Tucson

Ever feel like an idiot when you miss something obvious? For the past few nights, I've been trying to figure out what my password is to get signed back into my own blog (oh, the numerous passwords to access anything anymore... ridiculous). Obviously, I overcame the issues and got in.

My first week of March was spent in Tucson and it was one of the great weeks of my life. For those of you who are diabetic, I encourage you to make a commitment to get to a Diabetes Training Camp (www.diabetestrainingcamp.com). For those of you who are not, well, you've got all the benefits of living without this disease :) I had the good fortune to make it to my second camp, this time around with my Triabetes teammates. Words don't do the experience down there justice, you've got to be there to grasp it. I could go on and on about everything that went on down there, but I'll try and summarize a few of the highlights. Sometimes I've got to ask myself if I ever believed I'd have the opportunity to get coaching from a few former members of the Olympic team, a former coach of Lance Armstrong (see his article at http://www.velonews.com/article/89008/training-with-type-1-diabetic-athletes-has-taught-coach) and so many other influential mentors. They were all so down to earth and an absolute joy to spend time with. DTC is the dream of Dr. Matt Corcoran - a doctor, a friend, someone we need more of our population to be like. As a friend of mine once indicated, he's the first doctor who didn't speak at him - Dr. Matt spoke with him. I believe medicine needs to be a collaborative effort between the patient and the doctor and nobody embodies that better than Dr. Matt. He's a pioneer in actively charting a new course in the treatment of diabetes by promoting a healthy lifestyle upfront to ward off the complications. The Triabetes team is privileged to have him as our team physician.

Days typically started at 6AM and ended close to 10PM, so between training sessions, lectures on nutrition, sports psychology and diabetes management, one-on-one consults with coaches and staff of DTC on anything and everything, it was a ton packed into a short week. One of my favorite sessions was the cycle skills session where we worked our way from picking up water bottles off the road to pushing/pulling a teammate to effectively a roller derby on our bikes. As coach Nicole Freedman said, we're going to have to get used to being bumped and elbowed in these races. With the competitive instinct of a group of triathletes, it got pretty intense. Somehow, I always had Reid, the former rugby player, coming at me! I won a few and lost a few :)

We also had the opportunity to get over to the U of A for VO2 testing. This is where they hook you up to heart monitors and a breathing tube while cycling to measure max heart rate and your max oxygen uptake. The results of my test confirmed for me that I've got little athletic DNA :)

We're fortunate to have a great team of sponsors, many of whom we had the opportunity to meet with throughout the course of the week. The great team at TriSports, who put on the TriFest Expo over the weekend was awesome, the team from Fluid, Thorlo, Spibelt, Kestrel, and Polar that we met with were first class and terrific ambassadors for the message our team is aiming to spread.

Last but certainly not least, a special shout out to Denise, Kevin and Grant who labored up the 6,000 feet and the wind and the cold to the summit of Mt. Lemon last Friday. You're all rock stars!