Our first training camp of 2019 is finally in the books. We can’t thank our athletes enough for joining us in Galveston. We swam, we biked, we ran, we ate, we laughed, and most importantly, we had fun.
Athletes provided unsolicited feedback of the camp below. Post content was unedited, with the exception of correcting for spelling or grammar. We hope you will join us either at our Lake Placid Camp later this summer, or at our 2020 Texas Camp.
Juan Pinedo
Just getting back from 4 days of Ironman training with the best coaches and peer athletes. Camp exceeded my expectations in a number of ways:
- Organization: coaches planned each day so we could get the most quality training and in depth conversations about the activity set. Pool swim with drills, feedback on form and underwater pics; open water swim with starting line simulations; biking and running high intensity intervals and long sessions.
- Sports psychologist with huge insights on metal condition prior, during and after the event. Lots of notes and tips on how to be mentally ready.
- Snacks galore…healthy snacks literally everywhere…for breakfast, lunch and pre and post workouts.
- The location was wonderful, beautiful home with plenty of space for all.
- And last but not least, a team of coaches and athletes smiling all day and feeling “fresh!”
I will recommend training camp to any athlete, experienced or new to the sport, time and money very well spent!
Morning of Day One. We ate breakfast with several other camp attendees and of course everyone was talking tri. What races have you done, what races are you doing, etc. etc. etc. Several of the campers had been to Kona. Stacey and I definitely had an “oh s$%t” moment, we were out of our league here. But you know what? None of that really mattered. The camp was so well set up that anyone of any level could have attended. You were grouped in the pool with others of your swim ability. We did our bike rides partly as a group at a super relaxed pace and then there was opportunity to push yourself during the workouts. We did hill repeats on the bike, and hill repeats on the run. You all start and stop in the same place. The coaches had a really good handle on everyone’s volume coming in and made changes to some of the workouts for different people depending on their goals. It was definitely not one size fits all.
I think the best thing about camp was getting to know the other campers. There was a great mix of people from all over the country. We ate pretty much all our meals together and had lots of time to chat. It was really fun. You find out that you were at a lot of the same races over the years and can commiserate together (it was so hot, so hilly, so windy, so cold, etc.).
In addition to the workouts this camp had clinics offered in swim, bike and run. These were great. We got underwater video on the swim and one on one instruction in the pool. The run clinic we had our form evaluated and then practiced drills and were given feedback on what drills would help us the most. The bike clinic was on posture and bike handling skills. I won the Dab game on handling skills, quite a surprise since I fall over at stop signs.
We also had a presentation on nutrition that was very informative and I learned some new things. As well as a talk on body work and recovery, also full of great info. All of the coaches were extremely attentive and gave tons of feedback throughout the four days, constructive criticism, as well as, praise. We had an opportunity for a one on one meeting as well with the coach of our choice to talk about whatever we wanted to.
I completely enjoyed this whole experience. I liked the people, the workouts were challenging but not crushing, and I started to remember why I do this sport. It’s fun! Riding my bike is fun! Swimming can be fun! I also learned so much, the most important of which was to face your fears and conquer them. I’m still deathly afraid of going fast down a hill, going to keep working on that one.
In the four days I swam five times, for a total of 12,161 yards. Biked 2 times, for 111 miles with almost 4000 feet of climbing, and ran 4 times for 10 miles and almost 1000 feet of elevation. Not bad for a weekend!
In summary, I went to camp and so should you. I promise you will make new friends, learn new things, challenge yourself out of your comfort zone and have a really fun time. Also, the food. There is lots and lots of food.
