Back from training camp.

This last weekend was awesome dude!  Left T-town about 5:30pm on friday with three friends, and as much camping/triathlon equipment we could cram into a '91 green Jeep Cherokee with no Air Conditioning.  We were headed for Lake Patagonia, for the first annual TriCats hell training camp.  I have been to TriCats training camps before, but this time was a little different.  Our party pulled into the campground at around 7:30 and to our amazement there were already about 30 TriCats sitting around a fire chatting it up.

 We unloaded the truck and set up our tent among everyone else's and joined the campfire circle, then eventually went to bed around 10pm.  After a long night of not sleeping, I decided to get up at 5am and start breakfast.  Chili dogs.  After breakfast, the training camp begins....  First we go for a nice little 2:45 hour bike ride in 20 mph tail and then headwinds, and work a little on pacelines and hill climbing.  After the bike we got our running shoes on and go for  a 45 minute easy run in the crazy Lake Patagonia park hills and make it back to camp in time for lunch.

 After lunch we all jump into the lake and do about a 30-40 minute open water swim in the wind among the waves.  I almost bail on the way back because my hamstrings lock up in a cramp and I feel like I am going to drown for the first time in a long time.  Luckily, I had gone pretty far off course and I was near the shore so I swam to  a small rock outcropping where somebody was fishing, while one of the tricats tells me to hold onto his leg while he pulls me back to the group..  I refused the offer, but was grateful. I jumped back into the water and swim as fast as i could back to where everyone else was and was happy to have survived.

We finish the swim, have about an hour to recover, and then are told to drive off to some trail and do a 45 minute trail run.  We pile into the cars, and caravan over to one of the coolest trails I have ever been on and string out in a long line in the patagonia wilderness one tricat after another.  When we are done with that, we pile back into our cars caravan back to the campsite, and have a hamburger cookout.  By the end of the day we are all exhausted, and are trying to drink as much water as possible before bed and before tomorrow. 

6am Sunday morning, I wake up after a pretty good night's sleep and have a peanut butter and banana sandwhich on a bagel.  It tasted good!  After breakfast we get the briefing on today's workout... We are doing a triathlon race for prizes.  Long story short, I won overall, but was very impressed by all the newbies who decided that they were going to pop their triathlon cherry today.

 Triathlon was over, we packed everything up and headed home.

Sweet.