I'm currently sitting in the lovely Phoenix Sky Harbor airport after rudely being bumped from the last seat on the earlier plane to San Jose. Seriously, I was ripped out of the plane by the flight attendant as the incredibly late golfing-type guy wearing an argyle sweater and sporting short shorts on his overly tanned legs finally claimed his rightful seat on the oversold plane. I busted out my best "I am a woman in distress and NEED to be on this flight" look, but he failed to help a girl out. Perhaps I need to work on that. Anyway, now I have plenty of time to recap the rest of Posse Camp Spring 2009.
After escaping the wild javelinas and rattlesnakes on Wednesday we headed to the U of A on Friday to tag along with Simon Whitfield and some young development kids from the Canadian national team on their long group ride. Seeing that I don't do group rides, this was quite the mental exercise for me. We must have stopped at 300 stoplights and you would think that this was my first attempt at using clipless pedals by the number of times I failed to get my shoe clipped in properly....performance anxiety at its finest. After this mental exercise, we ate and slept and headed to the pool for a crazy pool workout and easy run that felt like death. Then (yes, you guessed it) we ate and slept and did some internet stalking all in preparation for the coming cycling extravaganza.
Saturday we woke up and did a short 1.5 hr easy ride before heading up Mt. Lemmon for 28 lovely miles of ascension. Yes, these Tucson people do not lie about the climb. It really lasts 28 miles. As usual, I failed to bring adequate nutrition. Usually Matt brings along an extra cliff bar and shoves it in my mouth when I get ornery. This time, however, there was no fabulous sherpa-husband Matt to pick up the pieces. I didn't think John Fell would appreciate me bumming the remaining ounces of his water or food, seeing that we've only just become FACEBOOK friends this week. By the time I got to mile 15 I was raving mad and by the time I made it to the top, I was unsuitable for human contact. Thankfully I had 28 miles of descent to 1) digest a huge load of cliff bloks with caffeine and 2) contemplate my bad attitude. By the time I got back to the house, I threw on the running clothes and finished out the day on a high note with a strong transition run.
Today we had more fun in the pool as well as a bonus death run on the black track at noon in the Tucson heat, which brings me back to my current position....sitting in the Phoenix airport enjoying the free wireless. Off to catch a plane...finally!
Lauren's post-ride look... our hotel room in shambles...
