Saturday, February 02, 2008

Cleveland Winter Camp

I told one of my PT clients earlier in the week that I wasn't going to be available on Friday due to the fact that I was heading out to put on a winter camp/clinic. He responded "very cool, some warm weather will be nice. Where are you heading?" "Cleveland!" I brought Baker out with me who bitched and moaned something to the fact of "you have Tucson, Palm Springs, and I get to go to Cleveland!"

Baker flew from Bradley and I flew from Westchester but we both arrived in Cleveland around 8:30am. Angela picked us up, along with the Aussie doctor out of Atlanta, Trephina. We grabbed a coffee and before doing anything else, we had trephina change clothes in a public restroom, and I had Ange, Trephina, and Tina do a short warm-up run before some heart rate testing out on the damp, cold roads. We then made our way back to Ange's to try and get some bike testing done on the computrainer with some of the athletes attending. This made for a very busy day, although it would save us some time for Saturday, which would be even busier.

After a quick lunch, I worked on Ange's, Trephina's, Tina's, Mike's, Mary's, Brad's and Jeff's bike positions. I made some radical changes, including removing a 3 cm spacer from under Ange's stem! Then we did HR testing on the ct which is always a bitch but for some reason very satisfying upon completion. We actually didn't finish up with this until after 7pm, which made for quite a long day considering we were up at 3:30am.

We have, once again, another very cool group of people attending this year. Besides Scooter and Ange, we have 16 other campers ranging from newbies training for their first 1/2 to more experienced athletes looking to qualify for Hawaii. They are all extremely nice, and most importantly, they are showing signs of good senses of humour which is necessary when dealing with myself and Baker. We tormented the campers right out of the gate and I was sure they'd hate us by now, but they seem to want more?!

It's always great coming out to see Ange and Scooter. They started as clients of mine, but have turned into very dear friends. I still need to convince them to move closer to CT.

Saturday started with 6:30am coffee and bagels and introductions, followed by more bike fitting and then more bike testing. We then did a 2 hr 15 min indoor bike session on the trainers where I led them through drills, cadence work, steady state intervals, climbing intervals, star intervals (I call out one name and they have to maintain 105+ rpm's solo and jam for 1 min), ... One of the campers, Jay, had so much sweat pooled under his bike that he must have lost 10 lbs!

We followed up the ride with a brick run outdoors and then Baker video taped run form. We took a quick lunch break and then I ran them through a specific strength and core routine that Baker videod as well. All the campers will go home with a dvd of their swim, bike and run form as well as video of the strength and core routine. Following the strength routine, we had a meditation class led by this guy Todd that Ange and Scooter use here which was great and well needed. The campers were whooped and I even heard some snoring during the meditation session.

We just finished dinner after another very busy day. The campers really put it out there today, especially during the tesing.

I'll try to get more into the blog tomorrow instead of just listing the agenda and what was done, but honestly I'm pretty beat. Tomorrow looks to be another busy day before I catch a flight home and race out of the airport to make the kickoff and watch my Patriots (I've been a life long Patriot fan in a household of Giant fans so lay off) kick some ass.

Cheers,

EH

4 comments:

Eric said...

In case I don't get a chance to tell you, your camps are always awesome. Even though I couldn't do the entire bike or any of the run, I pick up important technical tips, motivation and inspiration.

Bring on the swim.

Anonymous said...

This was a great experience! I loved every minute of it -- the time just flew by. I learned a lot about myself this weekend. First, I learned I'm stronger then I give myself credit for and that I really do run better coming off the bike (which is a good thing for the Ironman). This was an awesome group of people we had. Thanks for everything -- although I don't think I'll pass the "potty" test tomorrow. -- Mary

triguyjt said...

hear great things about your coaching....
sorry i was away from my town this past weekend for family wedding.

maybe in the future..
continue to follow your blog

Eric said...

Eric, great seeing you again - get better soon (same to Aimee)! I can't believe how much your swim form has improved!!!

Mary, it was a pleasure meeting you and Mike. I'm glad you enjoyed the camp - you did excellent.

JT, I'll be back. Hope to meet you in the future.

I'll blog about the rest of camp later today.

Cheers,

EH