**NEW** SoCal Spring Training Camp, March 17-21, 2016
Team,
I'd like to invite you to join me for the first annual SoCal Spring Training Camp, March 17-21, 2016. The Camp will be based out of Pasadena, CA and will feature much, much climbing and training in the San Gabriel Mountains, my backyard here at Endurance Nation West Coast Head Quarters.
The intent of the camp is to create for you an opportunity to:
- Significantly kickstart and boost your endurance through the smart application to epic training volume. This camp will be a particularly good training target for NovOS athletes, who exit the OutSeason in early to mid-February 2016.
- Forever redefine your perspective of a "climb."
- Meet and train with your fellow TeamEN athletes, building camaraderie, sharing experience, and much more.
**CAMP SCHEDULE**
Thursday, March 17th:
Campers arrive. Camp registration and dinner
Friday, March 18th -- Run, Little T, Recovery Swim
We'll assemble in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center (RBAC) for a 5-6 mile trail run.
We'll then hop on our bikes to ride the "Little T Loop," and finish the day's training with a 2-3k recovery swim in the 50m competition pool at the RBAC.
Route Map, on RidewithGPS.com: 70 miles, 7900ft gain
Saturday, March 19th -- Run, "Chrystal Lake, Angeles Crest Loop", Recovery Swim
Today we'll do another pre-ride brick run before tackling the "Chrystal Lake, Angeles Crest Loop." Hwy 39, from the entrance of Azusa Canyon to the top, where it intersects Hwy 2/Angeles Crest Highway, is rated as one of the most difficult climbs in California, and therefore the US. Have you ever climbed, continuously, for 3-4 hours? Join us and find out! The elevation today tops out at about 7300ft at Islip Saddle, before dropping to a slight less high 7018ft at Cloudburst Summit. From there it's a nice little descent to Newcomb's Ranch for fries and a Coke before finishing back at the cars at the RBAC for another recovery swim.
Route Map, on RidwithGPS.com: 90 miles, 9300ft gain
Sunday, March 20th -- Coach Rich's Birthday!! -- Glendora Mtn Road (GMR), Baldy Lifts Loop.
Today we skip the run and start the ride about 10-12 miles to the east, riding roads featured in the Tour of California. After an easy 12 mile admin ride, we'll have an informal climbing time trial up Glendora Mtn Road, 8.7 miles at 5-6% grade and a true classic of the San Gabriel Mountains. From there we'll ride a scenic and rolling 12 miles across Glendora Ridge Road (GRR) before descending into Mt Baldy Village. This is where it gets interesting, with a 5 mile pitch up to the Mt Baldy Ski Lifts, featuring switchbacks of 12-15% and a final straightaway of 400m at 16-18%. Everyone will drop and give me 48 pushups, in honor of my birthday, underneath the Mt Baldy Ski Lifts sign. We'll then flip it and return via GRR, descending the backside of GMR, and returning via East Fork and Hwy 39.
Route Map, on RidwithGPS.com: 71mi, 8500ft gain
Monday, March 21st -- 4-5k Swim, Long Run
On the last day of the camp we'll meet again at RBAC to get in the balance of our *required swimming before hitting the trails for the balance of our *required running for the camp. Camp ends!
Goal Totals:
- Swim: 10k
- Bike: 230 miles, 25.7k gain.
- Run: 20 miles.
*Required: I will establish minimum swim, bike, and run distances that you gotta hit in order to get the camp t-shirt.
Camp Registration:
- Cost: $1499
- Deposit: $200, 100% refundable. Go here to make your deposit.
- Required Minimum Campers: we need 8 campers, via 100% refundable deposit, to make this camp a go.
Camp Registration Includes:
- Lodging: three nights (Thurs, Fri, Sat) double occupancy lodging at the host hotel, TBD.
- All Meals and Training Nutrition: We have some great restaurants in the area and I look forward to hosting you!
- Course Support
- Camp T-Shirt: you gotta earn it to get it!
- Sponsor Scwag
And PAIN!! Lots and lots of PAIN!
+++++++++++++++++++
Personal Note from Rich:
This camp is in my backyard, on roads and trails I've been thrashing myself on for 15 years. This about the most epically awesome four days of training I can devise and I'll be sure to pre-run the entire camp 1-2x in my workup for Ironman Wisconsin this year. I look forward to hosting you in my hood, and I'm sure we'll be joined by some of the local EN Luminaries for all or some of the riding!
Between this March Spring Training Camp, the Tour of California in May, some flavor of epic Western Region camp in June, and the Tour of Colorado in August, my intent is to create for Endurance Nation a series of epically awesome, and incredibly challenging, training camps that become must-do events on the Team Calendar!
I hope you decide to join me in the San Gabriel Mountains next March!
Comments
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The Pasadena Tri Club recently did a 4 day "Big Bike Week" that included these routes, I believe. Dino would know the details. There were a handful of people who did all of the days and I wouldn't call the list a bunch of freaks. Rather average triathletes, to be honest. I've always found the limiter for long climbs to be lower back strength/endurance. Unless you have many, many gears on your bike, you're generally at a lower than normal cadence for hours and hours, and therefore pulling a bit on the bars more than you normally do. This adds up and fatigues your back. Showing with a 32t rear cassette would be a good idea.
The main roads in the San Gabriels that we'll be on aren't that steep. Everything is generally 4-6%. There are some stretches on D2 at 8-10%, but you won't know where they are unless you're looking for them. The 5 miles to the Baldy Lifts is legit, that's steep, but it's kinda the point. The Lifts are like this monster that lives above Baldy Village that everyone has to conquer at least once. However, we usually just get water at the post office and ride back the way we came
I can work with you and others to determine a "locals" price, in terms of self-serve lodging, not joining us for dinner, etc.
Would be a great body comp goal for you (us), if you can get Nancy on Team Dino over the holidays
We did 4 days like this on these routes with my ti-club earlier this month and everyone who wanted to get to the top got there. The front of the pack stretches way out and then a little groupetto forms at the back. People chatting, stopping to take pictures, etc. We had males and females in there 50-60's that were able to complete all 4 days. The slower group was an hour or so behind the leaders on a 5 hour ride, but much of that was due to long regroups and frequent stops.
If you approach it like IM and just use a steady constant efforts, you will not fall that far behind. The leader will generally regroup at a few obvious places. If slower people rest less and keep on it, you can stay in contact, loosely.
You just gotta wrap your head around 3+ hours of steady spinning with lower than normal cadence and higher torque.
And that's the rub on the climbing out here and in this camp: it's very, very, very long at a nearly constant grade.
Back in the Day I did a camp similar to this (D2 and D3 were rides down and back to San Diego, 130mi each way), with D1 being that Hwy 39, Angeles Crest Loop but in reverse (up the Crest, down 39). We started from my house and rode 15mi admin to the bottom of ACH where we turned right and I told the boys that this was where the climbing started. I was instantly off the back at the start of a 30+ mile climb.
After about a 2 miles I rode up to the front and asked them if anyone had every climbed for 30 miles continuously before. They got the hint, settled down into an steady rhythm and we all had a great day.
I've updated the first post to include cycling routes, totaling 230 miles and 25,700ft of gain