I've waited almost a full year to come back to camp and this time I came back as one of their athletes which was very exciting.
If your a parent of children you know its very complicated to get everything set up and prepared before you leave on a trip, especially if the one your leaving is your husband who isn't home with the kids 24/7. I had lists upon lists, babysitters, playdates, valentines ready to go, everything set up to make the transition of mommy leaving as easy as possible. That being said its never that easy.
Wednesday: Grandma spent the night so she could drive the kids to school and I could take a cab to make sure I got there on time to catch my plane. One of my lovely children was having a slight meltdown about where he was sitting in the kitchen and then proceeded to explode in a full all out temper tantrum. He refused to eat breakfast and refused to get dressed and ready for school. The other 3 where keeping it together and my oldest was really trying to be helpful and making things move along. The cab arrived and I knew I needed to go, I felt so bad for my mom that I was leaving this situation with her but I was hoping that "said" child would turn it around. Well, after only 15 minutes in the car I received 6 phone calls from my " child" all telling me how much he wasn't going to school and how angry he was, etc........ He actually got himself in such a state that there really wasn't anything I could do to help him settle. My mom was able to get him in the car but after 4 more phone calls and 2 teachers at school they were able to convince him to get out of the car and go to school. Good gracious, I felt bad for the kid but at the same time I was glad I wasn't dealing with it.
Flights; As of today I wouldn't fly AirTRan again, but they did tell me that Southwest purchased them and from April 2012 on they wouldn't be charging for baggage. Round trip I had to pay $250 for luggage, that was 1 bag and 1 bike box, I was absolutely appalled. I will triple check next time the luggage costs, it was insane.
Arrived in Orlando without a hitch and grabbed a cab to Clermont. It was a relaxing day nothing too crazy, I met up with some other Qt2 athletes and went out to dinner and was just getting psyched/nervous about camp.
Day 1: 4000 yd outdoor pool swim, 2 hour recovery ride, Timed 5k at the National Training Center Track
This year they assigned coaches to two different lanes of varying ability, our lane had Coach John Spinney from QT2. He corrected our technique during our swim, gave us our send off times and kept us on track, Duffy, Molly, Tara, Guido and I worked like a well oiled machine, the swim went by super fast.
AFter lunch we headed out for our ride, it was great, very easy, nothing hard, just spinning the legs out in the sun. Most of us were trying to save ourselves for the 5k later on in the day.
5pm we all jogged over to the NTC track and started to warm up, we had two heats, the first heat were the athletes whose zone 1 paces were above 7:30 per mile and second heat were all the fastest peeps. We had quite a crew for the first heat, I was really nervous. The fun part was having the pro's and our coaches keeping us on track and watching our form, pushing us from the sidelines, keeping us focused and smiling. One of the coaches wives ( Courtney) was even kind enough to pass out water. It was amazing how well people did and how fast people were. I finished in 22:52, 7:21 per mile avg pace ( I actually ran 3.2 miles), not a PR but after a long day I was happy with it.
Next up were the Elite Age groupers and the Pro's, man was it fun to watch, they spread out quickly at the beginning but at the end it was coach Pat and Rodney ( track star extrodanaire from Iowa) who started to pull ahead, Rodney took the final turn and kicked hard to the finish and out sprinted coach Pat. 16:50 something, just crazy, and Pat finished in the low 17's. Amazing everyone else was sub 19, just crazy fast. I loved Rodney's response at the end, that's my adult PR, I can't even match what I did in high school and college. I said, what crazy time did you do in High School and he said low 15's, just nuts and a 4:10 mile. Anyhoo, he was just so humble on all of his talent and very gracious, he gave Pat a run for his money.
I met out some QT2 friends for dinner and some new ones and then ended the night on a Q+A with the coaches.
So much fun but rest needed to be had because we had our 6hr bike f/b a 30 minute T-run scheduled for the next day. It was off to bed for some much needed rest.
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