Throughout the entire camp, our athletes knew that they would be racing a USAT-sanctioned Olympic distance triathlon on the last day of camp. Little did they know that they would all do amazingly well on race day despite over 12 hours of training accomplished in 3 days.
How was this possible?
If the mind is in a good place and you remove the outside pressure and internal expectations, you'd be surprised what the body can accomplish.
Although we do not recommend going into your races exhausted, it's extremely valuable to put priority on your races in your season plan and to not chase times/places with each race but to instead, use the race to gain experience, knowledge and skills for down the season road of racing.
We knew our athletes would be able to pull out the "I just did a training camp" card at any point during the race and take it easy but that's not how our athletes approach races.
We encouraged every one of our athletes to race smart and to give their absolute best effort. This advice was not only for our athletes but also for me and Karel. We have carefully designed the training plans for our athletes based on their season goals and this is also true for me and Karel. I did not expect anyone of our athletes (including me and Karel) to have stellar performances at this point in the season, even without a training camp 3 days before the race. It's just too early for any one of our athletes to "peak" or to have the speed that will come further down in their training plan. But giving your best effort is a way to put all the past training (over the past 4-5 months) to good use and to show what a strong and healthy body is capable of achieving.
We did not feel that abiding by our gadgets was useful as this was the first triathlon for all of our athletes at camp this year and it was important to gain valuable information from this race...after the race was finished. So we encouraged our athletes to make sure they had their gadgets working for the race but to not be a slave to their gadgets (GPS, HR, Power). This race was all by feel and it had to feel "right". We gave our athletes specific pacing strategies for each leg of the triathlon and also instructed our athletes to do a good warm-up as a tired body needs extra time to wake-up tissues, tendons and muscles and to get the blood flowing.
Most athletes avoid racing on a tired body and abide by some type of taper to go into race day a bit rested and fresh. This is good advice when you have a key race on your schedule. But, this was far from the case for our athletes. Therefore, it was necessary that our athletes accepted that they were not in peak shape at this point in the season and their bodies were tired. It would be very hard to find that extra gear, especially on the run. Bottom line, there was no pressure on the outcome of their race performance and I think this mentally, helped most of our athletes. Without time, pace or power goals, our athletes ended up racing better than they expected due to putting less pressure on themselves.
But with many of our athletes racing their first key race in the next 4-6 weeks, having a race on the last day of camp was a fantastic opportunity to practice transitions, to associate RPE to pacing (and to review data files after the race) and to shake out the emotional cobwebs that affect the mind on race day morning.
Karel and I got up at 4:50am and had our pre-race meal/snack around 5:30am after a cup of coffee.
Our athletes Kelsey and Danielle met us at our condo around 6am and we all biked down to the race venue (about 1/2 mile away) with our transition bags on our back.
After our athletes set-up their transition areas, everyone did their own pre-race warm-up and rituals. Sommesports provided the Trimarni Team with a tent which was great for us to gather at before and after the race.
My mom showed her support bright and early as Campy was still sleeping. Campy has never seen me in a triathlon race before so it was a great treat to have Campy cheering with my mom when we were on the run portion of the triathlon.
SWIM: 23:53 (4th female)
The swim was wet-suit legal although some athletes chose not to wear wet-suits. I wore my Xterra Vector Pro full sleeve wetsuit and dark-lense Vanquisher Speedo Goggles.
I really enjoyed starting the race with my athletes (and my friend Lauren on the Stellar Triathlon Team) but nevertheless I did get the nervous tingles in my belly as we were standing on the sand before our swim wave. I felt surprisingly good after my morning dynamic warm-up session and quick swim and I was really excited to race.
I managed to get a good start/entry in the water and settled into a nice rhythm with a few other girls until the first turn buoy. I felt really strong throughout the swim and all that pool work with our toys (ex. ankle strap) was paying off in the open water.
I exited the water feeling good and ready to bike.
BIKE: 1:08:27 (21.7mph average, 4th female)
I took Karel's advice to our team and took it rather easy for the first 8 miles or so in the race (until the first climb on Jalarmy). Since moving to Greenville in May (after 10 years of living in FL), I certainly have a new perspective on "hills" when I race for there is no easy or flat riding in Greenville. I felt good on the hills but made sure to not power up the hills too hard as I wanted a steady ride for the middle and end section of the race.
I spotted my friend Lauren D. when I made the first turn around and I knew she was getting close to me. I really wanted her to pass me as I need some work getting out of my comfort zone on race day and I knew she would be the one to help me. When Lauren passed me I legally drafted behind her and she really made me push hard. I was so grateful for this opportunity because not only is she a friend of mine from Jax but a super strong athlete who is performing awesome right now. She pushed me when we use to do track work when I lived in Jax and I loved the uncomfortable push to try to keep her in my view throughout the bike.
I made the mistake of easing up a bit too much in the last 1.5 miles so I will learn from this and trust myself that I don't have to slow down that much in order to still have a strong run.
I consumed 1 bottle of 250 calories of sport drink on the bike and I planned 1 flask of 1 scoop Clif Hydration in my hand held flask for the run.
RUN: 46:09 (7:27 average pace, 9th female)
There's not much to over-analyze about this run as I felt good and that's all I can ask for. I'm so excited to see what I'm capable of this season with the help of Chris Johnson, PT. My biggest mistake for the first 6 years of endurance racing was trying to get fast too early in my season. I was able to get fast but it came with an unwanted side-effect: injuries. Finally, I am nearing almost 2 years (in May) of absolutely NO injuries. My hips, back and glutes are healthy and strong and I am one happy runner!
What I can say is I felt strong during this run and it was steady. I wanted to have a strong back-half of the race so pacing was really important to me. I was not looking at my Garmin for pacing feedback as I ran but instead, I just ran. I took two stop breaks to take a breather for about 5 seconds or so throughout the race. Karel passed me in the first mile of the run and it was great to have a short chat with him before he ran away from me as he was chasing down his competition.
Mile 1: 7:15 (142 HR)
Mile 2: 7:24 (146 HR)
Mile 3: 7:23 (149 HR)
Mile 4: 7:23 (152 HR)
Mile 5: 7:23 (155 HR)
Mile 6: 7:09 (159 HR)
.31: 7:00 (161 HR)
I chose to wear my Brooks Launch with a 9 mm drop rather than my Brooks Pure Flow 4 that have a 4mm drop. I wanted the little extra heel to toe drop to help my legs which were already tired going into this race.
I chose to wear my Brooks Launch with a 9 mm drop rather than my Brooks Pure Flow 4 that have a 4mm drop. I wanted the little extra heel to toe drop to help my legs which were already tired going into this race.
Karel had a great race and just like me, we both felt like we have so much more fitness to gain this season and we are really happy with where we are right now with our athletic development.
Karel placed 2nd age group and 6th overall male.
Swim: 25:31, Bike: 1:03:14 (23.5mph), Run: 40.01 (6:28 average)
Total time: 2:11:55
Lauren had an AMAZING race and placed 2nd overall female and I shocked myself with a 3rd place overall female result. As great as I felt on race day after 3 days of camp, I look forward to a taper before Challenge Knoxville half ironman distance triathlon!
Total time: 2:21:48 (25th overall athlete)
Two podium finishes made for a great start to the racing season but racing with so many of our athletes was the best part of it all!
Enough about me and Karel....it's time to show off our AWESOME athletes!
Kelsey raced the aquabike and placed 2nd overall female! She's AWESOME!
Taryn looking strong!
Keep it up Josh!
Karel and our friend Daniel K on the Stellar Triathlon Team.
Jim Nitz having fun and looking healthy and strong!
Karel headed out on the run course to cheer on our athlete Mike B.
Looking good in the kits Josh and Karel!
Colleen is smiling big because she is healthy, injury free and enjoying her season training for her first Ironman!
There goes Karel again pushing our athlete JoAnn!
There goes JoAnn's hubby Rob!
Great race Joe! Every day you are getting stronger!
Nice work Mike M - looking great!
Karel giving Jeff B a pep talk to keep up the great work!
Looking great Ryan!
Love the smile Tricia!
What a great group! Keep having fun Maggie, Tricia and Ryan!
Heather - you look amazing! Photo credit to Heather's friend on Facebook who took this great pic!
Nice work guys! Way to go Wlad - keep making those fantastic improvements!
Great job Taryn, Kelsey, Elizabeth and Danielle!
Our Trimarni camp couple - JoAnn and Rob sharing the race-day love!
Thanks Lauren for the push! You rock!
Elizabeth spoiling Campy with kisses and butt massages.
Great job Danielle on the podium!!
Way to go Kevin!! Nice work!!
Great job Kelsey!
We love our Jax friends! They will always be our training buddies!
Smiles post race.
Results from our athletes:
Joe N - 2:22:33, 2nd age group (25-29)
Wlad -2:25:44, 3rd age group (40-44)
Nick G - 2:30:23
Kevin D -2:30:41, 3rd age group (55-59) \
Josh G - 2:32:49
Danielle - 2:45:17, 3rd age group (35-39)
Rob J - 2:46:35
Mike M. - 2:48:38
James W - 2:50:55
Colleen L - 2:47:32
Jeff B - 2:56:24
Mike B - 3:01:36
Taryn F - 3:02:29
Jim N - 3:05:20
Elizabeth - 3:05:22
Heather A - 3:10:34
JoAnn J - 3:18:04
Maggie - 3:31:30
Ryan -3:39:33
Tricia - 3:44:41
Kelsey A - 1:50:51 (aquabike), 2nd overall female
Karel - 2:11:55, 6th overall
Marni - 2:21:48, 3rd overall female
Thank also to the Trimarni sponsors!
And thanks Sommer Sports for welcoming the Trimarni team!
Thank you for reading about our 4-day Clermont Training camp. Stay tuned for our advanced athlete, Ironman-focused Greenville camp this June!