I rang in the New Year in NYC extremely excited at the idea
of a training camp in Cuba with a group of Canadian athletes. While New Year’s Day allowed for a hassle
free border crossing, the strict baggage weight limits at the airport did not! After
about 2 hours of hassling with the Sunwing representative about our Cuban bound
baggage allowance and still exhausted from my hasty packing spree and US exit
the day before, I quickly fell asleep as soon as the plane was airborne. What
had begun as a treacherous journey turned into a quick and smooth flight. Upon
landing, we were hurried through a quick transfer to the hotel and a late night
check in followed by a snack, of course. Finally, it was off to bed to start
the routine of resting, training, eating, training, napping, training, and eating.
I would conveniently press the reset button every evening and get ready for the
same thing the next day, over and over again for the following 2 weeks.
On the first day it was clear I was in the Caribbean,
obvious by the fact of the unpredictable weather that seems to happen any time
I seem to be in the area (no need for weather channel cause even they can’t
seem to forecast it correctly). The first couple of days were a test of
patients with everyone on a high from being on a warm than Canada weather and
being out on the road rather than at the studio most seem to be antsy and just
wanting to go pedal to the metal every time we hit the asphalt. Our first brick
and tempo session went great hitting our times perfectly and the intensity
worked perfectly into the program to level out all that extra energy we had
from the being outside.
Our first weekend promised to be an exciting adventure and
it didn’t disappoint. With a ride to Havana from Varadero while being accompanied
by the national girls team and their Head Coach. We were sharply pick up at
8h30 by the time we finished with introduction and loading the pickup with all
our bags and gears we were out on the road by 9h00 and what a beautiful day it
was to ride, even though the tail wind we had been hoping for was nonexistent,
which made the trip that much longer than anticipated. We were able to sightsee
a bit, crossing on of Cuba’s tallest bridge and a couple of pit stop thanks to
some unexpected mechanical issues (slash tires). Spirits were high for most of
the ride but it was unfortunate that communication between the group wasn’t
able to happen, neither spoke each other’s language and weren’t able to find a
common on either and the fun of sign language quickly wore out, so eventually
5hrs into the ride people started losing it a bit and so the pace was hasten to
finish the exhausting trip. It was a
good thing we took the sightseeing route into Havana, a local boat ride and a
rode through a local neighborhoods, made everyone pretty happy but once that
was done it was back to the “are we there yet?” feeling. Luckily our host was kind enough to have a
couple of large pizzas waiting for us and even though they were on the cold
side, since the ETA of 5hrs ride became 6hrs30, we were still happy to chow
down something other than energy bars, gel, gummy and energy drinks.
After analyzing and comparing out new cycling tan lines it
was off to get a tour of Havana on the back of the pickup truck which was a very
welcome change from Varadero. Even though we had limited time and not a lot of
energy, since we had an early training session the morning after, it was great
to see the old Havana and its Vibrant Malecon on Saturday nights. Our Sunday
work out at the beach was great and made even better with the company of the
Cuban national girls team. Our track
session afterwards although tough was still enjoyable, even with the strong
winds. Our turnaround was a quick one not much time to enjoy Havana at its
fullest, which was a shame since Havana had so much to offer. Our trip back
took longer than expected with so many stops along the way (seems to be it took
us longer than on the bike) And that screwed up our night (like not being on
time for our dinner reservations at the sushi restaurant in the hotel)
Our last week started with another long ride/ run combo
again the choppy weather made a difficult for our ocean dip so we were left to
adjust and add on the time to what was already a long day of riding. After
realizing what an easy day Tuesday was going to be we (I mean me) decided to
let loose at dinner, which in retrospect may not have been a good idea but
still it happened and as much fun as it was fun we still had to train the next
day. With just short intensity on the bike and an afternoon swim, it was a
welcome day before the brick, which had the course planned since the girls had
been there the year before.
On the rest day it was decided to go do touristy stuff,
which in Cuba meant renting a couple of scooter and going sightseeing. The spot that was pick, from before we got
into the plane I may add, was The Saturn Cave which thanks to the fact that it
wasn’t high season at least for the cave meant that we had our own little
private tour and even with a couple of setbacks turned out to be quite a fun
day. Our last brick of training camp
were ruined by another unreasonable sea with heavy winds and so it was another
red flag at shore day. In the end we set for doing duathlons and knowing it was
going to be my last work out with the guys I decided to leave them with a bit
of a sour taste in the mouth and out do them on the very last one which worked
very well (lucky me ;)) and since we gotten to know each other very well it
wasn’t taken the wrong way.
Long Overdue ;)
