#TTFU OYL Training Camp 2015

From April 28^th to May 1^st, we rode longer, farther and harder than any of us had ever ridden before. To kick off our sophomore year, we decided to get the ball rolling with a team training camp to Collingwood. I thought it would be a good idea to get the legs moving after another long winter and get the new recruits into the groove of group cycling. Before this week, the farthest some of our riders had ever ridden was 60km. Boy, were they in for a shock to the system! I am extremely proud of all of the boys for sticking through and pushing on. We all had our bonking points (who wouldn’t have a bad kilometer or two in a 20+ hour week?) and it was great to see the drive and perseverance to continue on. It really gave me the chance to evaluate the motivations and mindsets of this year’s squad. None of us had ever really ridden together before this week but I now know they are some of the toughest roadies out there.  The development that I saw in those 4 days alone has me very optimistic for the rest of the season. 

Hillside view from our balcony was awesome, spent some time just watching the slopes

Over the course of 4 days, we rode ~625km in 21 hours of total rolling time through the beautiful roads of Collingwood.

Having access to one vehicle, the transportation arrangements were pretty tricky to sort out. This left Ed and myself to ride up from Waterloo to Collingwood, while Lucas, Alex and Adam drove. The expedition to Collingwood was a tough one. It was uphill 95% of the way (as shown in the graphic below) into a killer headwind. To make matters worse, when we embarked on our journey at 6:30 am, the temperature was teasing the negatives. With the weatherman calling for a high of 17degrees later in the day, I thought I would rough it out with shorts and fingerless gloves. This turned out to be a mistake as the weather stayed frigid for the first 3 hours of our trek. 30 km in, we had to pull into the Fergus Timmies to warm up. Great start to the camp. Toeing the line between frostbite and hypothermia, we carried on to meet up with the car in Shelburne.

After a hearty refuel, Alex joined us and we continued into the home stretch. When Adam and Lucas got to the hotel, they unpacked their bikes and rode the reverse route to meet up with us 30km out and we rode to base camp as a group. On day 1, due to the hectic transportation, we each rode between 60km and 175km.

Day 2 saw our first real ride together and we broke it into 2 sessions: a morning easy ride and an afternoon hill climb workout.

The morning ride was more to get the legs moving, especially for Ed and myself after a long 7-hour day before. The route was a recon of the Grey County RR some of are planning to compete in.

The later ride was short and not so sweet. We began with the Scenic Caves HC (from the centurion hill climb), a sprint down Route 2 before climbing the back of 19 and bombing down it. It was a shorter, fast paced workout type ride, simulating our spin classes that we had run over the winter. 

Our big hitter was on day 3, where we planned a century ride. Somehow that turned into an 180km Iron distance ride; including lunch and snack breaks, we were out for over 8 hours. Looking back on it now, the elevation shows an absurd amount of climbing!

Someone was out at 120k

The ride back to Waterloo, surprisingly enough seemed like the easiest. Despite the 15 hours of riding of the last 3 days, we made it back in 5 hours of rolling time (2 hours quicker than the ride out). Maybe it was that my body had become numb or the massive tailwind or the downhill profile that helped us. We paced the first 90km at half-Iron pace and the back 80km at Iron pace effort. 

Timmies Pit Stop on the Return Trip

All in all I think for our first camp, it went as well as it could have been. With over 100 hours of combined riding between the 5 of us, we surprisingly had no flats or serious mechanicals (a few dropped chains and flying bottles are nothing to complain about). It also seemed we chose the perfect 4-day gap to hold the camp, as the weather was great with seemingly no wind so complain of. Aside from the first morning, the weather was consistently in the high teens and it literally rained for 20 seconds (I timed it) during our descent into Creemore on the third day. 

A little candid shot

A banana and twizzlers - definitely Pro Tour musette material

The posthumously named “#TTFU Training Camp” was some of the best cycling I have ever done, made even better by great company. I definitely want to plan another trip for next spring. It was a great way to jump into cycling after the winter and a great break after a tough exam period. 

A huge thank you to our sponsors who helped to make this camp possible: Eagle Partners Financial Solutions, 3Sixty5 Cycling and Du Tri and Run. 3Sixty5 delivered a pair of their Lunar 58 wheel sets to Lucas just in time for the camp (picked up enroute), and according to the happy new owner "they're so slick, they make a waterslide feel tacky!" 

Some of our fuel for the week provided by Du Tri and Run & Endless Endurance

Looking forward to the season, we plan to send a team to the Grey County RR (May 24), the Tour De Waterloo (June 22), the Tour De Terra Cotta (Aug 3), as well as an assortment of triathlons. 

As a side, if anyone has any recommendations for free video editing software, please shoot me a note. The native app that came with the camera is very rudimentary and tough to navigate (which is why this blog took so long to upload). I have around 30GB of footage from the trip that I want to do stuff with. I'll upload a better video when I can make one.

Contact:
On Your Left Cycling-

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Tyler Chuang

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• Twitter: @Tyler_Chuang
• Instagram: @tdchuang

Ed Cyr

• Twitter: @EdCyr4

Alex Dos Santos

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• Twitter: @asotnassod

Adam Napiorkowski

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• Twitter: @Napior_A

Lucas Shwed

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