...you are stronger than you think...

Camp thoughts…where do I even begin? 

I have attended numerous tri camps in the past 6 years…this was my first time as a coach.  How different it all is.  There is so much that goes on behind the scenes, I’ve never been so grateful for everything my past camp coaches have done to get all the logistics in place than I am right now.  It’s tough work…getting SAG bought and set up, marking courses, organizing travel, showering @ 9:30 pm, meeting and socializing with the other athletes, AND making sure you are taking care of yourself (i.e. feeding hydrating, etc.) WHEW! 

BUT here’s the deal…IT IS ALL WORTH IT!  We had some MAJOR breakthroughs this week…seeing the athletes overcome fears, getting comfortable being uncomfortable, climbing mountains in PR record time…all the exhaustion of planning and organizing goes right out the window.  I am not sure Krista and I could be any more PROUD and satisfied than we are right now.  I would call this camp a HUGE success.

We had an incredible group of athletes this year.  Such a dynamic and diverse group, different athletic abilities, different ages.  We had local Scottsdale athletes, a couple east coast, west coast and several of us from the midwest…many will become friends for life.  Everyone stepped up and put their best foot forward and worked hard.  That’s the point of camp right?  Spend 4-5 days out of your routine; build a big fitness base and WORK HARD.  And that we did…

Thursday was an easy ‘optional’ run.  I put optional in quotes because everyone ran it.  Easy social jog, we didn’t want any matches being burned…we had a big week in front of us. 

Even Baxter needed to hydrate!

The Monday before camp, our coach Michelle was having major FOMO and decided to hop on a plane from Hawaii and join us!  She asked Krista and I to keep it a secret so she could surprise her athletes.  That was a tough secret to keep!  We were all super excited about her arrival late Thursday pm!!   (Needless to say her other athletes were super surprised and excited to see her!  Read her camp blog here!)

Me, Michelle, Krista...BSC coaches!

Our version of pillow service for coach Michelle!

Friday morning was a BIG day…huge.  A long bike to Bartlett Lake, a ~40 min OWS in Bartlett Lake then a 14 mile CLIMB out of the lake (where we spotted IM world champ Rinny and Tim) then enjoy the decent ride home.  It would have been about an 80-mile day, except Jen Sparkles and I decided to ride to Cave Creek and added another 12 miles to our day.  Why not, right?  Actually we I missed our turn…my bad.  ;)

Coach and sparkles :)

Either way it worked out perfect.  It was a tough ride and with a little coaxing of the bodies with nutrition, we all pushed through.  Krista and I were able to see some folks pushing their bodies and most importantly their minds…

’you are stronger than you think’

Barlett Lake!

My friend and inspirational speaker, Jenne Fromm so kindly agreed to take some time out of her Friday evening to virtually ‘hang’ out with us and teach us a little bit of how our minds work both for us and against us.  As usual she changed a couple peoples lives that night.  Everyone should check her out here! She’s quite an amazing individual.  I am honored and proud to call her my friend.

We had an ‘easier’ day on tap for Saturday.  ‘Just’ a 3-hour ride, including a jaunt up 9-mile hill.  Pacing and nutrition was key for this ride, especially since we had a mountain to climb the next day.  Krista and I each rode with a different group.  My group practiced pace lines on our way to the climb, super fun when you don’t ride with a big bike group very often!  Once we got to the bottom of the hill our strategy was this…spin to about mile 5, then add a couple of gears, @ mile 8 ATTACK and catch the front group.  And holy shit, we did it.  PERFECT pacing...

’you are stronger than you think’

Solid bunch of athletes!

Off the bike we had a 4-mile run.  We asked everyone to stay inside themselves for the first 2 miles and negative split this run.  It’s a lot harder to do this as most feel really good off the bike and are ready to charge.  It was noon in the desert and the false flat on the way home made for the negative split to be a SOLID challenge.  I think we had an almost 100% success rate.  A quick 3k swim shower and we had ourselves another HUGE deposit in the bank.

Sunday was the day I had been waiting for…for literally YEARS.  The EPIC Mt. Lemmon climb.  We got up early and caravanned the 2 hours down to Tucson.  Having never had experience Mt. Lemmon, I knew had to pace myself and needed to convenience the others to do the same.  WOW.  What an experience.  It was exactly what I had imagined it would be.  HARD.  BEAUTIFUL.  FUN.  And 2 hours and 45 minutes later, I was at the cookie cabin...
 

’you are stronger than you think’

Me, Krista and Sippy!  At the top of the Mnt.

Not too long after that, we were ALL eating cookies and pizza.  It was so amazing to see our athletes push the limits especially mentally and literally arrive at the top.  It’s a feeling that brings tears to your eyes when thinking about the metaphor of climbing a mountain, on a bike, by yourself.  

Pizza, Cookie and Sparky!!!

Then we had to get down.  It would be quick (time), it would be fast (speed), and it would be in a wind storm/headwind.  I am not the best/comfortable descending, but holy shit THAT was fun.  We had a couple athletes VERY hesitant to descend and one actually wasn’t going to, she wanted to ride in the SAG wagon down, but Shane with his negotiation skills convinced her he would leap frog with her down.  She drank the cool-aid and we once again had a 100% success rate of both the climb and the descent... 

’you are stronger than you think’

And all of a sudden it was Monday the last day of camp.  L  We had a l5 mile route and a 10 mile route planned for the group.  How would our legs feel after 190 miles of riding 14k feet of climbing?  Would they show up to play?  But of course they did!  I think everyone was a bit sore/tired, but the run got done.  Krista and I had terrorized marked Paradise Valley in a delirium the night before… & the route was absolutely stunning at sunrise.  Such a joy to be there…running.  Especially after the days leading up to it, there were little to no complaints had by any.

Sparkle and Kelly selfie!

Another quick swim and we were done!  (both literally and figuratively)  It was bittersweet at that point.  I didn’t know if the sadness was actually fatigue or if I was terribly sad it had to come to an end.  I think it was a combo of the two!  

Thanks Planet Sun for protecting us all week!!

Camp was a huge success!  Krista gets all the credit!  She worked super hard with figuring the logistics of the rides/runs.  This camp wouldn't have been without her.  She is a solid athlete and an even more amazing coach.  She's been a rock in my world and I am incredibly thankful to have her in my life.  Thank you Krista!!  You are amazing and I am so thankful for our friendship!

Thanks recoverye21 for our CUTE camp tanks!

I also must thank all of the athletes for working so hard and pushing themselves to the limit.  THANK YOU!  They deposited a huge amount of fitness into their ‘bank’ $$cha-ching$$ and it will come in handy very soon ;)   I wish everyone the most success in 2014.

Thank you to Shane and June.  We really couldn't have asked for a better SAG crew!  Water, nutrition, directions, photos, motivation, you name it - they had it ready for us.  We really couldn't have asked for a better support system.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

And last but not least, THANK YOU to our sponsors!!

Recovery e21 - Amazing product.  This stuff has gotten me through the most grueling training rides/runs and 2 Iroman.  Good stuff.  Get it.

Planet Sun - Did I mention not one person got burned in the desert sun?  Not a ONE!!  This stuff is top notch along with the people/company that run it.     

And here I am.  On the plane…revisiting the past 5 days.  Sad, excited, motivated, ready to race, experience new things, new challenges.  I never thought I would be doing what I love, not only as an athlete but now as a coach!!!  I am so inspired and excited to keep the momentum going.  The love and support I have within this community is crazy strong and I am incredibly blessed and thankful to have TeamBSC as my friends and family. 

...until next time, remember ’you are stronger than you think’

My Whole 30 - Week 1

I am not one to do stick to a list of resolutions as I try to incorporate new habits into my lifestyle throughout the year not just 1 x in January...but I did jump on a 'detox' or 'cleanse' or whatever you call it.  So I did some reading and decided the Whole 30 program was something I thought I could handle.  Here's a link to the program - Whole 9 Life.  The book that accompanies this program It Start With Food was a good reference to not only what foods are bad for our bodies, but why.  Great book, I highly recommend.

So without going into what you can't eat, here's what you can - it's much easier for me to digest (no pun intended) this way than what I can't.

Eat real food – meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds.

Tomorrow (Sunday) makes day 7.  Whew, almost 1 week in.  The hardest part for me has been the following...

• grains, I love my quinoa/rice
• go to easy 'meals' - burritos/sandwiches
• wine (although we've been sick lately and none of that sounds good right now...ask me in a week)

I have learned I need to have tons of food in my fridge and prepared in order for this to work for me.  After a long swim/bike/run, I am starved and will go bananas on someone if I don't get fed, but having something already prepped has been key.

I was craving noodles or something of the sort the other night.  There are recipes out there for zucchini noodles which was what I was determined to have!  I went to 2 different stores to find a julienne peeler.  It was like I was a mad man on a mission to have noodles.  Weird.   But I didn't cave and hit Olive Garden.

Training - I had a long ride Friday and was worried what fueling to use.  I know since this is only 30 days I won't have to worry about training when it becomes long but until then I want to stick to this program as close as possible to reap the rewards.  So, I fueled with bananas, fruit snacks (there is a brand that the only ingredient is ex. 7 slices of apples and blueberries), walnuts, coconut shreds.  Might have been a fruit overload but it seemed to work.  They say 'some' fruit but I do love it so I may be including more than 'allowed' but so be it.  :)

Another key?  Having a friend go through it with you!  We've been sharing recipes, kitchen gadgets, spices, etc and it's been awesome!   Here is a recipe she found and sent to me.  I made a big batch of it today, thinking it would last all week...turns out my husband really likes it and I only have 2 servings left!!!  Always a score when I can get him to eat a healthy soup!

Here's a website to the website where she found it.  This gal has some amazing recipes!

Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:
6 slices sugar-free, nitrate-free bacon (like this from US Wellness Meats) - I didn't use bacon, we had some ground venison I browned and added instead
1 onion, finely diced
1 teaspoons Ras el Hanout -  This seasoning is AMAZING!  No lie, MAKE IT NOW!
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
dash cayenne pepper
5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed - I just realized I didn't add garlic :(
2 pounds sweet potatoes (2-3 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced thin
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
garnish: fresh or dried chives - I didn't have any chives so I skipped this too!!
acorn squash - I added about 1/2 - 3/4 squash I had that I needed to use


Directions:
1. Cut bacon into 1/4-inch slices and place in a cold soup pot. Heat the pot over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until it’s crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate covered with paper towels and set aside to drain and crisp.
2. Keep 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pan and discard the rest. Re-heat the fat over medium-high heat, then add the onions, Ras el Hanout, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 5-7 minutes. Toss in the garlic and stir, cooking until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the sweet potatoes, broth, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Working in batches and being careful (please be careful, friends!), purée the soup in a food processor or blender until it’s smooth. Return to the pot, taste, and adjust seasonings. Ladle into bowls, then sprinkle with a little bacon and chives. Both the bacon and soup hold up well in the fridge for a few days.

Woo wee, this is good stuff.

Well off to bed to dream of waffles or something crazy that I don't ever eat!  (check out the timeline of what to expect during the 30 days here.  My dreamin' started day 5 :) )

Lean and Green

My dinner every most nights include 6 oz lean protein and something, anything green.  I'm always looking for new and creative ideas, so I'm not eating chicken and broccoli every night.  Fortunately, there are some really creative and healthy athletes blogging and sending me emails to help with just this.  Nell Stephenson is a creative and extremely athletic lady.  Here's her version of Fish & Chips.  Yum!  I can't wait to try this this week.

Training notes and 'other'...
I've been off work since the afternoon of the 23rd.  Lovely!  I was so excited to have a huge training week and get sh*t done around this house.  Monday - swim 3300 yds.  Tues - swim 2000 yds, strength 30 min with my trainer, run 1 hr (sucky, sucky, sucky) and waBOOM.  I was sidelined.  A cold.  Wednesday I was able to get in a 1:15 hr. bike on the trainer, barely.  Thursday/Friday - I completely took off from training.  Saturday - I got in a 2 hr. ride on the trainer (thank goodness for movies on demand!)  Sunday - I finally got outside for a 7 miler run.  Now, I'm on the sideline again until Wednesday pm when I head to tri-camp here. 

Here's to a short week and a speedy recovery.