Mt.

Have you ever heard Paganini? Before departing to TuKson, a friend lent me the 2 concertinos. Playing the violin solo part with an orchestra in concert is like the Stanley Cup of Violin, or World Champs of triathlon. Pretty amazing sounds.

On Thursday we had a recovery day with 1h50 on the bikes and a 4000 yard swim. It was nice to catch up on a little sleep, do some laundry, and generally relax for the day. Good preparation for what was a beauty day of training yesterday.

We met up at the base of Lemmon at 8:30 to start our climb. We will have at least 3 attempts at the hill, the idea being to descend each one. This being our second full assault to the top, we all had a place to go from.

To me, the first attempt was about introducing myself to the Mountain, and getting to know her. By the end of my second attempt I was hoping to be on a first name basis. We are now pretty good friends and I am learning a few of her secrets.

I decided to toss a water bottle, TT bars, and some clothing in the support vehicle (Thanks PK for the sweet support), so Andrew and I started the climb a few minutes back from the group. We had a solid rhythm to start, averaging about 4:20 for the 1st two miles, then back down to a steady 4:30ish pace.

Riding through the peleton was sweet as we had some encouragement from the guys. You guys seriously rocked that climb! Nice one.

This time through, on the advice of A-Russ, I decided to put back a couple gels during the effort, 1 every 8 miles. Good advice, Thanks. The first time it was easy to throw one back and consequently feel like a humming bird. At 16 miles I was more focused on pedalling than eating, so most of the gel ended up on my bars, where it still is.

At 18 or 19 miles PK rolled up in the truck with a nice cool bottle of water and a few words of encouragement. Save some for the TT! More good advice, Thanks. Now I know one of the places where I will shed a few more minutes.

This time, Summerhaven and 24.5 miles in just under 1h43.

We rode back to the Lemon Tree house for a brief tempo run off the bike, only having time for 10 minutes tempo, 10 minutes base before a quick lunch and back to Ft. Lowell for a buoy swim. (No worries, it was a nice and fast tempo.)

Swimming outdoors is sweet. Buoy swims are sweet x 2.

Thanks to Mt. Lemmon for being there. See ya in a few.

Rest well.