GEC's High Endurance Ironman Training Camp--Day 2 by Owen

Grasky Camp – Day 2

Guest Blogger: Owen

I found out tonight that Brian has a policy of rotating who blogs from camp, and tonight I’m the lucky winner due to my perseverance through some bike “issues”. I brought my Guru on the plane with me on Saturday and all seemed well on assembly. About 30 mins into our bonus Sun AM bike ride to Sedona (camp officially started Sunday PM, but Shawn, Polita, Luc, and I were eager to make the most of our time here), we stopped at an overlook and I took a look at why my front derailleur was rubbing in some gears. Sadly, I realized the front hanger was half broken. We had the bright idea of trying to adjust the clamp over the fracture, but the hanger ended up snapping off completely. Called Brian to see if he had an extra bike just laying around – and luckily he did. At this point, P and I headed back to the cabins to setup Brian’s Kueen K for me to finish the days ride. It’s a nice bike and I got it fitting me pretty fast. Only problem is it had serious shifting problems. Was good for the day, but not great for the big days ahead. As luck would have it, Bill was coming up that day and brought 2 bikes. He was kind enough to lend me his race bike, so 3rd bike in two days! I’m still tweaking, but I think I’ve got it just about dialed in for the big ride to the grand canyon tomorrow. Anyhow, enough about that – what about day 2!?

Breakfast was at 7:30 today, then we were on the road by about 9. We loaded up Bill’s suburban to avoid some road construction and started our ride from Lake Mary. We did the bike from a half iron race in Flagstaff - 2 loops around Mormon Lake and back to Lake Mary. Nice quiet roads, great weather, and good views. We’re all riding power and you can see the impact of the altitude on the power you can sustain, but it seems like the reduced air resistance makes up for it, because we were averaging 20 mph. The group rode well together, tho I could tell Luc was itching to put the hammer down on some of the short climbs :-). Brian was rockin a road bike with Zipps and he really loved those downhills. Back to Lake Mary and we took a few minutes to fuel up and relax before putting on the wetsuits and hitting the water. The water was pretty nice, probably in the low 60s. Did some swimming back and forth along the shore and got out as we heard some thunder (and a few people spotted lightning). Piled in the car and headed back for some down time. Great first full day of camp.

Back for the evening, we had a great home cooked dinner thanks to Jill. Lot’s of time to relax and then we talked swimming with Bill (did I mention that guy can swim!). Tomorrow we get an early start and head to the Grand Canyon. Looking forward to the ride, and I think everyone is excited to run along the rim.

Owen