Training Camp 2013 – It starts!

Santa Barbara, California.

Sun. Ocean. Mountains. Winding roads. Infinity pool.

This is going to be a phenomenal training camp.

The pool deck at night

We made our way up the Santa Ynez Mountain side late last night, carefully manoeuvring the dark, steep hairpin turns and eventually arriving at our beautiful home for the next month overlooking the city of Santa Barbara. With a mountain facing bedroom curiosity won over fatigue and I stumbled outside into a breathtaking setting.

My morning view!

The house, pool deck, and gardens are simply gorgeous. Grape fruit, orange, and avocado trees can be found on the lower part of the property and are heavy with delicious fruit hanging on solid branches just waiting for me to climb.

So many grapefruits!

Oranges

Anyone know what kind of tree this is?

Might have to move here…tree climbing season lasts all year!

After a relaxing morning we headed to the track for a light workout to get the legs moving again. The beautiful facility inspired everyone to get moving, and Gar and Dennis lifted a few weights while Damian and I warmed up.

Gar and Dennis pump some iron.

Panorama of the track

I can’t wait to really get moving, especially after following the results of the CIS and NCAA championships that just took place this weekend. Congrats to all the athletes, near and far!

I am so freakin in love with this sport.

Surviving the gravity field

It turns out that 12 days without chocolate isn’t too difficult!

I held firm through a few trying occasions when it seemed a giant switch was thrown without warning and I was forcibly sucked in to an immense gravity field surrounding Grandma’s candy dish. The moments that followed tended toward infinity as, like a satellite, my gradually shrinking orbit led me toward the summoning celestial body, faced with the dangerous reality of burning up in the atmosphere upon entry. My vision would tunnel as I circled, the sight of that impossible object of desire growing exponentially as I hurtled toward it until all that existed was the chocolate that I was bent on resisting. The whistle of the wind in my ears as I zoomed through the thin air of the upper atmosphere would pierce my trance and trigger some distant memory of my goal, and I would suddenly turn away from the growing, comforting warmth of reentry. A timely thrust of power would alter my path just before it was too late, and I would gracefully float back off into the silent vacuum of space, leaving no evidence of the averted disaster.

These dramatic episodes evolved rather quickly into more calm and contemplative encounters. Where I used to see chocolate only in relation to my stomach, to be measured in units of degrees away from being consumed, it has since become something that exists with equal validity on its own; something to be observed and studied, and then consumed OR left alone. It is through these rarer yet more meaningful encounters that I have come to know chocolate, actually seeing it for the first time as opposed to going through the panicked and transient eating experience I have known in the past.

As chocolate’s gravity field dwindled throughout this challenge, I decided to extend the mission through training camp and beyond. The beyond part didn’t really happen, but I went chocolate free for just under 20 days! The streak ended with a complementary chocolate chip cookie from the hotel lobby, a synchronistic change from the raisin ones served all week, after our final workout of training camp (more to come on that soon!). I considered eating around the chocolate chips, but decided to go for it!

I would say my biggest accomplishment lies not in resisting chocolate for almost 20 days, but in being wonderfully satisfied with but one cookie!

Thanks to all who have been there to offer support and sing encouragement…often disguised as heartless taunts. I know your true intentions!! 🙂