Monday, April 15, 2013

DAY 8: THE JOURNEY HOME


It was with great sadness that I left the comradeship of new friends, and the warmth and great riding in Arizona this morning to fly home to chilly Toronto. Don't know when we will get the chance to get out again for a long ride in warm weather....I hope it's soon!

All of us agreed that it was a fantastic week at our Spring Training Camp.  It was the first training camp for many of us, and we got so much out of it.  Even the veteran bike training camp attendee, who has been to many camps, said that Petrina's was the best camp she had been to, due to the quality of Petrina's coaching, especially her 1:1 coaching while riding.

We all also commented on Petrina's attention to detail to our daily comforts, from the time of our arrival.  From the goodie bags, to personal notes, daily laundry, to ensuring that she supplied us with our favourite energy foods and drinks if we had requested them...from paying for several group meals, to enlisting the assistance of her lovely and willing family members to feed us one evening, and to drive the support vehicle to Bartlett Lake....to arranging the services of a massage therapist for us, and a bike mechanic...I could go on and on and will still miss something that I should have mentioned (kind of like those long winded Oscar speeches, they go on and on and the actors always forget to mention something important!)

Carefree Resort was an excellent choice for our accommodation, with its large rooms, willingness to let us wheel our bikes in and out of the rooms,  daily breakfast buffet, large pool, and jacuzzi, making it a great place to spend a recovery afternoon. 

This bike camp happened to be made up of 9 amazing, strong women, many who are tri-athletes and preparing to compete in competitions this year, and the rest of us, all strong athletes who enjoy biking in addition to other sports.  We all bonded and shared many stories and laughs throughout the week, and we are all excited to get back on our bikes (once we figure out how to put them back together) and challenge our non- camp attending friends to a long ride.

The week was also amazing in that we only experienced two flat tires, no accidents, no injuries, only a few belly upsets and two encounters with the evil cholla (jumping cactus) plant! All that in six days of riding, including two 100 km plus rides, and over 8000 feet of climbing over the week.

It's hard to find enough words to express our profound thanks to Petrina for this great bike camp, but the fact that we all hope to come back next year for the Second Annual Cycling Centre Arizona Spring Training Camp should say it all!

And because of this, we are all
                       FITTER
                           FASTER
                                AND STRONGER!

Thanks for reading this blog. 
Til next year,
Sandi




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