy) and had a few bites of other riders bananas. Remind me the next time not to to take a bite directly from the banana in the face of several men(insert blushing here...) God's Country With little knowledge of the bike course but what those have told me (it's hilly, it's hilly, it's hilly), we set out in groups of about 8. Paul was our group leader. The ride was surprisingly scenic, mostly made up of lush farmland amidst rolling hills. For some reason, all I could think about was John Steinbeck and his novel, the Grapes of Wrath. Then when I looked at the vast corn fields Stephen King came to mind (you know that Children of the Corn thriller) . I think in time in some ways, stood still in this part of greater Madison. The numerous corn fields, farms, silos... it couldn't get more bucolic than this.

Of course that was all erased when it was time to attack a few of the hillier hills. I renamed one of them the Madison Monster. All told though, the ride is not all too bad, just a little huffy and puffy at times. My favorite parts of the ride included the downhills, cruising at 35. Nothing like that wind in your face. And it was windy! Perfect weather, good times. Power nap. Now it's time for some open water swim. Yahoo!

"Dwell in possibility" Emily Dickinson

Cheers and happy training!