MSE Triathlon Camp Day 3

The camp is now over, and just in time to head back to work tomorrow :(.  The final day really pulled everything together for me.  Our schedule was simple:

7-8 Breakfast

8:30-9:45 Swim Drills (more doing today and less learning) + 5 50s on 1min15

9:45-10:30 Open Water swimming

11-12:15 Spinning with Nathan

Lunch, Q&A, Closing

So while it was a simple day, I was really able to get a lot out of the swim.  First, I go a half decent swim workout in.  Second, Dwight was able to work with me a little bit on getting mroe power out of my stroke.  By turning my hip more and stretching out my pull hand, I'll better be able to use my core to snap back and get a more effective pull.  I look forward to working on that in my next few pool workouts.

Spinning was great because it felt terrible.  I have been an All Star on the spin bikes at the gym, but there isn't any substitute for your bike on a trainer.  It was without a doubt more difficult if only because I think it forces you to use slightly different muscles.

That was that.  I dont think I will be enlisting any of the coaches for training plans.  I feel that I was able to get good enough high level advice on training plans that I can work out my own.  Monday and Tuesday will be rest days this coming week and I'm going to be using that time to build the year long plan.  So far three races on the horizon (Passionman Tri Bucknell, High Cliff 1/2 Iron WI, and FL Ironman 140.6).

MSE Winter Tri Camp, Day 2

I'm going to break this post down into a few sections because of the immense amount of things I learned and experienced today. I will warn you now its a long post.

First, I want to comment on the overall skill level of those attending. My initial assumptions were totally off. I assumed that the people who would attend a tri training camp would be experienced. Yes, its billed as an all levels event. But, that was my assumption none the less. This is not the case. The average skill level is low. I had expected to be one of the least in shape and experienced athletes and find myself closer to the top. This in itself would not be a bad thing, however, there hasn't been any group work based on skill level. I don't want to sound snobby here because I really do enjoy everyone at the event, but I quickly tired of catching people in the pool after 10 yards. But thats enough of that. Now on to the excellent stuff thats been going on.

The Morning
The coaches mentioned in my last post continue to prove themselves to be excellent mentors and knowlegable athletes. We started the day with some dynamic stretching where I continue to learn little things I do wrong on a regular basis. After breakfast we headed into the pool, where Dwight ran through an extensive amount of swim drills with us. I would dive underwater to watch his demonstrations and his form was awesome to see. The drills I knew, but I got some excellent on site feedback on ways to tweak my personal stroke during various drills. We also had our swim taped from underwater head on, underwater from the side, and above water. I am very pleased to say that when reviewing my stroke, Dwight didn't have much immediate feedback. He wants to work a bit more with me tomorrow on really harnessing the power of my body rotation during the stroke, so look for a report on that tomorrow.

Next up were some running drills aimed at teaching us how are foot should be striking the ground. I can only describe it by saying that you should land on the middle (ball) of your foot using a hamstring pull. I am sorry but Im still wrapping my head around the details deeper than that. We also video taped the run. Now, I have never claimed to be a good runner. In fact, I hate running (although I'm beginning to like it more, shh). I was still unprepared for what I saw on the running video. I do was called extreme pronation. This is only visible in slow motion from behind, and appears to be mostly on my right foot. In order to work on this, I need to focus first on landing on the balls of my feet in that sweeping hamstring pull motion. Next, I need to look at a shoe change (which is depressing because I just bought these shoes).

Im losing focus on this post so I'll stop it here. We also did some cycling and nutrition which I will try to remember to post about tomorrow, but probably not. Also, on a gear note, I really want the Garmin 405 (might have to settle for the 305 ;), and I still want the Equinox TTX 9.9 SSL. Our coach Nate has the 2008 version. Awesome.

MSE Triathlon Camp, Day 1

Normally I struggle for what to write about here, but this weekend will definitely be an exception. I am participating in the MSE Winter Tri Camp in Green Bay WI.

So far I am happy with the coaches (Nathan Ennis, Brian McWilliams, and Dwight Sandvold). They all bring very different skills to the table. Dwight has experience. Its as simple as that. He has been around the sport longer than I have been alive and been in over 100 events. Brian is what I picture when I think of a really good trainer. For instance, in his Plyos today, he was able to make minor form tweaks that really improve the effect of the core exercise. In addition he has an endless bag of variations. We have yet to hear from Nathan, but we were told a story about he set a goal of 10 hours for his first Ironman, which is my goal. I definitely want to hear more about how he trained for that goal.

I'll repeat my intro to the group here. "My one word to describe myself would be "impulsive." The reason I am starting with that word is because its what got me into the sport in the first place. One summer, about 2 years ago, I was in Boulder CO, walked into a bike store, and left with a $2000 bike. I cycled for a while, but when I recieved an email from my mother about a local 1/2 iron man in 3 weeks, I put together a relay team and we competed about 2 weeks later. The rest is history, but I'm here to continue my transition from impulive to consistancy and get to those big races."

Im looking forward to tomorrow and resting up watching the Tour de California time trial. Lance just took off!