Summer camp has officially begun. When I asked the girls at dinner who would blog about today Ness suggested we all blog to get the different perspectives.
Ok!
We picked up Beth from the airport last night. She is everything I thought she would be – small, quiet and yet there is a fierce competitiveness in there that you can just sense. Like she would stalk you, bite you and spit you out alongside of the road. I like that.
We found Ness curbside at Midway airport this morning. I wasn’t sure where she was but we quickly spotted her. After all, she was the only person wearing an aero helmet. Ness is exactly what I thought – my sassy doppelganger. We could pass for sisters. But in Chris’ words – she is much funnier than you. THANKS.
Back at home everyone got a view of Boss doing crazy laps in the field. I believe we are all in agreement that Boss is the world’s most adorable dog.
Jen arrived at my house. She then talked straight for the next 60 minutes. This was after her 2.5 hour brick. How she had all the air to talk we don’t know. We got our stuff ready for a bike and run while Jen spent time bonding with Boss. I think the funniest thing I overheard was Jen saying “Oh Boss, get over your bad self” when he started barking.
Off to the quarry for a swim. Proving the power of suggestion when 4 fit women enter you lane will work. You will exit the lane. Or else you will get swum over. 50 long course meter lanes. Is there anything better? A 1000m warm up then some 400’s. Off to the deep end to teach Beth how to dive for a start and sprint to a pole. Then back into the lanes. There was talk of a 200 IM throwdown challenge. Ness did a fine job of throwing down. I call foul on Jen for doing one-armed fly a few times. And as for myself – one illegal turn. My bad. Beth opted out – something about “not knowing how to do fly.” You will learn, child. You will learn.
Next we went for the most glorious bike ride. Jen had to pick up her kids but Beth and Ness were determined to give me a real ride. Never try to tell me women are not competitive. I think I saw spokes flying out there. We did our intervals and worked hard. The last interval was classic – none of us would give up the chance to “win” the last effort and it ended with the three of us across the road like we were riding towards a line. And an admission from all of us that riding with others on a workout like this led us to work harder than we thought was in our legs. Makes you think how much of your potential sits latent in your legs until you are in the right situation to bring it out. Furthermore how do you bring it out when training on your own? Answers you must find for yourself to be at your best.
Back at home Beth brought out the bags of peas and iced. Ness got licked clean by Boss. And I stretched. At dinner we talked about triathlon party games. We came up with a few:
Do, Draft or Drop
Name the triathletes you would do, draft off of or drop from the sport. This leads to some interesting conversations. We only got through the women. We’ll save the men for tomorrow.
Surprise Ironman
Kind of like the game Melissa told me about where you get a bunch of drunk friends together, throw a tatoo idea in a bowl, pull one without looking at it, going to the tatoo parlor and then realize you have been tatooed with Mr. Peanut. This is the same idea except you put the name of an Ironman in a bowl and then some times in the bowl. You draw an Ironman and you draw a time. Then you have a year to go do it. For example, you could pull Ironman Hawaii and 9:36. Get working. Or Ironman Wisconsin and 16:57. Stop for lunch out there.
Board Game
Ness says this one is in the works. It’s a triathlon themed board game. Think, caught drafting go back 4 spaces. Or nutritional plan didn’t agree with you go back to start. Or, tailwind move ahead 3 spaces. Or in Ness’ case, wetsuit unzippers itself go back to open water swimming 101 – how to put wetsuit on properly.
Tomorrow we go to the track. Jen will arrive early enough to join in the oatmeal buffet. For what is a camp without oatmeal in the morning? Good times ahead.
