I decided to call my Memorial Day weekend festivities my 2nd training camp of the year. After all, I was going to be spending the majority of it training just like I did during my first training camp in Australia. Some things would be different. Firstly, I didn’t have to fly halfway around the world to get to camp. However, my 2 ½ hour drive which turned into 5hours thanks to the crazy holiday traffic made it feel as long as flying around the world. There were no coaches there but instead I had my family for support. My dad was kind enough to hop on his mountain bike to come check on me during my workouts. The first day he met me with 10min to go in my 4 ½ hour workout and greeted me by falling off his bike gasping for air because he had to climb up a hill. Shouldn’t I be the one falling over and gasping for air?! (in his defense he did only have 2 gears working on his bike). My brother was kind enough to drive the boat on the lake while my husband and I were swimming and he only tried to run us over once or twice (but that was mostly because he got distracted and started fishing instead). Good thing I wasn’t drowning! One of the best differences was that I wasn’t responsible for my own cooking. Thanks to Mom I had lots of great food to eat. There is nothing better than coming home from a long ride or run and having your mom in the kitchen fixing you up something yummy. There were no other pro athletes at this camp to train with but I did have my husband who proved to be just as valuable. I dragged him out of bed early each day. I made him ride up and over mountains for hours on end and swim across the freezing cold lakes multiple times. We did “race” to the top of a mountain (which I lost) and raced to the boat while practicing deep water starts in the lake (which I lost again) so I think he faired ok. I’m calling EM training camp a success: my legs are sore, I can barely get up the stairs, all I want to do is sleep and all the food is gone. Time to come home, recovery and get ready for race time again!