Forgive the last sterile post. I'll try to be a bit more candid. I like to document what we did but I also feel it's important, yes, very f'n important, to post the extracurricular activities at camp. Not the Kenny and Alan gay experience - they can tell that story (they insist it was just once), but stuff like how much food Gus really eats, and how we found out that Mountain Mist Ice Cream is a drive through.
Saturday: We began at 6am at Mirror Lake for a swim. Today is a full tri day. Besides my group, the lake was empty. Most triathletes brick ride and runs regularly in their training, however, I feel most don't realize the importance of swim bike bricks. There is a significant metabolism and muscular change from swim to bike and it's important to practice this if you want to make this transition that much easier on race day. We all swam about an hour give or take and I don't know about anyone else, but the last thing I wanted to do at 6am on Saturday morning was get in the lake. But you know what, I really enjoyed it after the initial five minutes of being a pussy. It was peaceful and loosened me up a bit. I swam easier and it was almost relaxing (almost). We scarfed down some breakfast and by 8am, we were on the bikes. The plan was to ride two loops of the course, some doing the two loops without the out and back, and many doing the out and back along rt. 9 past 86 to Ausable Forks, which we now know will be the out and back on race day. The weather was comfortable and overcast. I started a few of the athletes fifteen minutes earlier, and took the main group out, instructing them as we began the climb after the bridge by the ski jumps on 73 on how they should ride today. Then Gus moved to the front and began pushing the pace a bit. Next moved up Alan who just told me he was going to ride easier today and now is working it up front, then Kramer shot to the front and was clearly working it, claiming he needed to warm up a bit. I decided I didn't want to be part of the shenanigans since they should mainly be riding steady/aerobic today, so I moved to the front and took off on my own to catch the earlier group. The previous day, I didn't pay much attention to my own hydration, paying mainly attention to all my athletes from camp, and I paid for it in the last 30 minutes. Today, I kept my hydration up and my calories coming and rode really strong. I rode with just about every athlete from my camp today. I never rode with Molson or Baker but I'm sure now that they never even rode Saturday. It started to rain lightly for the last 45 minutes or so of the ride but it actually wasn't a bother. One thing that really impressed me was how well my group rode today. They had done an extremely hard ride the previous day that I guarantee no one else up in LP had done and yet they looked stronger and more relaxed than most on Saturday. Yes, they all settled down after the initial cat and mouse stuff on 73 and rode smart. Yes, my group of athletes are the best and most well trained:) We ran 30 to 45 minutes as a brick on the run course, each on our own today. Finished the day with a discussion on mental/attitude, did some mvp's and watched the US lose to Guana. A 22 ounce UBU Ale from Nicola's was necessary and is also quite strong after a day like this. Two leaves you feeling really nice!
Sunday: The main session on Sunday for all my camps is the long run. Today was 2 to 2.5 hrs. I took a vote the day before for running on trails to Avalanche Lake versus running on the course and it was split which sucked because I sent Baker and Ken w/ some athletes to run the trails while I ran with the other athletes on the course and I would have 100% preferred to run the trails. A few wanted a bit more knowledge of the course which is great for the bike course but running is running. What they really want is confidence that they can run well on this course but that's tough to ask for after doing this run on the last day of a very busy and strenuous camp. I am all about experiences. You get a hell of a lot more of an experience from a trail run up to Avalanche Lake than from pounding the pavement. A few mentioned how they wanted to keep their normal stride and felt that the trails inhibit this, especially the really steep stuff. My answer here is that they will soon enough be right back to running their typical training routes back home and that the one run on trails, even if your stride may be shorter, won't effect their conditioning whatsoever. More over, the trails are much less punishing on extremely tired joints, tendons and ligaments, and the heart rate still is elevated quite high on some of the technical steep trails. Anyway, we ran the course and it was fine. I always offer some optional sessions on Sunday, either an easy swim or ride, but everyone is usually done after the long run both mentally and physically and they are anxious to pack up and get on the road. And you know what, the fact that no one takes up the optional sessions is actually not a bad thing. It would just be junk mileage. Plus they are all more than likely quite sick of me.
On my drive home, I thought a bunch about signing up for the 2011 LP IM...
Cheers,
EH
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