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Back home after 3 great weeks of training in Tucson. The camp ended strong, ending with a run, swim, and climb up Mt Lemmon on Thursday. Friday was a fun swim on our way out with a relay race and the major showdown of the camp, Damian vs. Rebeccah. To be fair, it was Bec who issued the challenge, a swim race. I suggested 50M, as that was the ONLY WAY I saw Damian with a chance to win. Legal start, Damian actually won the start/turn (it was 25M pool) and kept the men's pride intact, 28.1 to 28.4. It's all on video and we'll try to get that up soon.

Like I said previously, great camp. I know I learned a lot from Cliff and the athletes there. Important for me is to keep that focus and recreate some of what we did there here in Portland. Training at the facility has seemed to work, as I felt much better than I expected on the bike. So now we rest this week, and get back to work.

Great to be home.

TJ can ride...

He dropped the hammer today....4 hours-- Over Gates Pass, 2 rounds of (30 min, 20 min, 10 min all with 5 minutes rest in between). One of the top riders in our sport. Sam was impressive as well, she's VERY strong now, going to be fun to watch this season...

1 hour run in the a.m and 4800 lcm swim before, made for a long day. Cliff sagged the whole ride and gave lots of encouragement. It's been great having him around for all the workouts. He's a great coach, has gone out of his way these 3 weeks.

I think everyone's feeling the efforts of the past 2 1/2 weeks, training's hard but it's been great. Really ready to get home though, miss the family alot.

check out www.tollakson.com Some videos from the camp, including some shameless plugs for Athletes Lounge.

chris

Critical Thinking

What is the definition of Epic?

Day #11 Mt. Lemmon Climb

Today we climbed Mt. Lemmon. I think it is 24 miles with about 6000 ft. of climbing

The elevation really taxes the lungs, no oxygen to the legs=good time

Snow makes a good stand for bikes, maybe we should put some in the shop?

I ate a chocolate chip cookie the size of my hand at the top.

The road we climbed up on, can you see the cyclist?

Why would they put this at the end of the climb in the Cookie Shop? I guess it helped me finish the cookie.

-Damian

2 pictures and 2 links

Potluck from the other night. Lots of burgers, salads, and wings.

Chris Boudreaux driving the pain train.

Coldest pool I have been in, great for an ice bath after 11,200 meters on the track today:

http://tweetphoto.com/11712531

Cliff English Pix from the camp:

http://www.cliffenglishcoaching.com/PRO_CAMP_2010.htm

Day #9

Sad to see Chris Bagg head back to Portland yesterday. Great early morning run from the house, headed to the pool for a good swim set, then a 4 hour ride with some intervals. We left the house at 9:30 and didn't make it home until 7:30 going from workout to workout, throwing back food in transit.

-Damian

Weekend

Big weekend in Tucson...

Saturday was a hard 5 1/2 hour ride, with 13 mile Madera Canyon climb. Steady the whole ride with run off.

Sunday 1:30-1:45 run at a pretty hard pace after 25-30 minutes. 90min - 2+ hour ride in the afternoon.

BBQ with the squad in the evening. Lots of fun (we brought hot wings) and nice to relax a bit from the 1st week of hard training (30 hour training week with lots of quality).

Tim O'Donnell got in town and proceeded to show us some major swim speed, nice to have another top athlete in camp.

We'll get some pics and video up soon...

Day #5

Run in the a.m. followed by a solid swim with a main set of 20x100 meters. We unloaded the rest of the day which gave me time for a few non-training pictures:

These are the nutrition products that I found in the kitchen. I wonder if I could increase my wattage if I took a serving of all of them at once?

This is our refrigerator, which is packed full of goodness. I think this is the first time that I have stayed in a house with 3 other people where there has been no beer in the fridge.

-Damian

Day #4 CEC camp in Tucson

Philippe and Chris Boudreaux

Chris Bagg is about the size of both Wassner sisters (green and yellow jerseys).

The crew was strong during our hilly TT intervals. Coach Cliff rode out with us to give splits on the 6.48 mile loop, sending individuals out on 15 second intervals.

Day #3

Run, Swim, Run, Bike

Day #2 down

Yesterday was a good warmup, today was a good reality check. I guess we are here to get in shape.

1 hour run to start off the day followed by good set in pool:

Boudreaux getting ready for swim, Outdoor 50 meter pool is a luxury. Around the corner is another 25 meter pool. On the wall in blue are men's/women's national champs as well as Olympians for the Wildcats (The list is long).

Getting ready to ride, 4 hours scheduled @ "moderate tempo" turned to "fresh legs fast tempo"

in a hurry. I guess I need to upgrade to zipp 303's for training rides like everyone else.

-Damian

Trip South

in Tucson for Cliff English's Pro camp. Great coaching, great athletes, great weather. Time to get to work.

The Athletes Lounge truck...

Thanks to our master designer Lydia for the look, and to Ellison Advertising for getting it finished before we headed to Tucson.

Intro

Hey everyone,

1st post from the new Athletes Lounge blog. We're going to try to keep this focused on things like training, travel, races and events. Lots of videos, lots of pictures. Our new online shop (www.athleteslounge.com) will be up and running soon, and along with our Twitter feed, this is another way for us to stay in touch.

Some of us we'll be heading out for a training camp in Tucson this week, so we'll try to start with regular updates then.

So, the remodel in the shop is almost done, new product (still) coming in every day, and our local Portland athletes are starting to get ready for the race season. Looking forward to the new year!

A.L.- Get There Faster