By Brad Culp
March 13, 2007 -- Troy Jacobson’s training philosophy revolves around one simple mantra: Avoid the grey zone.
This so-called "grey zone" is that is that foggy area between aerobic and anaerobic effort, where you’re not really maximizing either system. I like the grey zone. It makes me feel like I’m working hard, but it keeps me away from that white intensity which sets my quads on fire.
After a red-zone ascent of Mt. Lemmon yesterday, my body was aching for a nice, grey-zone afternoon today. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t an option. Day three of Coach Troy’s spring triathlon camp, in Oro Valley, Arizona, called for a tour of Gates Pass, in the Pima Mountain foothills. The ride wasn’t terribly long, but it would end with a steep climb up the backside of the pass, which haunted my mind for the first two hours of the day.
We started off with a relatively easy climb up the front side of Gates, which eventually led us to a handlebar-shaking freefall down the other end. The descent was a blast, but it was a chilling reminder of what would come at the end of the ride.
Once the group made it out of the hills, we team time-trialed through three, fast five-mile loops over some rolling terrain. With the easy stuff behind us, we once again turned toward Gates Pass. The pass deals a tremendous mental blow because it’s completely exposed as you make your approach. The entire road, from bottom to top, is in plain view, so there’s no way to trick yourself into thinking that it won’t be that bad.
At least it was a short climb (compared to what we did yesterday). After five or six minutes of suffering I’d be back at our van with a trunk full of cookies. I began spinning up the climb in my baby gear, as I tried desperately to keep the lactic acid out of my legs.
I could hear Troy’s lecture from the previous night replaying in my head…
"Don’t do junk miles." Sure thing, Troy.
"Stay out of the no man’s land." Will do, coach.
"Don’t be Johnny One Speed." Fine, now shut-up.
With that, I punched my shifters into a higher gear and picked my body out of the saddle for one of the first times this week. After a few minutes of swaying and panting, my climb was over and the cookies were that much closer to being in my stomach.
Once we made it back to the Holiday Inn the group set out for an quick run through the mid-afternoon heat. My legs felt surprisingly fresh and five miles later, I was in my bed for nap-time.
Tonight’s schedule calls for a trip to the recently opened TriSports super-store in Tucson and a group dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Nothing like binge-spending on triathlon apparel and multiple burritos to take your mind of the fact that your legs really, really hurt.
To find out more about Troy and his camps, visit www.coachtroy.com.