DIY IMC Prep Camp

My plan for the long weekend in the Okanagan was to have a bit of a mini Ironman Canada prep camp.  I left Seattle early Thursday morning to drive to Vancouver to pick up the boyfriend who flew in for the weekend.  We then drove to Kelowna and met up with my friend Ally who would be joining me for some training. On Friday morning we decided to do a short 1-2 hour ride and tackle the front portion of the IMC bike course – from Penticton around the east side of Skaha Lake, McLean Creek Road to Okanagan Falls, and then back along the lake.  It was a beautiful sunny and warm day with plenty of cyclists out.  The route starts out very flat around the lake so it was a nice warm up.  We tried to hug the shoulder or edge of the road as much as possible but a few irate drivers decided to honk at us because they didn’t think we were over far enough.  That was nerve wracking!  We continued riding all the way around Skaha to OK Falls and then we tried to find McLean Creek Road… 

Once we turned on to McLean Creek the road went up and up.  We paused at the top of a hill for a moment and I looked around…we had found a winery! I’ve been teased for wineries being a bit of a magnet for me…  We debated stopping, but decided that it would be better to continue biking.  As we continued riding along McLean Creek Road something seemed wrong as it looked like we were going the wrong way.  I pulled over, pulled up a map of the course on my iPhone.  We had missed the initial turn off for McLean Creek Road along Skaha Lake.  Oops!  We decided to ride to the end of the road (which was downhill), hit the bottom and turn around to ride up for a bit to get an idea of what the uphill would be like.

As Ally and I rode the uphill we wondered why no one ever talks about McLean Creek Road.  The pavement is awful and there is a big hill with a pretty steep grade.  We continued about halfway, then turned around to head back toward Penticton.  On the second time back down we spied a super teeny tiny foal!From there it was a nice, straight forward ride around the lake for a total of just over 26 miles.  We packed the bikes back on to the car, ran around the lake for a quick 15 min brick, then found a picnic table for some lunch.  Mini-IMC prep camp was off to a great start!