Saturday - Cleveland Camp

Friday night into Saturday morning, it snowed quite a bit and the wind was viscous. We needed an early start for the day since it was to be chock full of activity, and we headed out from Anges house at 5:30am towards downtown Cleveland and the Case-Western University indoor track. The roads weren't even plowed yet which made the commute interesting, however, everyone made it! After an easy warm-up couple of miles jog, I ran all the campers through running drills like high knees, ass kickers, skips, ... This is where you get to see the true coordination of each camper, which is always fun. Well, it's amusing for me anyways. After a bunch of drills, we split the group into two and began the heart rate testing. One group ran first while the other group recorded heart rates and splits and then we switched. This test is tough, yet accurate and allows us to set very specific and accurate heart rate training zones for each athlete. After a cooldown jog, we made a short trip to a yoga studio for a one hour yoga session from hell. The instructor was unbelievably evil, yet also very, very good. She kicked my ass big time. I mentioned to the group afterwards that I don't do yoga nearly enough, yet every time I do, I tell myself that I really need to try and do this regularly. I'm sure I'll say the same thing in three months or so after I take a yoga class again.

We then had a short break for coffee and muffins in little Italy before heading back to the Case U. pool for a two hour swim session. We worked on strokes with some drills and then we hit the main set hard. The group was really working - I remember Denise spat out at one point while gasping for breath awaiting the next sendoff; "you upped the game this year!" I capped this session off with some underwater and butterfly relays.

Next was a quick lunch and then back to Euphoria where we had a physical therapist run the group through functional stretching. This session was interesting, and well needed, even after doing yoga earlier in the day. The emphasis was on loosening up for the range of motion of the activities that we participate in.

Angela and I then did a discussion on nutrition, and specifically race week and race day nutrition, and the do's and don'ts. This somehow seamlessly led into a lengthy discussion on mental strength and the mentality of the endurance athlete. Whenever I speak publicly, I always seem to get side tracked and go off on other topics. The group seemed to actually really enjoy it though. Ray didn't even fall asleep.

So after we let them sit around for awhile during these discussions, it was time to get the campers moving again. This time, I worked them through a specific strength routine for an hour. A few of them sweat more during this killer strength routine then they did during their track session this morning!

We finished the busy day with some final bike fits and a daily wrap up. So, to sum up Saturday:

Indoor Track Session
Yoga
Swim Session
Functional Stretching Session
Nutrition and Mental Attitude Discussion
Strength Training Session
Bike Fit

That's a very cool day if I do say so! And everyone seemed to really be holding up well. Only Sunday left now...

Cheers,

EH