Training Camp 2009 Part 2

Wow! I thought surviving camp was going to be a matter of surviving the intense training rides, but today we discovered that wasn't the case! Plenty of other obstacles presented themselves. After a good night's sleep, we rolled out at 8:30am for a long hilly ride to the Malibu canyons. The Santa Ana winds had arrived overnight and it was extremely windy as we headed out. We had Rob's dad, Bob, following us again which was awesome (it helps so much to be able to drop off extra clothes, grab drinks, and change wheels- it makes our rides so much faster).

As we headed south the headwind was incredible; we were barely doing 15mph into the wind! Finally we got some shelter and we did some echelon/paceline practice. This went well until a wind gust caught Corey at an inopportune time; he crossed wheels and crashed. It wasn't a hard crash, but still shook him up. After a bit he got back on the bike and we headed to the canyons. The wind was raging when we hit the climbs; the first climb was awful and we ground up the canyon at 7mph into a block headwind. When we arrived at the top we decided to alter our route to save time. The new route worked out much better. We covered some beautiful roads and finally had the wind at our backs for the return trip. The ride ended up being 85 miles with 7000ft of climbing (while fighting 20-40mph winds!).

When we got back to Oxnard the follow vehicle (my Volvo) died at an intersection. While I stayed with the Volvo awaiting AAA, the guys headed home to deal with another crisis! Apparently, someone attempted to break into Jason's car while we were on our ride and the car alarm was activated. The alarm had been going off since the morning and the neighbors were demanding the car be towed and a cop had arrived to cite Jason! After explaining the situation to the officer the situation with Jason's car was resolved. AAA arrived and I got the Volvo running again (after spending 90mins and $150 for a new battery). What a day!

We ended Day 2 by heading over Corey's house for dinner with his family. The Farrell's had tons of great food for us; a nice way to cap our stressful day. This evening's team meeting covered team tactics and our approach to races in 2009. We headed back to Oxnard and soon after it was lights out. On tap for our final day: 106 mile flat coast ride to Santa Barbara and back.