My coaches, Kathy and Pete Alfino, owners of Mile High Multisport, put together a week-long camp in Henderson, Nevada (just outside Las Vegas), for traithletes, cyclists and Ironman (Ironmen?). They put together daily biking in Lake Mead State Park, swimming with a master’s program 3 days and running 3-4 days. They rented a big house that was approx. 12 miles from the park entrance and close to the pool, and secured 13 athletes to share in cooking, cleaning and athletic training.

I had been looking at other bike camps, and knew I wanted to go to one and a soon as they said they were for sure on theirs, I put my money down. I had never been to one before, nor had I biked any of the big rides in Colorado: Ride the Rockies, MS150, Triple Bi-Pass, etc. So, I didn’t really know how the week would go for me, but I knew it would help my training, so I was excited. I also knew I was in great hands with Kathy and Pete and the top level athletes I have been around said how beneficial it was for them.

I booked my travel and got a friend to drive my bike out and looked forward to a week away in a warm climate with some high-level athletes. The day came and I was to share a car rental and room with a girl named Trish Jones. Kathy said that we were similar level riders, so it would be good for us to get to know each other. We made arrangements to meet up at the airport and rent the car together and make our way to the house. We got there with no problems and it was a nice warm day. My training called for a run, so I got ready and went out. It was like I could run forever! I had lungs the size of Texas! I love training at sea level. Wow. Fantastic.

The guys with our bikes arrived that night; John and Conor from Denver. John is a 30-ish racer from Texas who is pursuing Ironman and Conor is a 40-ish Irishman dad living with his family in the tech center who has done Olympic distance, trying to transition to half Ironman. By this time, many other athletes had arrived: Michelle and Bill, Kelly and Sydney from our tri club (very solid, fast athletes at the Ironman and marathon levels), Allen from San Francisco (an ultra-runner just breaking into triathlon), Michael (French cyclist training to be fit), Carrie from Gypsum Co (training for full distance Ironman).

Our coaches had put together a schedule of mileage and discipline per day (running, biking, swimming), along with meal prep and clean up. They also went to Costco and bought a massive amount of food for us for the week. Turns out, the house we rented was a six-bedroom, 3-bath, but with the smallest fridge known to man, so getting all of the food crammed in there was a miracle in itself.

The first full day, we went to the masters’ swim at 5:30am. It was still dark, when we arrived at this massive, beautiful, heated pool. There must have been 20-30 lanes! It was also a light saline concentration which was fabulous! Fast and easy to swim in. We got changed and got in and swam under the stars. During our workout the sun came up and was absolutely beautiful! What a great start!

Then we went home to a massive breakfast (every breakfast and dinner was massive and super-yummy and healthy) and got ready to ride. The mileage started at 40 and increased each day by 10 miles to a high of 80-100. Then, a recovery day of 30-40 and then a mini-triathlon the last day consisting of swimming in the morning, 60 mile bike and a 3-4 mile run. Once on our way, I got out in front with my coach, Kathy, as I had learned in the past not to get caught at the back of the pack (because it becomes hard to work your way back up front once this happens). I was pushing it, but was very fresh. It was windy, so that added a challenge, but I was up for it. We made our way to the park entrance and had to stop to pay for the week. I had been in my big chain ring as much as possible, but once we started going the distance, realized that I had overdone it. We got to the turn-a-round and 2 girls wanted me to take their picture, which I did, but everyone else took off and since I had to give them their cameras back, was now in dead last! Dang. On the way back, I pushed it but couldn’t catch back up and started having a bit of knee pain. I rode with Trish and Conor and after riding behind me, Trish said that I was angling my knees in on my pedal stroke, which was probably causing the pain. Also, we rode through part of the course in Lake Las Vegas for the World Championship 5150 (sort of a half Ironman distance that my coach competed in 2011) and Pete rode with me and educated me about having a smooth, efficient stroke that is powerful. He said to act as if you are jamming your toes into the front of your shoe and then on the downward part of the stroke act as if you are cleaning mud off the bottom of your shoe. Man did it work! When I concentrated on that, I was so much faster and powerful, especially up hills.

When we were finished riding, we went back to the house to gorge ourselves on food and recovery drinks and then jump into the pool! Yeehaw, now that’s what I’m talking about!

The rest of the week went pretty much the same, except that a few of the nights a top athlete named Jesse came over and joined us for dinner. He takes a month to come out to Vegas and train for the beginning of his season. I hit it off with him and he had some great advice for me about racing. He said to be honest with yourself on race day and identify how you are feeling on a scale from 1-10, 10 being high. He said women are much better at this than men because men’s egos get in the way…but, he said to identify how you are feeling and if it’s a 7, then race the best you possibly can for a 7. By trying to always race at a level 10, if you are not feeling a true 10, you will have a tendency to blow up and not finish the race. What a genius!

Amazing things happened during the week at bike camp. I found that I could ride day after day, increasing mileage and running and swimming and my muscles just continued to perform. Jesse also said this would happen if I just let my body do it. He also said that once the week was over, if I let my body recover adequately, I would be way faster than before the camp. So true again! I also found that I was leading our group most of the time (although Conor and Trish led me sometimes too) which felt great! I even remarked to Kathy that it felt like maybe I was peaking too early in the season, since my race isn’t until June. She assured me there would be more hard work to do!

In the end, we biked 311 miles, swam 3, and ran 17. And, I got to know 12 other people and had a great time with all of them! It was so wonderful to be around people looking to achieve things at a high level!  And, I realized that I could do far more than I ever thought. It was all about getting past my “mental governor” which is the mechanism in your brain that tries to protect you from doing things that can hurt your body. Once you identify something, your mental governor kicks in and says, “oh maybe you shouldn’t do that, it could be dangerous,” and tries to talk you out of it. It became obvious to me that this is what every Ironman has to deal with and get past, as well as those incredible souls I saw at the Leadville 100. And now, I have learned how to get past it!