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Back home after 3 great weeks of training in Tucson. The camp ended strong, ending with a run, swim, and climb up Mt Lemmon on Thursday. Friday was a fun swim on our way out with a relay race and the major showdown of the camp, Damian vs. Rebeccah. To be fair, it was Bec who issued the challenge, a swim race. I suggested 50M, as that was the ONLY WAY I saw Damian with a chance to win. Legal start, Damian actually won the start/turn (it was 25M pool) and kept the men's pride intact, 28.1 to 28.4. It's all on video and we'll try to get that up soon.

Like I said previously, great camp. I know I learned a lot from Cliff and the athletes there. Important for me is to keep that focus and recreate some of what we did there here in Portland. Training at the facility has seemed to work, as I felt much better than I expected on the bike. So now we rest this week, and get back to work.

Great to be home.

TJ can ride...

He dropped the hammer today....4 hours-- Over Gates Pass, 2 rounds of (30 min, 20 min, 10 min all with 5 minutes rest in between). One of the top riders in our sport. Sam was impressive as well, she's VERY strong now, going to be fun to watch this season...

1 hour run in the a.m and 4800 lcm swim before, made for a long day. Cliff sagged the whole ride and gave lots of encouragement. It's been great having him around for all the workouts. He's a great coach, has gone out of his way these 3 weeks.

I think everyone's feeling the efforts of the past 2 1/2 weeks, training's hard but it's been great. Really ready to get home though, miss the family alot.

check out www.tollakson.com Some videos from the camp, including some shameless plugs for Athletes Lounge.

chris

Critical Thinking

What is the definition of Epic?

Day #11 Mt. Lemmon Climb

Today we climbed Mt. Lemmon. I think it is 24 miles with about 6000 ft. of climbing

The elevation really taxes the lungs, no oxygen to the legs=good time

Snow makes a good stand for bikes, maybe we should put some in the shop?

I ate a chocolate chip cookie the size of my hand at the top.

The road we climbed up on, can you see the cyclist?

Why would they put this at the end of the climb in the Cookie Shop? I guess it helped me finish the cookie.

-Damian

2 pictures and 2 links

Potluck from the other night. Lots of burgers, salads, and wings.

Chris Boudreaux driving the pain train.

Coldest pool I have been in, great for an ice bath after 11,200 meters on the track today:

http://tweetphoto.com/11712531

Cliff English Pix from the camp:

http://www.cliffenglishcoaching.com/PRO_CAMP_2010.htm

Day #9

Sad to see Chris Bagg head back to Portland yesterday. Great early morning run from the house, headed to the pool for a good swim set, then a 4 hour ride with some intervals. We left the house at 9:30 and didn't make it home until 7:30 going from workout to workout, throwing back food in transit.

-Damian

Weekend

Big weekend in Tucson...

Saturday was a hard 5 1/2 hour ride, with 13 mile Madera Canyon climb. Steady the whole ride with run off.

Sunday 1:30-1:45 run at a pretty hard pace after 25-30 minutes. 90min - 2+ hour ride in the afternoon.

BBQ with the squad in the evening. Lots of fun (we brought hot wings) and nice to relax a bit from the 1st week of hard training (30 hour training week with lots of quality).

Tim O'Donnell got in town and proceeded to show us some major swim speed, nice to have another top athlete in camp.

We'll get some pics and video up soon...