Day Two - Testing Day

I don't know what was in the dessert last night but I had some funky dreams and slept erratically. Molson, Q, and I made an early morning 6:15am coffee run to Millerton, then we met the group in front of the Interlaken to jog the 1/8th of a mile to the Hotchkiss track next door. Hotchkiss just rebuilt their track and inner field and they pulled all the stops - this facility is nicer than most university tracks. The group did a mile and a half warm-up and then we jumped right into the testing. We were establishing threshold heart rates and setting up run training zones. After the cooldown, everyone met for breakfast before suiting up to ride.

This ride is simply amazing. No, I'm not embellishing. If you ride a bike, than you can certainly appreciate the ride we did today. It rolls out for an hour before hitting a solid longer climb, then there is a beautiful rolling country road and then 1 hr 45 min in, we begin the eight mile point to point time trial on another rolling road with no cross traffic. After the TT, we spin around beautiful twin lakes then ride the rollers out to a monster 5+ mile climb from MA into NY, then switchback descents that make you feel as though you are in Europe, then a bike path and country road of rollers for an hour back. A 4.5 hr ride with some serious elevation gain, a time trial, nice rolling roads, a super descent, no traffic, great road conditions, and oh, it was in the 70's and sunny for most of the ride!

I sent out everyone on the TT in one minute intervals. I held many of the bikes while the athletes locked in and prepped for take off. Jeff Molson was up and said "Ready Eric?" Problem was I wasn't near his bike. He thought I was holding it and tried to clip in and went right down on his side. After we found out he was fine, we all had a good laugh. OK, I was actually laughing before finding out he was ok. It was like one of those trust exercises where someone falls backwards trusting someone else to catch them, only I wasn't there. Morgan C. rode further today then she has ever ridden in her life and she also set a new course record for the EH CT Camp eight mile TT - how cool is that!

We had to high tail back the last hour because I had the Hotchkiss pool booked for a late afternoon swim. We had the whole pool to ourselves - actually, both pools. I was anticipating a lot of leg cramping so I gave them a long set that included some of everything to keep it interesting and that put them all around 3000 yds give or take.

Before you know it, the day was done and we were back at the Interlaken Bar enjoying a round before dinner. The group has already bonded quite well making the dinners fun and relaxing and less about triathlon.

Time to get some rest because we have a big day planned tomorrow and I always love the Saturday CT Camp ride. We are missing Gus though - you should be here! And I miss Annmarie yelling at me.

Cheers,

EH