Days 9 and 10 and camp summary

We made it! Camp is officially over. I am sitting in the Palm Springs airport now waiting for my flight to arrive so I can head home. Here is the low down on the final two days of camp.
Day 9:
The day started early with Mitch picking us up at 6am. We headed to Palm Springs and did the same group ride as last Saturday. This week I decided early that if I was feeling good I was going to try to hang with the lead pack of the A ride. As we headed out of the town we turned onto a long uphill with a 20 mph headwind. The group quickly broke up. I tried to hang on but the gusts of wind were coming in at an angle so I wasn't getting any draft from the riders in front of me. I dropped out of the pack and took in some nutrition. Decided to try and hold 300 watts and see how long I could last. I quickly started catching others who also dropped from the lead pack. Once we reached the top of the 20 min, 4% climb I turned around and found I had been pulling about 10 people. As we approached the right turn that signified the top of the hill two guys stood up and sprinted by me. My competitive instincts kicked in and I went with them. I passed them as I rounded the corner and dropped into my aero bars. I looked down and my watts were at 860 and my HR was at 180. I looked back and the guys were about 25 yrds back. I could see the lead pack about a 1/4 mile in front of me so I continued to push until I reached them. It took me about 5 mins and I only caught up because they were not pushing it. Once I got there they started to surge again. We were on a long section with little rollers. We had a tailwind and were cruising at about 35mph. I hung with them and we were taking turns pulling. Once it was my turn to be in front I pulled up and was ready to go. Just then I hit a bump and my bike started making a horrible noise. I had to pull over. I watched as they quickly rode out of site. About 5 mins passed before the rest of the group came by. Mitch stopped to help me. My rear derailleur had broken from the impact of the bump. Mitch was able to bend it out of the way enough so I could continue on. Once we joined back up with the IH group we headed out to a long stretch of flat road for our 60 min time trial. The goal was to ride 60 mins while holding zone 4 watts. Based on this and one other TT my zone 4 watts are between 285 and 300 watts. We had a 20 mph tail wind on the way out the same headwind coming back. It was the best ride of the week for me. We finished with 81 miles. Later in the day we did a steady 5 mile run.

Day 10:
After a late night of drinking and dancing at a local bar I was up early to finish packing. Those of us with later flights drove to Palm Springs and ran from there since it was about 15 degrees warmer then it was in Yucca Valley. We did 18 miles then hit the shower at the pool before heading to the airport.


Camp Summary:
The numbers –
Bike – 391 miles
Run – 69 miles
Swim – 19800 yrds
Total hours of training – 35:52

These last 10 days have been amazing! Mitch runs a great camp. The food (all of which is provided and included in the price) was outstanding. Most of the main meals are home cooked when time allows. The weather and the terrain have been ideal for IM AZ prep. I think for the best part has been getting to know the other IH’s that were also here. It’s hard to find a group of 10 people that you can spend that much time with and not get tired of any of them. I am sooo looking forward to the upcoming season and of course IM AZ. Based on what I saw this last week the Ironheads are going to kick some major ass! And that’s all I got to say about that… I’m looking forward to getting home and wrapping up training. We head to AZ in 3 weeks.