Reno Training Camp, 2008

At the end of a solid block of Californian races that included the Redlands Stage race and Sea Otter, it was time to do some serious climbing to prepare for the next two stage races, Tour of the Gila, New Mexico and Mt Hood, Oregon.

Both of these stage races featured a lot of climbing at altitude and racing for 5 days in a row, so not only would strength play a factor but also endurance.

Bob had flown over to visit me for 3 weeks so we headed to Reno, Nevada with 4 team mates to train at altitude and to do a big week of climbing.  The first day, we climbed Geiger Mountain and I could barely breathe. It felt like someone was pressing on my chest and preventing me from getting any oxygen.  It takes some people longer than others to adjust to training at altitude.  Reno is nearly 6000ft above sea level and it took me 4 days to fully acclimate.  I used my heartrate to control my level of exertion during these first 4 days.  I noticed the first day of climbing it was uncomfortable to hold 150 beats per minute.  The next day I could sustain 160 until day 4 I was almost up to 180 which is only 8 beats below what I can hold at sea level.

Rushlee, Amber, Myself and Rach – riding towards Geiger Mountain

The other important factor about training at altitude is having to drink more fluid than at sea level.  I had to concentrate on drinking at least an extra litre of fluid to remain hydrated.

The longest and hardest training day was our ride to Lake Tahoe.  We rode up Mt Rose (10,000ft) which took a little over 1hr to climb.  I did threshold climbing with Rachel all the way to the summit.  I held her wheel for about 45mins until I could no longer sustain her pace.  I reached the summit a few minutes after her and congratulated her on her form.  There was plenty of snow at the top of Mt Rose and so we only paused for a few minutes to snap a few photos and pull on warm clothes.  By the time we descended down into Lake Tahoe, I couldn’t even feel my fingers.  I was worried I wouldn’t be able to even use my brakes.  However, after a huge mug of coffee and a sandwich, I felt ready to climb back up to the summit of Mt Rose and down into Reno.  The ride was 100km and took 4hrs 15mins.  I burnt 3,000 kcal and rode at an average heartrate of 150.

I ate a roast beef sandwich after the ride and had a glass of milk, then headed to bed.  After long training sessions like these, I need an afternoon sleep to recover properly.  I was awoken 30 minutes later to the noise of rattling glass and amazingly I was experiencing an earthquake. It was the first of 32 earthquakes that shook Reno over the next 10 days.  I was excited to witness the tremendous power of the earth but a little scared too. The tremor I felt was 4.2 but it was enough to make me feel a bit worried.  I was sleeping in a two storey house and wondered about my fate if the house collapsed.  The following evening, I was sitting in the bath when another earthquake hit and I wondered how embarrassing it would be to be found naked in a tub if the walls of the house fell down! Luckily, the house is earthquake proof which means it is literally made with ball bearings in the foundations and walls so the walls simply “give” a little instead of cracking and collapsing.

After a day of rest that included an evening visit to Reno’s casino’s, it was time to train on my time trial bike.  I wanted to fine tune my time trial position in preparation for a 30km individual time trial at Tour of the Gila.  Bob looked at my TT position on a trainer and adjusted my seat a little further forward and higher.  We also adjusted the aerobars a little so the reach wasn’t as far away from my seat.  The position felt much better and I felt I could push out more power.

Adrian, Bob, Rach, Rushlee, Me, Amber

On Sunday we drove from Reno back to San Fransisco.  Early Monday morning we flew to Tucson,Arizona and then drove to Silvercity, New Mexico.  Bob was staying to direct Team TIBCO for Tour of the Gila so stay tuned to hear how we raced.