10 days, 48 hrs of training...why it worked

Its done, and it was a huge success.

I guess in the scheme of things that is the best you can hope for going into a training camp. No major mechanicals, injuries, illnesses, or mental breakdowns. As I am sitting in the Tucson airport waiting to get home to the lil man and my beautiful wife I keep thinking about what would have made the camp better or worse, and frankly for a first go I would say we hit it out of the park.

We came to a location that we didn't know super well but we knew people there that could guide us. We paid a bit of a premium on our lodging but having a hot tub, weight room, nice treadmills, and a 25yd pool at your crash pad was pretty money. Having a place with a kitchen so you can eat out some big meals but save some money and time on breakfast and in between workouts just eating in the room. Those are all the little things that matter in the end, but looking back I think the biggest thing about a training camp of any kind is who you do it with.

I met my boy Justin Park in Tucson for this little adventure and it turned out just as we hoped, a great set of workouts and some fun in the sun. A big part of picking who you train with is what do they train for, and how do they approach it. In our case, even though Justin is more of a 70.3 guy, his coach Cliff English and mine, Neal Henderson have a lot in common in their approach to training. This made combining and swapping our workouts easy and productive.

You also have to train with someone you actually like. Training is great but 5 hr rides are pretty awful if you are riding with someone but have nothing to talk about. For that matter you have a lot of time eating and chilling too, so you better have stuff in common. Lastly, and this may actually have been the best part was that our strengths compliment each other. Justin is a super talented runner, a really solid rider and an improving swimmer. I am a solid swimmer/biker and an improving runner. We are able to ride together no problem and then push each other on our strongest/weakest disciplines, in the end making us both better for it.

Moral of the story if you are gonna set up a training camp, make your decisions carefully because each one can have a big impact on the camp's success or failure.

2012 is gonna be a big year. With Lance Armstrong back in the mix bringing the sport more to the limelight hopefully all the pro's can capitalize on it and improve our situations. I personally am getting excited to get racing again in about a month at Rev3 Costa Rica, and watch out for Justin in 2012. I'm calling it now, the guy has been super sick the last couple years, but is back in health and will be doing some damage this year.