Twas’ the night before Christmas and Owen and I were busy setting up The Cycling House for the first camp of the 2012 season. After Owen and I made the 20+ hour drive down from Montana we hit the ground running and started the long process of setting up TCH. Once again Owen locked down an amazing house with amazing mountain views and a country setting. After nearly a week of hitting it hard The Cycling House was transformed from a house to a home. Owen and I worked around on the clock dialing in the house only pausing on Christmas day to head out for an all day adventure in the Rincon mountains. This year marks my 5th season working at TCH and the 7th year of camps for The Cycling House. The first camp of the season featured Ben Hoffman, a professional long course triathlete.
Our reinforcements (Anya Wechsler, Emily Kipp, and Jess Cerra) arrived and helped put the finishing touches on the house. We quickly developed a routine that included many shots from the Jura automatic espresso machine, sunrise yoga, newspaper reading, and completing a few remaining house projects. The Cycling House staff will include three new faces throughout the season. New this year will be Jess Cerra who owns Fit Food by Jess and is a professional Xterra triathlete from San Diego, California but is from my hometown Whitefish, Montana. Jess will work as our chef through January and team up with Drew Peterson for her last camp in January. Drew Peterson is a soul runner from Missoula and is excited to show off his culinary talents in the TCH kitchen. The final new addition will be Emily Kipp trail running goddess, triathlete, and all around awesome person. The veterans will be myself, Owen Gue, and Anya Weschler (joining us in January).
This past year we had a great time hosting a camp with professional triathlete; Linsey Corbin so we decided to add another featured athlete camp for 2012. Ben Hoffman was the next logical choice not only because he is the next up and coming American long distance triathlete but because like Linsey and myself he had his start with The University of Montana triathlon team. Ben splits his time between Boulder, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona and had several podium finishes and wins at both the Ironman and 70.3 distances in 2011. We expect big things for Ben in 2012 and so does one of his newest sponsors Volkswagon (click the link to check out his commercial). Ben continues to push the limits of his endurance in training and racing. Campers had a chance to learn some of Ben’s racing and training secrets throughout the week of camp.
During the 5 days of camp we covered over 230 miles of cycling, completed several swim sessions, ran in the desert , did morning yoga, and a staffers led their favorite core workouts. The featured rides for the camp were the Saddlebrook Loop, Gates Pass, Mt Lemmon (5500+ foot climb), and San Munuel which covered most of the Tucson area rides. The camp had some amazing weather with temperatures in the mid 70’s and not a cloud in the sky! Jess Cerra provided some nutritious meals that had everyone well fueled for the long days in the saddle. The meals included; Grilled Chicken/Tofu/Vegetable Kabobs, Turkey Vegetable Meatloaf, Chimichurri Steak, braised Lamb Shank, and gourmet pizzas. Needless to say Jess delivered and everyone left camp on a high note after eating great food, training hard, and enjoying some easy living!
Hammer Nutrition had all the riders well fueled out on the road and we are excited to have their support in 2012. Campers also had the opportunity to use the new G3 powertap wheels from CycleOps, Garmin 800 GPS units, Trigger Point Technology foam rollers, and TRX suspension training systems. Up next is a camp with Rod Connelly owner of Dogma Athletica in Vail, Colorado. We have a full schedule of camps for 2012 but check out our website for upcoming camps.
