LA

The first week and a half of training camp has passed by very quickly. It has been good hard training and despite some rain, I have been enjoying the area a ton. After the rain ended last Saturday, the first long ride was amazing....Miranda and I joined a group from the LA Tri Club and climbed up one of the canyons in malibu, Tuna Canyon for those who know the area, and the skies were so clear after the rain; we could see all the way to catalina island to the east and the san gabriel mts. to the west. The views were impressive, and the group was very nice to us newcomers.
This week, our team also tagged along with another biking group, LaGrange, to join their Mandeville climb session. It was a good 5 mile climb without a killer grade until the last 200 meters or so. But after the 3 time up the climb, my legs were jello and ready to be done for the day.
We also got kicked off the track and did our track session out on the paths in palisades park off ocean boulevard. I wouldn't call it fun because hard track runs usually don't fit into that category, but it was pretty neat to be running up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean with views of malibu to the north and the beaches to the south. We also did a hard fartlek run from the canyonbacks trail head it was a nice trail maybe a bit rocky with lots of long rolling climbs and descents. But some of the views of the city from the top were impressive. You could see the city buildings to th south and valley to the east and malibu/ocean to the west. It definitely made running hard a bit more enjoyable.
Otherwise, the week was filled with some uneventful swims....when is swimming ever eventful unless you are in the open water . But it is nice to swim long course, it definitely is much harder than short course and will hopeful make my swim stronger this year.
More of the same to come next week...but so far I am really enjoying this training camp and know it is the start of a good season.