OCA Spring Camp Report

So after yesterdays 18 hours of travel time, I am finally back home.

The Camp was amazing. Just epic ride after epic ride, epic meal after epic meal, all enjoyed with a great group of fellow Ontario cycling enthusiasts. We lucked out with the weather, only seeing rain twice and we had plenty of time to tan with a bunch of warm warm and sunny days. I was assigned to the longest "fastest" ride everyday, with ride times ranging from 2-6hrs each day.

Rides from day 1-9 looked like this:
day 1 - 2hr recovery
2 - 3hr gentle rolling - fastish
3 - 3.5hrs rolling plus - steady
4 - 5.5hrs climbing plus race up Caesar's Head
5 - 2hr recovery
6 - 6hr climbing,
7 - 3hr steady recovery
8 - 5hr climbing Sassafrass plus sprint work
9 - 6hr climbing Blue Ridge plus some other climbs, plus Mt. Becky (very steep).

I rode well all week, and was loving the climbing. Sassafras was crazy tough to race up with a long 20% pitch and many steep sections that just kept popping up after short bits of recovery. Some ones Garmin said one bit was over 28%!. My time up it was 26:30, averaging 16.6km/h over the ~8km distance. Zack Hughes set the new record at 24minutes flat, with Mitch Bailey and Jamie Riggs close behind. I think my time was around the 5th fastest, but I'm not sure because times were never posted and I didn't get a chance to ask everyone how they did (we timed ourselves). I do know that I was digging really deep, nearly got sick, and that it was the hardest effort I have ever made in training. I would say that this climb was as tough as Brasstown Bald, but had two short downhills on the way up and mellowed out a bunch of times so you could catch your breath. Goal for next year - sub 25 minute mark...

Our accommodations were very cozy, and I was lucky to get in the house with all the older more "mature" guys. There were 7 of us in the house with two bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a good sized kitchen. We lived the ultimate lifestyle while there. Every day we woke up around 8, ate as much quality breakfast food as possible, then drank coffee and chatted before gearing up to ride. We had a pre-ride meeting at 9:45, then were on the road by 10am. Post ride we ate a ton of food again, then the rest of the day flew by as we did most of or all of the following: went for groceries, cooked a creamin meal, ate a provided meal, cleaned our bikes, tanned, went to meetings, ate more and talked about racing, other racers and training. We messed around a lot too, keeping ourselves entertained in the TV and Internet free environment.

View of camp from our balcony. (Driveway was 37% Gradient)

All in all it was a great experience that I hope to have again next spring. I'm feeling really fit right now, but a bit worn out, so I'm going to go easy all week, then get back into intense training this weekend. I can't wait to get out on my MTB!!

Later