Sam Training Rocky Style in Montana

Check out Sam on page 98 of Bike Magazine!

Jen Luebke and Linsey Corbin in for a rainy duathlon in Phoenix.

I have coined a new phrase! I think it’s mine at least. Brendan asked me how my legs felt today mid-ride during a Cycling House Camp. Sometimes I respond, “great,” other times it’s “garbage.” Today it was “dirty.” My legs feel “dirty.” They don’t feel great, they don’t feel terrible, they just feel like I have been training lots. Racing last weekend didn’t give me “clean” legs by any means.

I knocked off the first race of the season with my buddies Brendan and Linsey. We traveled from The Cycling House up to Phoenix after a big week of training to race the Desert Classic Duathlon. It was a race for the books as it was raining buckets and the run takes place on some single track on the desert floor. Lots of rain + desert singletrack = mud fest. We struggled to keep warm before the race, during the race, and after the race. After all was run, rode, and run I ended up 13th in a star-studded women’s field. After awards, so Ben Hoffman and Brendan could pick up their 2nd and 6th place paychecks, we jetted to coffee for someone in the group’s “favorite part of the day.” First race is done and I will take it!

-Jen

Brendan found his new toy on his way up Mt. Lemmon.

Today we rode Mt. Lemmon and there is still quite a bit of snow up there.  It’s melting pretty fast and most of the recreational snow goers have moved on. Some leaving their toys behind. Brendan scored big this afternoon by finding a sweet neon green sled in the middle of the road. 

He snagged it off the pavement mid-interval while holding 350 watts on his Powertap SL.  We now have a good activity while waiting to regroup at 8000 feet on the top of Lemmon. 

The vans loaded up for the Gates Pass shuttle.

We are in the last couple of days of the February Hammer Camp and things are running smoothly.  We had 19 riders summit Mt. Lemmon today which made for a total ride time of 5.5 hours.  The Cycling House PowerTap Demo units are in use and the Hammer Campers are becoming well versed on how to fuel properly on and off the bike.  Brian Frank and Jim Bruskewitz are endlessly fielding nutrition and training questions. It’s awesome to have such a wealth of knowledge around at all times.

Andy Schultz grilling up another masterpiece.

Sam and Andy Schultz are cooking for 25 people and putting out the top notch meals they are known for.  They’re also training 6+ hours a day which makes for some busy days at The Cycling House.  

S.S.: You'd think his occupation was professional cooking... Not a professional mountain biking.

Jen Luebke and Brendan Halpin are running the rides and logistics for this camp. Taking athletes swimming, hiking, running and guiding all of the rides has been on their to-do list everyday.  Jen and Brendan are putting in the big days of training for the upcoming Ironman in St. George.  They are rocking both work at The Cycling House and work on the training side of things.

Brendan and Jen, happy after a big day of work at TCH

Forecasted weather for the next week.

As you can tell by the image above, we are in for a pretty great week at The Cycling House. Mid February is when you really start to notice the temperatures slowly rising to consistent mid-70’s temps on a daily basis. We just had another great week at The Cycling House and now it’s time for the 4th annual February Hammer Camp that starts today!

Mt. Lemmon has been hit with tons of snow. The road is clear and dry so it makes for a beautiful ride to the top.

 Alison Sylvester of Durango, CO joined us for a few days at The Cycling House.  Durango has experienced one of the most brutal winter in years so a quick trip to the sunshine was a must for Alison.  She got out on daily trail runs and enjoyed the fact that she could wear shorts and a t-shirt outside by the pool.  Alison definitely took advantage of her time in Tucson, AZ and now has the strength to return to the 3 feet of snow that welcomes her back at home. 

Anya, climbing Mt. Lemmon with a smile.

Anya Wechsler, super runner and stud triathlete of Missoula, MT, came down for a few days of running, riding and hanging out in the sunshine to help breakup the constant inversion that Missoula is known for in the winter time.  As you can tell by the picture above, she’s loving life.  

Graham Meng, part-time staffer at The Cycling House. Also, the only guy in the crew that can grow a real mustache.

The new Cycling House socks in action. Guaranteed to make you twice as fast...instantly.

The road leading up to Madera Canyon.

We have a couple spots that just opened up! March 9-14, 2010.  We’ve been fully booked since nearly the beginning of the season here in Tucson, AZ so we are excited to be able to open up a few more slots for athletes to join us for some early spring triathlon and cycling  training.  Noah Krug of Ark Intervals has joined forces with The Cycling House to provide some of his athletes with the opportunity to take advantage of the epic training at TCH.  Come join his crew and The Cycling House staff for some fun mid march training.   

Jen and Monica at the Top of Mt. Lemmon

The great guys at Ark Intervals will be putting this camp together and you can expect the same staple services The Cycling House has built it’s name on. This camp will be geared more towards triathlon but cycling will be the main focus (if your a cyclists and questioning whether you should go, contact us). Cycling House resident coach, Brendan Halpin will be an integral part of the daily training schedule with his focus being on the running and riding. Jen Luebke will be running the swim workouts. The Schultz brothers will be cooking the delicious food and Owen will be driving support and trying to stay out of the way.  

Saris PowerTap SL demo wheels will be on site for campers to try out and see what watts are all about.  The new HED Stinger 6 wheelset just came in too so if you want to try out a pair of FAST cycling wheels then you need to check these out.

The Upper Echelon Fitness/Portland Velo Crew enjoyed the sunshine. They escaped the rain in Portland, OR.

This is the 3rd year of having Russell Cree and friends down to The Cycling House for a camp in Tucson, AZ.  When rain was in the forecast for the first big ride the Portland Velo crew probably questioned why they left the Pacific NW. They definitely paid their dues on the guided ride out to Saguaro E. National park and Old Spanish Trail. The first half of the ride it only threatened to rain, the second half the clouds delivered in a fierce way.

On the first ride the Portland Velo group brought the rain with them.

After the inaugural day of questionable weather, the bikes were washed by The Cycling House staff, lubed up and ready to roll to Gates Pass. The sunshine came back out first thing in the morning and the mood brightened immediately.  We rolled out from The Cycling House for 4 hours of riding on the West side of Tucson…Gates Pass and Saguaro W. Natl. Park.

The Cycling House fiesta night: delicious carne asada tacos, margaritas and cervesas.

Russell Cree, Proprietor of Upper Echelon Fitness and head coach, was on site to work with the riders on coaching, technique and bike fits and race schedules. He is a master in coaching with Power. The Cycling House has multiple Saris PowerTap 2.4 SL demo wheels on hand  and it was great to have Russell around to analyze data and teach people how to train properly with wattage.  

Sag Support Car at The Cycling House

With the wild weather we have been having in Tucson, we weren’t quite sure whether a Mt. Lemmon summit was in the cards.  We held off on Lemmon until the 2nd to last day of camp to allow for Catalina Hwy. to dry out as much as possible.  The sun worked it’s magic and on Friday we hit the summit no problem. Most riders were able to ride the whole 21.5 mile climb in shorts and a short sleeve jersey. The decent is always chilly and the support car had extra clothing, fuel and water for the riders at the top. The next day the crew rode up Madera Canyon and the temperature was a perfect 68 degrees.  Madera Canyon is definitely a highlight ride for The Cycling House. It’s just a desolate desert road that dead ends at the top of a really hard climb. It’s really great.

The Canadian in the group stocked up on Trader Joes granola and packed her bike box with copious amounts of other tasty food.

Hammer Nutrition crew heading up toward Gates Pass in Tucson, AZ

The first Hammer Camp of the season is underway at The Cycling House!  This is the forth year that we’ve hosted Hammer Camps and they keep getting better every year.  In addition to our riding, swimming, running and hangout at The Cycling House, there is an educational element that you can’t really get anywhere else.  With Brian Frank, owner of Hammer Nutrition and Steve Born, their fueling guru around at all times, they are there to help campers get the most out of their nutrition on and off the bike.   

Javelina sighting on the first ride for the Hammer Camp.

This is also the first time this season that we’ve had a completely full house which is so fun.  Sam and Andy Schultz are cooking daily for nearly 20 people and the food has been unbelievable (Pictures coming soon).

The group riding from The Cycling House to Saguaro East National Park

We have a nice mix of both triathletes and cyclists training for the upcoming season. We also have one couple preparing for a big tour through New Zealand!  Jim Bruskewitz (Hammer Camp Coach) has been on site 24/7 fielding questions regarding training schedules and technique and helping ride support on our group rides.   He is also the Globus (pictures coming soon) guy at The House. 

Jen and Brendan riding support

Way more news about this camp soon. We are off to ride Madera Canyon today. Jen and Brendan are outside loading up the vans with bikes and Andy and Owen are pounding out breakfast! Sam is sleeping.

Brendan Halpin likes to go fast

The Cycling House Staffers, Brendan Halpin and Jen Luebke raced the Tucson 10k on Sunday and found themselves to be right on track in their training for the upcoming triathlon season. Brendan placed 4th overall and Jen surprised herself by beating her goal for the race.

Jen Luebke at her best.

Frank Brummer and Kevin Raymond at mile 13 on Mt. Lemmon.

It’s been an awesome week at The Cycling House!  With the weather man telling us that rain was inevitable we were preparing for the worst. We aren’t use to rainy weather down here in Tucson, AZ so we had to re-think our rides a little bit and actually found ourselves stressing about the thought of putting on shoe covers, jackets, and hats to go riding.  The weather was wild and it turned out to be one of the best weeks of riding that we’ve had so far this year.  

Christi Raymond at the front holding off the pack!

It’s rained so hard every night which made it a little scary to wake up in the morning and look out the window to see what the day would bring.  But much to our surprise, everyday except for yesterday we woke up to sunny weather!  Even yesterday it was spotty but we never got rained on once during a ride which we feel was a huge success given the forecast.  The wind has played a bit of a factor but we’ve capitalized on that with practicing on riding in a group in the wind and getting riders more comfortable with knowing where to be. 

Kevin and Christi digging into the carne asada tacos on fiesta night at The Cycling House.

We’ve had the pleasure of meeting some really great folks this past week.  Kevin and Christi escaped grey Seattle weather for a few days. Graham, Steve and Jordan all migrated south from Toronto. Frank flew in from IL, Milt front Boise, ID, and Lenny made the trip from New York.  Great crew!

We celebrated a birthday by eating one of Sam's delicious home-made carrot cakes.

Mt. Lemmon is blanketed with snow right now with the top of the mountain having 4 feet of the white stuff!  The road is actually closed at the base until they clear the path and things warm up a bit.  It’s likely that they will open the road in the next day or two which will allow riding up to at least Windy Point at mile 14 if not higher.  Epic!

This picture was taken by Andy Schultz right outside The Cycling House. The recent storms have definitely had an impact on Souther Arizona.

The crew putting in those ever so important base miles