Arizona

Last week I was in Tucson, Arizona training and boy did I learn a lot! Firstly, what a beautiful place surrounded by mountains with 80+ temperatures and not a cloud in the sky! The famous saying each morning was "oh look, another perfect day". Thanks to Mark and Judy we were able to take in the many spectacular sites on our bikes and gain strength in training. Each morning we set off on an amazing cycling route and quickly learnt that there was no "faffing" about. It was an educational week full of slang words and do's/don't according to cyclist...do you know what squeeb means???

I have to admit the first couples days were particularly frustrating for me getting out on the open road with my new bike and learning the ropes of the gears. It always sucks being the last trailing behind, really puts your ego in check...I realized that I needed to focus on myself and how this sport is both mental and physical in more ways than I had imagined! I read this article in Triathlon Canada that perfectly described and put the sport into perspective: "Training for the triathlon sport requires working through a veritable maze as you try to condition yourself for three sports, choose equipment and deal with the unexpected challenges of racing against a thousand competitors in an unpredictable environment. Triathlon is a sport filled with dramatic ups and downs, curveballs, injuries and moments of pure and positive energy." by Lucy Smith

The challenging climbs and long rides were amazing each day as we cycled through reservation areas and national parks. The first day was Gate's Pass where we cycled for 4 hours and had the exciting thrill of seeing a live rattlesnake on the road, Judy seemed less than thrilled. I wanted to stop and take a picture while she zoomed off at super speed alerting any others in site to keep pedaling. During one of our other rides we had pulled off to the side of the road to use "nature's bathroom" behind some cactus' and much to our surprise were scolded by a ranger who threatened to charge us with indecent exposure. Who said cycling was not daring and adventurous? I, myself gave everyone the privilege of seeing me fall of my bike not once but twice over the course of the week. The "EPIC" first fall ever, took place at a stop light (Thornedale Avenue) where I lost my balance and bounced off the pavement during rush hour with plenty of spectators. Initially I quickly recovered out of embarrassment and later admired my war wounds of bruises where my bike bounce off my knee and I had scraped elbow, overall not so bad. The second fall was a couple days later when I attempted to turn my bike around due to wild dogs up ahead, or so I was told...the heat really does make some people hallucinate. This time I did not get off as easy and received more bruises on top of my bruises, missing skin off the palm of my hand, and road rash on the opposite elbow. Now I'm trying to play the sympathy card!

Some of our rides involved driving out to a starting point in our luxurious bus of a minivan we rented that easily fit our bikes in the back. At any given point we were guaranteed to hear the most popular songs of Tucson repeated over and over again on the radio by artists Lady Ga Ga singing Bad Romance or Lady Annabellum....it's one o'clock in the morning, and some tiresome song "I'm gonna break break your heart". These songs were heard at least 3 times over the course of each day despite the fact that we were in the vehicle for short periods of time....and we still have them stuck in our heads!

Our two big climbs were on Mount Lemmon and Kitt's Peak with a constant incline winding around the mountain. There were certain miles that really stuck out as being more taxing from the next as I slowly trudged up in my lowest gear. The view was breathtaking with stretches of open land that seemed to extend as far as the eye could see with nothing else in sight but valleys and nature. Lemmon is a 24 mile climb and I made it to about mile 9, then wind and speed traveled going down made me want to continue climbing up instead of down....wow! Kitt's peak was later in the week and I was determined to make it to the top of the 12.5 mile steep incline, it took 2 hours and I made it...so pumped!

The weeks main focus was cycling as I'm sure you can tell by now and we managed to squeeze in some running and swimming as well. Overall, 19 hours of cycling, 3 hours of running and 3 hours of swimming. We enjoyed several meals during the day and what appeared to happen was if we were not training or sleeping there was lots of food involved. By the end of each meal we were strategically planning what we would eat next....priceless! There were lots of laughs, a few shopping trips and a brilliant massage to work out the knots at Spa One.