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Colorado Spring Camp

Starting a new thread to capture the current plans for the May/June unofficial camp week at Chez Truscott.  I'll keep this updated as new information rolls in.  



Not intended to be set in stone, but to have one source for the current thinking.

Tentative Dates - May 26-June 6th; Spans two weekends, expect some folks only first weekend, some from 29-5, some only second weekend.

Campers : 

  • Jeremy Behler May 29-June 4 A (Two twins, plus rollaway; attached bath)
  • John Withrow May 29-June 2 (Flight booked) A
  • John Stark May 31-June 5 (Driving from NorCal) A
  • Stephanie Stevens May 26-30 (Local)/ Dawn Cass (June 2-5) B (Two twins, plus small pullout couch; attached bath)
  • Teri Cashmere May 29-June 4 B
  • Danielle Santucci (Mon - Sun) May 30-June 5 B
  • Trish Marshall ?May 29-June 5 B
  • Rich Stanbaugh May 29 - June 5 (two twins in loft; no attached bath, half bath down the hall)
  • Anna Stanbaugh May 29 - June 5 D
  • Steve Beyer (Thurs -Sun May 26-28)//Mark Stahlkopf May 28-June 4 C (Bunk; upper single, bottom double, half bath down the hall)
  • Attila Matyas (May 29 - June 4) C


This fills the house. I will start a wait list.

Wait List/Alternative Dates:

  • Jeff Sullivan June 12-18 
  • Gary Lewis
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Comments

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    Al...I might be interested too, especially if I could rent a road bike.  Do you think there might be room?
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    Replying to this so I get emails as it comes together. I would like to go...the question is family priorities and if my injury recovery is complete.
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    Some random things:

    • Bike rentals...these might end up being more expensive than flying or shipping your bike, but there are a LOT of bike shops in Aspen/Snowmass. I don;t know if all of these rent bikes, but these are the shops I personally know: Aspen Velo, Ute City Cyles, The Hub, Ajax Bike; and in Snowmass, 4 Mountain Sports (I know they rent high end Giant road bikes, and they are closest to my house). There's also a co. called Aspen Bike Rentals, along with other shops and firms I'm not familiar with, Prices would probably be in the range of $90-100/day or $400/week for a good road bike.
    • Bike type: until last summer, I did ALL of my training there on my TT bike. 
    • Terrain: While there ARE hills to climb, almost all of the terrain is in the range of 2-6% grades. There are spots where it is 7-8% on most rides, but those are rare and short (less than a minute). There are a couple of rides which feature much steeper terrain, but no one has to do those unless they want to.
    • I don't think there is any absolute requirement that this be limited to a rigid time frame. It IS a lot of fun to do rides with the same group for 4-7 days, but if that doesn't work out, we can have people come and go, as long as we don't exceed 10 people in the house at any one time, and people are willing to launder their own sheets and towels and make their own beds. We have two large capacity washers and dryers and 3 sets of linen and towels for each bed, so that's not a limiter.
    • The more significant limiter is the refrigerator. It's just a normal sized thing, so sharing food and group meals would be a good idea. If I know in advance what people might want, I can stop at Costco on byway there to get things like Clif Bars, Gatorade, etc in bulk. And I can order Gatorade Endurance. A food fund system might be helpful.
    • As to fitting this into training plans...a recent example for HIM is Bob Nelson, who came out in August, rode hard (and ran some) for a week, and four weeks after he left, he set a PR @ Tahoe 70.3. We've also had success with folks racing well in IMs six weeks after a camp. And I've found myself that I do just fine having either or both of my IM Race Rehearsals there, meaning 7 >> 3 weeks before an IM.
    • Altitude: All rides except Independence Pass are below 3,000 meters. As long as you acknowledge that altitude impacts your FTP (reduces it by 5-10%) and adjust accordingly, you can ride just fine without gasping for air. The same principle applies to running and swimming, but it seems harder for some folks to make that adjustment in slowing down in those two sports. The one rule is to avoid "going anaerobic", like trying to do a 1-2 minute @ 120%+ pop over a hill. It is MUCH harder to recover from that and do well on the rest of the ride. There are fewer matches to burn, so to speak. But doing race pace plus riding is just fine, as long as you operate in the lower part of the range. EG, if you are supposed to be doing "0.8-0.85", it's best to do that no higher than 0.80, instead of trying to max out that range. I do my FTP intervals there @ about 0.94 x 15-20 minutes, going uphill in my neighborhood.
    • Getting there: Of course, driving is always possible. It's pretty much freeway the whole way. Flying into Denver is the best bet, although United and American both have direct flights from some large cities like Houston, LA and Chicago. The Aspen airport is located half way between Aspen and Snowmass, 5 miles/10 minutes from each. As you might expect, it can be pretty expensive to fly in there. What I usually do is fly to Denver and either rent a car one-way ($90-150 depending on the day, time of year, and rental company) or take the Colorado Mountain Express Shuttle ($100-$120 + tip depending on exact spot you are going to. The CME vans are often (not always) modern "Sprinter" type vehicles with Wi-Fi.) A third option in to rent a car for the week, but its not really needed; there is free bus service to town, and I do have a car. But if a few people are all coming in at once, they might find it useful to take this option, or even do a group one way rental.
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    @ Bruce - I'll add you to the list above as "tentative". I think over the next month or so, things will become more clear, and hopefully we may have more than one "camp" operating.

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    Al:  I may be up for this.  It is too far in advance to commit right now, but if I get into Vineman this could be a great BBW 6 weeks or so before the race.

    Thanks a bunch.

    John

    P.S.  Hi to Cheryl for me.  

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    Sounds like a lot of interest brewing....since I'm racing 8/7 and I have some flexibility in my schedule.... I could flex into the 2nd camp if others have hard dates they need to adhere to....in fact I'm thinking several days in mid June is my preference...putting me 6 ish weeks out from IM
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    Looking to gauge interest on dates? are most people in for this ideal week (ending June 5?) or a diff week?
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    Can't wait to see how this develops. How far is Denver airport to your place? Appreciate the offer overall...it's fantastic!
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    I would be very interested in a Truscott Big Bike Week Part Deux if later in the summer. I'm racing IMTX so won't make 5/29-6/5. I'm considering IMMD (OCT 1) next year instead of IMAZ so another August camp would be great if you are taking suggestions for "other camp" dates. Maybe the Cycling USA Pro Challenge 2016 will go over Independence Pass again. The Pass was great to ride up (and down).
    Highly recommend the "camp" to all. Christi and I flew in to Denver and rented a car. Took a little under 4 hours to get to Al's in Snowmass. Definitely feel it helped improve my FTP prior to IMLT 70.3. Beautiful scenery and Al is a great tour guide! image
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    Replying this so I can keep updated.
    @Scott - week ending June 5 works best for me. (2nd choice) Week ending June 19. (3rd) Week ending June 12.
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    Just chiming in to continue getting any updates. Looking forward to June all!
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    okay, i am increasing my calendar... I can do a LV MTB100k qualifier in Austin in April to avoid the event I had on June 5 and therefore, do THIS camp.. count me IN..
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    OK, I hereby declare things to have gelled sufficiently that I can see camp running from May 26 through June 6th. I'm not expecting any individual person (except me) to be there that entire time, but that we have maybe three waves: 

    •  Memorial Day weekend, 
    • Camp Week (May 29-June 4/5), 
    • The weekend June 3/4/5.

    I assume it's way too early for many people to make firm commitments, but at some point we'll have to nail down the "who will be there when question", so the house does not get overloaded. Although if it does, there are AirBnB options close to my house for reasonable rates at that time of year. So I'd encourage folks to submit their final plans before Feb 19th, three months in advance of this event.

    Bob Nelson asked about summer dates. At this time, I still do not have clear plans myself for when I will be there. I probably will not know until March or so, when I intend to commit to a fall IM. And there will probably be a final decision by then as to if and when there will be a Pro Tour bike race (USAPC) in Colorado in late August.

    Jeremy asked about the weather. As a general rule, the driest times of the year are late May thru June, and late August thru mid-October.  Temps at those times of the year are really altitude dependent, ranging from 70-85 @ the low end of the valley, to the mid 60s where I live, to the 40s/50s at the highest locations. Bear in mind that at this altitude, if you are in the sun, it will feel a lot warmer that the air temp; in the shade, a bit colder. While there are occasional days which are rained out, it's much more likely to be clear. The other common pattern is clear morning, with increasing chance of rain at higher elevations in the afternoon. It's extremely rare to have a day totally washed out by the weather. I can almost always find someplace and time to ride unaffected by the temp or rain. 

     

     

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    Al, with the Tour of California moved a week later than first announced, are you still looking to do the TOC and your camp with a travel week between them? I would be interested in your camp but need to get the final OK from the boss.
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    Posted By Jim Yanoschik on 02 Nov 2015 04:09 PM


    Al, with the Tour of California moved a week later than first announced, are you still looking to do the TOC and your camp with a travel week between them? I would be interested in your camp but need to get the final OK from the boss.

    Jim, I am planning on doing the ToC, and then getting myself to Aspen. Might as well have fun while I can.

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    Al...I'll be there all week for sure!



    As dates get closer there may be an opportunity to coordinate a rental car as well.
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    Attention Campers! I almost forgot about the event which happens in SNowmass on Fri/Sat June 3/4. Its the Ragnar Trail Relay, basically a slumber party for endorphin junkies. It stages out of the Rec Center a mile down th hill from me, and one of the three running routes goes right by my house.

    The basic premise is teams of 4-8 people doing a relay over three trails of 3.5, 4 and 6.5 miles in the hills around my home. This is NOT a point to point relay; all runs start and end in the stain area, where teams set up camp for the duration. The past two years they have sold out, meaning more than a hundred teams. Each member of an 8 person does each route once; smaller teams do the same number of total legs (24) split amongst the members. Staggered start at 8 AM Friday, you;re done when you're done. 

    The main reason I'm mentioning this is to point to the web site, which has a video on it filmed at this year's relay. All the scenery is real, basically what surrounds my house. Also, if there is enthusiasm (and the $) for this, we can create a team and join the fun. http://www.ragnartrail.com/locations/snowmass-co

     

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    Al, this is awesome! If we can put together a team, I'm in!!!
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    I am interested in the Ragnar Relay.  Guess this means I would need to commit earlier?  

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    Separate question:  I assume there are some epic mountain bike trails in the area of Al's estate?  If so, I may bring my MTB along so I can get dirty.  It's not everyday I get to MTB in that part of the country.

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    @John - there is world class mountain biking right from my house. Even better trails are within 20 minute drive. Sadly, several of the best local trails are closed until June 21 due to elk calving season. Heres a link to an article about just one of the trails out of Snowmass:

    http://www.aspentimes.com/news/1644...pens-rainy

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    Hi Al - this sounds awesome. I'm not sure if you still have room - but I could be in if there is space. It is a trip and a drive from the airport - so I would want to do all week / several days of riding to justify the travel time. Sunday - Saturday... or?

    This is really a fantastic opportunity - thank you. I'm simple - when you need a commitment, I will be in or out. I will block time on my calendar so that it is easier to say yes.

    Anna may be interested - but her calendar is more difficult to arrange than mine.

    Thanks!
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    Posted By Al Truscott on 11 Nov 2015 07:08 PM

    @John - there is world class mountain biking right from my house. Even better trails are within 20 minute drive. Sadly, several of the best local trails are closed until June 21 due to elk calving season. Heres a link to an article about just one of the trails out of Snowmass:

    http://www.aspentimes.com/news/1644...pens-rainy

    Ya, that elk calving stuff gets in the way sometimes.    What the heck is that, anyway?  Birthing?

    Thanks for the 411.  Just got the thumbs up from the wife to attend.  So I am officially in.

    ~ Stark

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    As an OB, I know how dangerous a mama elk can be in her last trimester.image

    Actually, there's a rather large elk herd which migrates across our valle y every spring and fall. In May, they are heading to the high country to have and rear their young. Humans can make them anxious, leading to risk of pregnancy loss.

    I'm glad you'll be there John...you bring smiles everywhere you go.
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    Attention Campers!

    See the first post in this thread. I have revised the list with the best information I could get from people's posts (Kim is on EN hiatus and is communicating with me thru other channels).

    Even though I said we'd wait until Feb to nail everything down, I'm suspecting many folks want to (a) be reassured they are going to have a spot and/or (b) need or want to make plans for the spring. So if you could look at the list and see if I have your desired dates correct, and if I have you in the correct group. EG, Scott, Jeff, John S, do you have a specific time frame you're willing to commit to? Teri, you are IN, but what days? Steph, which weekend are you aiming at? Etc.

    It looks to me like well be able to squeeze most everyone in if the stars align correctly on overlap, eg, Kim comes the first "weekend", Danielle the second, etc.

    John W and Matt A are very busy guys, and Matt may be facing some recovery issues, so they are probably best put on the wait list for now. There is probably room for Bruce especially if he combines the trip with a visit to his brother. And Dawn ... ??? what's your preference.

    If anyone else in the Haus wants to get into the mix, now's the time to "speak now or forever hold your peace." Even if it's just to be put in the "Tentative/Wait List" category. Knowing how life goes for all of us, I'm sure the group will remain fluid right up until folks have to make plane reservations.

    On a personal note, I want to thank Jeremy for kicking this off. And thank the rest of you for your trust in me to provide a worthwhile week of training in the most beautiful locale you can imagine. I'm eagerly looking forward to our epic camp.

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    Al- appreciate the sentiments but you are the one we should be thanking for generously offering your place to us. I am happy to assist in the planning and logistics as much as possible to lighten the load so send anything my way that you want.
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    Al - Thanks again for offering this. It looks like the May 28-June 4 time frame will work best for me.
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    I'm thinking the week of 6/12 works well for me....that puts me 7 weeks out from IM Boulder.... I can move those dates if logistics on your end suggest otherwise
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