The first day of camp is always filled with anticipation and a restless night. Because I am still on Chi time I got up at 5am and checked facebook. Then after I dawdled for a while I got up and laid out my clothes for today. Lots of little decisions: do I bring the long gloves, what kind of socks (wool or regular), how heavy a cap? Finally its 6am and I can think about breakfast.

Unfortunately there is no coffee at 6am. A scouting party went out and just reported that nothing is open. Ahhhhh no coffee for a few more agonizing hours. (I have a wicked coffee withdrawal headache.)

The schedule is breakfast, safety briefing and then suit up. I have been assigned to the C group with a lot of my friends. Today’s ride should be a rerun of a Sunday ride.

The sun is rising and I smell coffee. More later:

I just returned from the ride. VQ broke us up into a total of 7 groups. I was in the group that left at 9:35, it basically was a group of guys whose power to weight ratio was about 3:1, and as I mentioned earlier the group was filled with guys I usually ride with on Sundays.

The ride was supposed to be a warm-up ride of a 5-7 difficulty. There were some good climbs and some fast descents. I thought the ride was a 7.5 to an 8. The group was well matched and fast. I stayed in the back as planned and tried to keep my average watts low. A few times I was climbing too hard and had to back off. In fact on the second hard climb I let the group move ahead and I just climbed at a constant rate. My strategy worked well because I had some nice power at the end of the ride while others were fading.

Now for the numbers; I climbed about 2000+ feet, I rode 60 miles and my average speed was 16.5mph. That might seem slow but the 5 climbs really slowed me down.

I also learned some very important lessons. I climbed too hard on the first hills and used way too much energy. I caught myself on the later hills and backed off a notch. I climbed the first hills at 110%-125% of LT power. On the later hills I climbed at 95%. I also forgot to take my salt supplements during the ride. It was a very comfortable 65 here, but I still lost 3 pounds, which means I lost 3 pounds of water and salt. Tomorrow I plan to drink 1 bottle an hour and take 2 salt tablets at every break. These changes should help me ride more efficiently.

My overall impression was that the ride was enjoyable and the scenery was amazing. I rode well and kept up. I was definitely tired at the end and I am wondering how 5 more days will affect my system. Tomorrow is 70 miles and the next day is a climbing marathon. But that is bike camp, a place where you push yourself to new highs and establish new peaks. I am anxious and excited about tomorrow, however now it is time to nap and then get a massage. Stay tuned for day 2.