Train To Endure
2008 Winter Training Camp
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Well, the 2008 TTE Winter Training Camp is in the books and everybody not only survived but, I believe. most people thrived! I did remark to everyone how impressed I was with how they handled themselves and made smart decisions during the three days. The one thing we accomplished was getting EVERYONE through all the minimum training, something we didn’t do last year. That was MY highlight from the camp!





Day three was an interesting start with more clouds and fog in the sky with a lot of mellow moods all around. Part of the quiet mood was not only the fatigue but the climb of Coleman Valley Road that was lurking after some tough riding. I did tell everyone before the camp that the day three ride would be the most difficult and it proved true. The first part of the ride took us through Sebastopol, to a reality check over Bloomfield Rd. (a long gradual climb) and into the “town” of Bloomfield. You’ll see in the photos above the group is ‘compacto” heading into Bloomfield. I found out that Stormy’s serves as the town’s meeting place, town hall, or anything else you can think of. Sort of one stop shopping! Interestingly there was still a lot of silence in the group as we made a quick stop in Valley Ford before taking a “slightly” longer route off of and back to HWY 1. We then started our ride into Bodega Bay, Coleman Valley Rd and continuing on the same route as the Tour of California used all the way into Santa Rosa.

The section of Highway 1 we were on has great pavement but the terrain is lumpy and the weather can typically be windy as you move closer to the shoreline. As we rolled along I thought I was being set up for an attack on Coleman Valley Rd. but later found out that most everyone was trying to hang on to mine and Rand’s wheels (Rand was awarded the Oomph! Leaders Jersey for the camp) as we moved into and out of Bodega Bay. As we cruised out of Bodega Bay there was a sign that read “KOM 5k”, meaning we had 5k’s to go before the top of Coleman Valley AND our last KOM. Coleman Valley Rd is a ‘Category 3” climb and doesn’t prove to be tough in it’s length but in it’s steep pitch over the early parts. You can see from the following link the stage profile. http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2008/stage1-profile.pdf

I really wanted to hang on to the OOMPH! KOM Jersey but knew Layne was lurking back there somewhere. You see, Layne is a skinny dude and sneaks around like a snake, you never know what he is up to. I managed to get a gap at the bottom of the climb and keep it all the way to the top. One of my goals before the camp was to push myself on all the climbs and try to get the KOM jersey … of course I didn’t tell anyone this! Mission accomplished. Everyone climbed really well and they were pleased to get to the top … as you can see from the picture above! The hard part was we still had another two hours of riding (total) and some climbing left until we hit the downhill and flats with 20 miles remaining. Even though we finally lost a couple people off the back of the main bunch on the final two climbs, we had a great run in to Santa Rosa with a few of us keeping the pace surprisingly high!

We finished off the training day by hitting the Santa Rosa Creek trail for our runs. From there we re-grouped and were able to catch the end of the ToC stage one finish here in town. A fun way to end the training!

I’ll leave you with that for now. Later in the week I’ll do a wrap up on the camp and training camps in general on my blog.

Until then … DL