GGTC Wildflower Training Weekend

Every year my triathlon club, the Golden Gate Triathlon Club, hosts a training weekend down at the Wildflower Triathlon course at Lake San Antonio in Bradley, California.

The weekend is always a fun one, as it is not only an opportunity to train, but to also hang out with your teammates.

Once again I found myself in Cabin 2, surrounded by friends and we had a blast.

An annual tradition of the training weekend is the "transition race." Transitions are an important part of triathlon. GGTC puts a little spin on the transition by including the requirement of shotgunning a beer as part of the race.

Last year's transition race was legendary as one of the coaches did a flying mount onto his bike, which snapped his carbon seat post and left him with carbon fibers in a sensitive area.

This year's race was classic as not only did Chris and Jake participate, but one of the more intense members of the club flipped over then handlebars of his bike while coming into transition.



Congratulations to Jake on his win and to Chris for proving to be the most entertaining participant!

Even more entertaining was the fact that while driving home we happened to pass by the same individual who crashed in transition at the exact moment his bike almost flew off his rack on his car.

During the weekend I not only had a good time visiting with my friends, but was pleased to shave 7 minutes off my time from last year's Olympic course run.

I also had a very good practice ride on the long bike course and was able engage in lively conversation with a fellow GGTC Board Member whom I like very much. Nasty Grade was nasty, but not as nasty as I remembered. I was also happy to discover that "The Pit" is not a black hole with a 20% grade that one runs into and then turns around and runs out of, but rather is a hill I have run up many times before.

The weekend left me looking forward to racing Wildflower Long Course this year. If the weekend was any indication, it's going to be a scorcher...