I dont consider this a typical blog as i would rather write about our athletes then what i am doing, but over the next month I will try to provide some stories on the preperation and hopefully successful completion of the TransRockies Run 2010. In 2008 myself and a partner from Calgary, Mark Fewster, had a super week and finished 4th after the ~ 115 mile 6 day run race in Colorado. Everyone seemed to enjoy my attempt at a blog so I thought I would do the same this year, with my new partner Marc Meunier. We have not just started our training, things have gone quite well so far with success at the 5 peaks events, Canmore Challenge and Powderface 42, but I thought going into an epic weekend where Marc and I will be running the Jasper Skyline Trail (45km ) 2x it would be a good place to start the story telling. With the introduction of the Iphone we also hope to provide some video of some of our ups and downs.

Endorphine Daze athletes covered the majority of the IM run course on Friday, last day of camp and about the 18th to 20th hour of training for the week. Best success story goes to Erin. How many times have you wanted to pack it in, for some reason get talked into a few more minutes and then voila, somehow someone, maybe your coach got you to finish the whole darn thing. This is Erin's first year of triathlon, and her first IM, and while we are at it, her first camp. So by Friday she was getting a little tired. Erin ran into Ok Falls our 1/3 to 1/2 way point for runners. Her legs were cooked and she declared enough was finally enough. I told her climbing out of OK Falls is one of the worst parts of the IM Run so i said she had to do that and i would pick her up in the support truck at the top. As we got to the top i kept going until the road flattended out a little bit, my co pilot thought i was being a little mean, but i needed to let her feel the relief of the flats after the climb, WHY? Because when she reached us in the truck on the flat stretch, she asked surprisngly if that was the climb back there. Erin was starting to get a head of steam on the flats and possibly the worst is behind her??? So at the end of the day Erin finished the run to our predetermined finish line and therefore ran ~ 17 miles instead of 8.5. Congrats to the whole gang of Aerobic Power athletes and the Calgary contingent at the camp who were tons of fun and as tough as nails.

Following a swim session, Endorphine Daze athletes set out on the bikes to take in a challenging but still one of the most beautiful Penticton rides. The first half of the 80 km ride included climbing green mountain road, then descending down the other side, before having to take on Yellow Lakes, the steepest climb of the Ironman Canada bike course, for the second time in two days. After Yellow Lakes, the only section of todays ride on the main highway, riders got back onto the some of the most beautiful and vehicleless roads around. Through training, testing and lectures riders are learnring a lot about "overreaching", the effects and appropriate use of training volumes and intensities and markers for warning signals of poor physical states that would affect training quality. I think this year campers are going to leave camp stronger and smarter about their training approaches.

Endorphin Daze team of Aerobic Power and TCR supported the camp's athletes through the full Iornman bike course today in 36 degree heat. It is the first year not a single person dropped out into the support wagon. Aerobic Power athlete's Erin, Terry, Chris, Dave and Brian all had spectacular days and will now be going into race day with another level of confidence.

Aerobic Power and TCR kick off their 4th Annual Andorphine Daze IM Prep Camp.

Campers began in our beautiful outdoor lab for some C-Prit testing which will take place again on Friday at the end of camp and then the 3 following weeks. ( i will get pictures on, promise)Campers get to learn about the affects the training volume by the end of camp and then the positive adaptations for the weeks following camp as they let their bodies recover. From this campers will also gain insight into their ideal taper lengths, as i think we are all discovering 1 size does not fit all. There is a super team of coaches and excited grad students bringin campers experience and cutting edge science.

Following testing which kicked off the day campers worekd through some very handy open swim skills in ragin white caps. Fortuntely not long before the finish winds turned into serious gusts literally throwing sand and bags off the beach across the street. Fortunately they dies down enough later in the day for a super bike skills session and a spin to Naramata beofre the serious IM work begins tommorrow in the water.