Weekend Tri Camp!

Oh man, what a whirlwind!! This weekend, Heather G and I hosted a tri camp originally for our Team Louisville athletes. Last minute we decided to open the camp and we got a huge response. We ended up with nearly 30 athletes!

THURSDAY:
I saw a tree get struck by lightning about 100yds away from me. I prayed it wasn't an omen for the weekend ahead. We kicked off camp with a cookout at the Murphy House just for our TL athletes and almost everyone was able to make it (which is funny considering not many people can make it to the strength training session regularly scheduled for that same time/day... hmmmm ;-) ). It was a laid back and delicious night!

FRIDAY:

Myself, Heather, Larry, and Brian took an early morning dip in the Ohio channel. I hadn't swam there since IMKY last year and I really had no plans to get in there again until I was forced to at IMKY this year, but I didn't want to drop the campers in until we knew it wouldn't gross them out. Surprisingly enough, it really wasn't bad! I had a decent swim free of sticks, sharks, and dead fish, score!

We followed the swim with what was supposed to be a hilly 3 hour ride. About an hour or so into the ride, Heather rode up ahead and decided to turn onto whichever road struck her fancy ;-) Long story short, about an hour and a half later we found each other and had to beeline back home to get ready for camp.

We officially kicked off at Bluegrass Bicycle on Friday afternoon. We handed out schwag, introduced everyone, talked through IMKY, and headed back downtown for a river swim.

We weren't sure of the caliber of swimmers, but everyone did stellar and proved stronger than the current. We wrapped up with a dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and called it a night.

SATURDAY:
We were welcomed with storms and strong winds in the early morning. By 7:00a the storms looked to be gone (or at least on a break) so we split up and headed out to tackle the bike course. As the hours ticked by, the sun got hotter and the wind got stronger. All of our riders seemed to be doing great despite tough conditions, and Bob (our SAG and life support) made sure we were all fed and watered. Coming back into town we had some strong headwinds. I realized I had no salt, no EFS, no sunblock, no solid food (way to go coach!). Thank the Lord, Mark was there to pull my sorry arse back into town. And as Noah brilliantly put it, we owe him a mouth kiss!

It was 4:00pm, a 112 mile ride and 4 mile run was in the bank, and I was ready for a burger... but I settled for another stupid bar. Dinner that night was at the Downtown Bristol (which was awesome!). I made up for it with wontons, calamari, and a stir fry as big as my head. From there I beelined it to bed, zapped from the nonstop day.

SUNDAY:
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a calf filled with rocks. I tried to rub it, I stretched it, I even tried to cry but none of it made the darn thing relax. I guess I got what I deserved, even after drinking around 4 gallons of water with dinner my pee was still orange the next morning. Lesson learned: water and gel alone won't get you through a 7 hour training day (I think I've learned this lesson a few other times).

The night before Heather had decided she was going to book an early flight home. So I got up a bit early to dump her at the airport and go hang out with the cool campers some more.

Sunday was run day. We met at Waterfront Park, talked through T1 and T2, went over the run course, warmed up on the 2nd street bridge and headed out onto the course.

Team Murphy was fully assembled: I was on a mountain bike with the front runners making sure they made the right turns, Sean was running mid-pack, Dad was on a bike bringing up the rear, and Mom was vehicle support with water/ice/gels/encouragement. It was a really fun day!! Probably because I was biking while they were running their asses off, but also because I got to ride through and talk to most everyone.

We wrapped up while sitting in the fountains at the waterfront, what a great finish to a great weekend of training!!

And no worries, after everyone had left I went to meet JoJo who put me in my place and ran me into the ground in the pouring rain... I needed it.

Just the beginning of a hard few weeks of training ahead. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each of the campers and it's helped me to fully appreciate the hard work that comes with our little hobby. More Lessons Learned: Honor your commitments, treat others how you want to be treated, stay true to yourself, and be sure to tell your training partners how much they rock. Train on.