Gabrielle swimming the gauntlet (it's her birthday)!!!

swim start sprints.. buoy swim.

University of Arizona Wildcats. 2008 NCAA swim champs (women)

Summary of past few days. Pic of University of Arizona pool.

It's Friday and the last day of training for the juniors from BC.   I'm sure nobody is looking forward to the cold weather back home.   We'll sure miss this place.  We've had some great training and some good fun along the way.  

My last post before departure. 

Over the past few days this is some of what we've done here in Tucson:

• two really fun Cactus League Major League Baseball games: Arizona Diamonbacks vs San Francisco Giants (D-backs won0,  D-backs vs Chicago White Sox (D-backs won again).  For the second game A - Russ organized VIP seating for Team BC and Manitoba in a tent with all the hot dogs/hamburgers etc we could put down.. hmmmm!  not bad!!
• Mt. Lemmon assault:  some of the guys went for the 12.5 mile official time trial, then cruised the rest of the ride to the top (will post results later).  Everyone rode right to the top and we enjoyed some good cherry pie at Summerhaven.  The Fireduck award goes to Christine for a fine effort.   Kudos to everyone for enduring the long and hot day. 
• A spirited 6-8 x 1km at Udall park with Team Sask, Team Manitoba and BC in attendance.  Some fast km's were run. 
• Good drafting set at U of Arizona pool swimming long course.  We really appreciated the facilities director Russ for making us feel so welcome and offering a quality swim venue. 
• Some good buoy swims at Ft. Lowell.. see pics. 

OK.. time for a coffee then on to the morning brick session. 

Pictures from a great day in desert paradise

Today was another great day here. BC,Sask, and manitoba all met up at 930 to do a long ride thru gates pass and arva valley. The ride went thru the saguaro national park, which was a highlight. On the map it says national park forest, but its not your regular forest, no it is a cactus forest.

4-5hrs of riding with your friends can't be beat. Here are some photos taken today, i'm sure there are more out there from the other groups, so perhaps more will pop up later.

The Coaches

Friday was a big day of training for everyone here in Tucson.

The day began with Mt. Lemmon, the athletes tackled the climb at various distances, but all rode for 4-5hrs with a 30min run off the bike. Stevo crushed the climb in 1hr42min. Rumour has it that the record for 12.5mile is 47mins, look out!!! A quick recovery period and then the group got in the pool for 5k of swimming. The bouys were set up and the set was 5x400m. This set was tough but finished off a great day.

The coaches were great today and need big mention. Patrick, Mark and Rossanne all were there for support on the climb, set up the bouys for the swim and kept everyone motivated when the energy levels were sinking.

As Pk said that could have been the first bouy swim in fort lowell pool history.

TB Feast

After a hard wednesday of training 4 athletes blew the doors off of a Tucson Taco Bell and devoured 8500 calories to satisfy their hunger!

the very talented dancing leprechaun's at their finest.

the 4 amigos!

these guys look happy to endure what Mt. Lemmon has to offer .....   pain - accomplishment!  

oh what fun!!!

working nicely together on the Mt. Lemmon climb.. (Cole, Mark, Taylor, Christine, Gaby). 

At the summit. The boys pay respect to Mt. Lemmon..

Mount Lemmon tomorrow

Hi All. Everyone is doing well and having a good training camp. Tomorrow is a big day and one of the Tucson "classics" - a must-do ride while here. Mount Lemmon beckons us and tomorrow we venture up into the clouds for a 25 mile climb (3 times as long as Cypress in West Van). After starting at the desert floor with cacti forest and tumbleweed, we ascend through various zones of vegetation until at the top we stand amongst a pine forest and a ski hill. Oh, and famous pie from the bakery :)

Hi to everyone back home!

Mark.

St. Paddy's Day - a little Irish Fun!! sh-she', sh-she', sh-she'...!

Tucson Update: March 17th - 20th

Hi Y'all. 

We've had a very good past few days of training along with a bit of fun! 

Here's a quick summary:

Sunday:  fast racing by the team.  a nice win by A-Russ in the overall men.   The juniors all rocked. Race results are here:  http://www.tritucson.com/results/TUTres08.htm

Monday:  regeneration/recovery day. a.m. 2.5 hr base ride - Old Spanish Trail 

p.m.  4.5k tech swim Ft. Lowell pool.    St. Paddy's Day dinner and party at the girls house.  Kerry, Rachel, Christine and Rebecca cooked up a fine dinner of salad and shepherds pie.   A few leprechauns appeared for some entertainment and fun.   We have a few videos that could make their way on this blog or youtube.com   ?!  

Tuesday: a.m. swim Ft. Lowell pool, speed set 40 x 50 main set (1 fast, 1 ez).   Rebecca wins the fire duck for some good stroke corrections.    Team Sask and coach Ross-Ann joins us for regular training.  Nice group

p.m. 3.5 hr bike, for most of us it was our first look at the famous Mt. Lemmon.   w/up of 45' then 45-60' of steady state riding up the mountain.   For some it may have been a bit harder than SS.   We'll be back Mt. Lemmon. 

Wednesday:  a.m. swim Ft. Lowell pool, set up long course, 5 x 500 in draft packs of 2 or 3 main set, very good effort all around.  a.m. 90' bike base OYO. 

p.m. Fartlek run at the University of Arizona.   We used the grass loop that was part of the Sunday race.  Most found it quite hot so we shorted up the set.  5/2, 4/2, 3/1, 2/1, 1/1,  as work/rest, then repeated from 3/1.   Good heat training prep for Mazatlan. 

Thursday:  it's regeneration day.  we have a 2 hour base ride this morning followed by a 4.5 km regeneration swim, short course at Fort Lowell.    

JP the champ.

pre-race tunes, pre-race hair!!

Coach Mark and Rocket Man Cole.

Kerry and Christine: Tucson Sprint March 16.08

Tucson Sprint!!

Today was the first race of the year, the Tucson sprint triathlon. We arrived at the race site at 4:45AM thinking that we would be the first into transition...not so much :( Walking into transition was slightly embarrassing, a sea of Cervelos decked out in Dura Ace and Zipp. The Age Groupers were playing for keeps!!! 

Once transition was set up we rolled over to Starby's for some pre-race caffeine. By about 9 the sky was overcast for the first time since we were here. It actually got cold for a bit. We swam in University which was short course yards which=Fast Times!! Scotty took the swim prime with an 8:15 for the 800 very nice!!

The bike was a whole different animal! The first part of the lap was a smoothly paved downhill that went past the U of A football stadium. very cool. If you asked anyone about the section along Euclid st they would tell you about the saddle sores. It hurt pretty bad.

The run was pretty good because we ran right in the middle of campus.

results are on the Tuscon Tri's website.

Matt, Scotty, Jeff - eat your heart out.. these girls have the pipes!!

the girls.. getting ready for St. Paddy's Day - looking good in GREEN.! Kerry's a true Irish lass.

T1.. Aaron and Matt. nice one Sharpie! How did that feel!?

swim start simulation for transition practice.. 10 pushups, run to bike T1.. etc.

flight down.. US Rockies!!

Saturday in Tucson! Good fun.

Hi y'all from the desert city of Tucson..  Great weather, good food and fantastic training. 

Today the junior group began the day with a 2 hour base ride along the foothills of the mountains then a short run off the bike..   We followed that up with some transition drills on a mini course n the local parking lot of the pharmacy across from our hotel.    Next was lunch, rest/recovery!   Early afternoon we headed over to www.trisports.com to pick up race packages.. a little shopping where everyone was only too happy to open their wallets and hand over their credit cards.. (parents.. better check the bills.. ha ha!).   Then in the later afternoon we cruised over to our swimming venue, Fort Lowell Pool, for our afternoon swim.  This was a short 2km with a bit of speed work to prep for the Tucson Sprint tomorrow.   It's not 10:45 and I'm ready to get horizontal.  That's all for now folks..   Enjoy the a few pics of the day.   PK

p.s. oh.. forgot to tell you about the great buffet that Mark, Aaron, Matt and I found 400m from our hotel..  $8.75 for 6 rows of good grub!  We'll back..  Matt and Aaron put that place into bankruptcy. 

The First Impressions

Arriving at Tucson Tuesday night we have had some time to check out the city, university and training venues. All the swimming pools seem to be outdoors usually consisting of 8x50m lanes length by 10-16 lanes x25yards. The outdoor pools are a nice change from swimming inside all year but they provide no relief from the glaring sun that seems to never disappear here. Not that i'm complaining but with the sun and heat you need to be consciously aware of your hydration 24hrs a day. At night i'll often drink 1 to 2 bottles while sleeping, similar to sleep walking but i call it sleep drinking.

The cycling in the city is great compared to say Vancouver (similar size). There are bike lanes on all roads it seems and the surface is nice. On thursday we climber Mt.Lemmon, a 27mile climb up to about 8500ft.

We haven't found any running trails as of yet but have snuck into the university track, well sort of.

The bulk of the group arrived yesterday, as the Ontario group was leaving. On Sunday we are racing in a sprint triathlon based at the university pool. We'll update you on how it all goes.

thanks for following

and are the parents ready to have them go!!!

YES !!!!

The grocery bills will decline to near normal levels... along with vehicle gas consumption and perhaps some extra time will be spent figuring out how to pay for it all !!! Seriously...have an amazing time, we'll miss you, (some of the time) and kick a _ _ at the Tucson triathlon race on the 16th.

Tucson here we come.. Are you ready for us!!