Burnt

Loading up for another day in paradise.
I am now in Penticton BC for the ABA training camp at which I am the coach/leader for the "A" group. So far the camp has been incredible on most fronts. The first day was comprised mainly of spinning around in in the sunshine, exposing white winter flesh to the first true rays of a new season. Yesterday saw a 200km blast through the Okanogan with ascents of Green Mountain Road, Richters Pass and the famed Anarchist climb. The later is a 16 km cornucopia of climbing awesomeness with a steady ascent of between 6-9% making it possible to settle into a solid rhythm. With the powermeter going I managed a solid 320W average for the 50 minutes of climbing, which is better than any previous year. In fact the average wattage for the entire nearly 7 hour adventure was over 200W, a solid effort indeed. The final 10 km into town from OK Falls was comprised of a 3 man guts out run in with some incredible speeds and outputs. It is somewhat mind boggling what some of these 30 something riders are capable of with somewhat limited winter training. The scenery and temperatures are inspiring great things which will make for many good rides to come for the remainder of the week I am sure.
It is a tough time of year to do a camp like this. I have hundreds of hours of base in my legs and really don't need more. I should be focusing on intensity whereas the camp is designed as mainly a riding affair which inevitably translates into long tempo days. To counteract this I have been purposefully riding around in a big gear to keep the wattage up and work on strength instead of spinning the base riding gears. It also a time when I need to work on top end speed and accelerations, but without access to racing or motor pacing this is difficult to accomplish. I know that in three short weeks I am going to get my legs torn off by guys who have been racing for two months already. It is a tough transition and tough mentally trying to build the speed without the previously mentioned tools, but with aggressive riding and race like situations like those experienced yesterday with the stronger riders in my group I might be able to gain some top end from it. Finally, my brother and his family arrived from Norway for a two week vacation the day before I departed for this camp. It was tough to take off right away especially since I havn't seen some of them for over a year. When I get back I will have a few days with them, all the more incentive to make them memorable.
Today is the first rest day of the week and although I am not feeling it too much after yesterday I think I will keep a low profile today as 200km of tempo must have some detrimental effects in the short term. Tomorrow will be the highlight of the camp for me with the riding hitting most of the major climbs in the area including the grunt up to the Apex mountain ski resort. In an hour and a half you can ride from 20 degrees and sunshine in Penticton to 2 meter snowdrifts and 2 degrees at the summit. The climb steepens dramatically with about 12 km to go and turns into a festival of suffering for the ill prepared. I can't wait.
Until next time, I will attempt to steer clear of further sunburn. Maybe I can show up in Belgium with a slight pigment this year and not embarrass my team mates like last year with my pasty limbs...