Time to get after it, methinks. Monty (Mark Montgomery, ex-pro triathlete and my next door neighbor) and I have mostly shaken off our annual Winter bronchitises, it's getting warmer all of a sudden on the West Coast, and it feels like time to put in some semi-mega miles.

Therefore, we're going to semi-do just that, and we're offering you a half-ass way to semi-join us on our Virtual Semicamp.

"Semi" because it's only half an Epic Camp, partly because we're working stiffs, also because we're only training for half-Ironman races, and mostly because we just don't want to ride 140 miles in a day.

"Virtual" because we're inviting you to join us, but not in an analog fashion. Yes, we'll show up here and there in specific places for rides and runs, but we're making this a virtual camp so that those of you who live in Pennsylvania, or Transylvania, or just Sylvania (Ohio), can join in as well. You can do as much or as little, indoors or outdoors. No entry fee, just bragging rights (we'll be bragging on the forum).

Our Virtual Semicamp will start this Saturday, March 13th, and go through the following Sunday, March 21. Our goal here is to build fitness through administering nine days of higher volume, mostly low-intensity, work. The idea is to build fitness and get much closer to race weight.

Here is a tentative schedule we'd like to keep to. Every day or so I'll post here and let you know how it went with us. We'll also post if we're going to do something on a day when other SoCal based athletes want to join in (we'll probably ride with a San Diego group on Wednesday, for example).

March 13th (Saturday) 3hr cycling; 30min running
March 14th (Sunday) 2hr running
March 15th (Monday) 2.5hr cycling; 3000m swimming
March 16th (Tuesday) 1.5hr cycling; 1hr running
March 17th (Wednesday) 6hr cycling; 3000m swimming
March 18th (Thursday) 90min running; 3000m swimming
March 19th (Friday) 2hr running
March 20th (Saturday) 3hr cycling; 3000m swimming
March 21st (Sunday) 3hr cycling

Totals would be 19 hours of cycling; 7 hours of running, and 12k of swimming. Assuming that we ride in the neighborhood of 16mph, we'll ride 304 miles, 56 miles of running (8mph) and then the swimming.

No, these aren't Epic Camp totals. But they're perhaps achievable, and if some enterprising and energetic Slowtwitch reader wants to go for the preme, have at it. Here's how we determine who wins:

1 point for every 100m in the pool
1 point for every mile ridden
4 points for every mile run

Using this scale, the 9 days of SemiCamp above would total 648 points.

You guys and gals can mix and match days to get in your points. If you want to pile the miles, yards and hours in on the weekends and slack off on the weekdays, fine. Or if you want to make this more of a running week for you (let's say you're still snowbound), that's okay as well. It's all based on points. If you want to do your training indoors, that's okay too.

Obviously, not everyone is ready to do the mileage outlined above, nor have many of you gotten enough base miles in so that you can tackle nine such days. Instead, do what you can. Give yourself nine healthy days of workouts that offer you the challenge appropriate to your current fitness. If you can't swim 3000m, swim 1000m. If you can't run at all because of an injury, swim 5000m. Or run in the water and count that toward your total. In other words, do what you can, be safe, have fun, lose weight, and brag.

Speaking of that, do your bragging on the forum. Pretend like it's a virtual Irish pub. When the day is over slam a Guinness, or an Old Newcastle Brown (or a Cytomax Cool Citrus Smoothie), and type your boast.

DAY ONE: What was to be on my schedule for Saturday was 3hr cycling and 30min running. When I got out on my bike, however, it became apparent that I was in for a very hard day. The first ride on my bike after three months entirely off—which was accomplished about 5 or 6 weeks ago—went better than this.

My lack of strength became apparent right away because I started my day climbing, and you can't fake that. By the time I'd ascended 2000 feet I'd taken 57 minutes to do what ought to have taken me 45 minutes. So I turned around and rode home. Total time: 90 minutes.

I cleaned the house, did the laundry, and wondered what the problem might be. I'd done 5 pretty good consecutive days last week, and then took three days entirely off to concentrate on getting my life in order prior to the Semicamp. Perhaps my body shifted into rebuilding mode, and it had other things than training on its mind.

I don't know of that's what happened or not. On that subject, Mark Allen says of tapers that the worst one is the two-week taper. Less than that and perhap the body hasn't yet gotten the message that it's time to rebuild. Three or, even better, four weeks and you've done your rebuilding and have internalized and incorporated your training. Your body is again ready to go. I don't know what Mark advocates doing in those four weeks, but I suspect it might be two very easy weeks followed by slowly increasing the workout levels as the race approaches, so as to regain sharpness and motor skills prior to the race. That's what I think I'd do.

So, maybe my body was in some other place. Whatever place it was in, I figured I'd honor that. Maybe I'm getting sick. Don't know. In any case, after doing chores I took Charlee out for the run, starting from a trailhead about 10 minutes from the house. I found I felt okay, all things considered, and decided to partially atone for my short ride by running longer. By the time we returned we'd been out an hour and a quarter.

My schedule for Day-2 calls only for a 2hr run. If I repeated today's workout on Day-2 I'd have exactly the same totals as if I'd kept to the schedule. Generally I don't advocate trying to make up for lost workouts, but in this case I'm curious to see what I feel like on the bike. Plus, my joints were a bit sore at the end of the run, so I don't think 2hr is in the cards. We'll see how Day-2 goes and I'll report back.

My hope was to get back on schedule after yesterday's disaster on the bike. I had to find 90 minutes worth of relatively easy riding, except none of the riding around my house is easy.

I selected a route that includes a lap of our local bike race, attended only by those who consider gravity their friends. At least this loop gets most of the steep climbing over with early.

I started climbing and felt surprisingly strong. I just got stronger throughout, and when I came to the last three-quarter mile hill, a steep sonafabitch upon which my house is perched and which is required at the end of every ride, I finished stronger than on any ride this year. Go figure.

I then ran a slow but satisfying 1:15 to get myself on track. Three hours riding and 2:30 running isn't the biggest weekend I've ever done, but my eye is on days 8 and 9. And Wednesday, which might be the one truly Epic day of this camp.

Through two days, I and everyone in front of me (that I know of):

Francois: 327pts
Robert S: 202pts
The Lurker: 179pts
heiselsnaps: 157pts
mthammer: 155pts
desert dude: 143pts
ironclm: 142pts
teambz: 140pts
Slowman: 128pts

I slept nine continuous hours last night, excepting one 5-minute wake-up a little after midnight. I haven't slept nine hours in I don't know how long. Guess that's what a little camp will do for you.

Worked until noon, pulled out the road hog and started climbing. It's what I do. Others ride flat. I ride up. Not that I'm particularly good at it. It's just my thing. Some people play Scrabble. Others like the theater. I climb.

My 2hr30, then, consisted of climbing from 4200' to 7600' and then returning. I purposely did not look at my watch. Much. The idea was just to keep the cranks turning over. Nice road, good weather, altogether not a bad ride.

I was much more concerned about the swim. I had 3000m on the schedule, and those who follow our forum know that a few months ago I had a bad thing happen to my shoulder, and I lost most of the strength in one arm. It's taken months to get the strength back, all of which was spent out of the pool. Tonight was my first swim since an aborted attempt several months ago. I had no idea how my arm was going to feel.

It took exactly one stroke to realize it was fine. I swam 2500 yards straight, not fast, but no pain, and altogether quite pleasurable. I got in my 3300 yards, met plan, promptly got out and called it a day. Three down, six to go.

Camp totals after three days: