When finalizing the workouts for camp, I become fixated on the weather. Every day I am checking and rechecking the weather to make sure that our campers have the best weather possible for cycling workouts. While we can't control the weather, we can control what workouts we do and when to keep our campers happy and safe.
For day 3 of camp, due to a big chance of rain in the morning, we decided to start the day with a transition clinic - slightly modified as we were indoors so we transitioned without swimming or biking. Although this was more of circuit training than triathlon training, this transition workout was so much fun to watch and all the campers were laughing (with a high heart rate) while transitioning from each circuit station.
Karel and I set up the transition area in the Furman gym so that each athlete had to run and then perform an exercise to simulate swimming, biking or running and still transition equipment similar to a triathlon. So yes, we made our athletes wear goggles and swim caps which made things so much more fun(ny). We added in kicking on the back, kicking on the tummy, medicine ball twists, squat jumps and jumping jacks between each transition to help our athletes simulate the high heart rate that occurs when transitioning between swim to bike and bike and run. Oh and they also had to sprint from wall to wall between those exercises. Our campers broke into small groups for round one of transition practice and then we had everyone go through the transitions in relay style.
After the transition clinic, our campers had a quick break to clean up and grab a pre-ride/run meal/snack before heading out by car to Hotel Domestique (about 20-minutes a way) to start our big brick for the day.
Luckily, the weather held out for us. No rain! However, as the afternoon went on, it did get a little chilly as we rode into North Carolina/Saluda. But we will take cold over cold and wet.
Although our campers were tired to start the bike, they had a very specific bike workout to accomplish in the early part of the long ride. The first part of the ride was a steady ~4 mile climb up the watershed with big gear work. Thus the climb brought the effort to each camper. After descending back down it was time for intervals on a more "flat" road. Thus the purpose of this part of the workout was to make the effort by building the intervals. Our campers had the option of riding 2 or 3.5 hours depending on fitness ability so after we dropped off the 2-hour group at Hotel D, the 3.5 hour group headed back out on the bikes to re-climb the watershed (about 10 miles total), into North Carolina, all the way to Saluda. We turned around in the downtown of Saluda and headed back to Hotel D for run. Everyone in both groupsdid amazing and stayed mentally tough throughout the entire workout.
Because of the dropping temps, we gave our 3.5 hour group the option of not running off the bike but it didn't surprise us when all of our campers decided to run off the bike. Now that's some mental toughness!
As always, we have our awesome SAG support (Joey) with us for all of our rides and she made sure our campers had everything they needed (included a few yummy snacks/drinks).
After the conclusion of the brick, our campers went out to dinner in downtown Traveler's Rest to celebrate the conclusion of day 3 of camp and Karel and I got some work done before we finished off the day with a birthday celebration for Kevin (Happy 60th!!) followed by our evening discussion to highlight the accomplishments of each of our campers throughout camp (and athlete/coach Q&A).
For day 3 of camp, due to a big chance of rain in the morning, we decided to start the day with a transition clinic - slightly modified as we were indoors so we transitioned without swimming or biking. Although this was more of circuit training than triathlon training, this transition workout was so much fun to watch and all the campers were laughing (with a high heart rate) while transitioning from each circuit station.
Karel and I set up the transition area in the Furman gym so that each athlete had to run and then perform an exercise to simulate swimming, biking or running and still transition equipment similar to a triathlon. So yes, we made our athletes wear goggles and swim caps which made things so much more fun(ny). We added in kicking on the back, kicking on the tummy, medicine ball twists, squat jumps and jumping jacks between each transition to help our athletes simulate the high heart rate that occurs when transitioning between swim to bike and bike and run. Oh and they also had to sprint from wall to wall between those exercises. Our campers broke into small groups for round one of transition practice and then we had everyone go through the transitions in relay style.
After the transition clinic, our campers had a quick break to clean up and grab a pre-ride/run meal/snack before heading out by car to Hotel Domestique (about 20-minutes a way) to start our big brick for the day.
Luckily, the weather held out for us. No rain! However, as the afternoon went on, it did get a little chilly as we rode into North Carolina/Saluda. But we will take cold over cold and wet.
Although our campers were tired to start the bike, they had a very specific bike workout to accomplish in the early part of the long ride. The first part of the ride was a steady ~4 mile climb up the watershed with big gear work. Thus the climb brought the effort to each camper. After descending back down it was time for intervals on a more "flat" road. Thus the purpose of this part of the workout was to make the effort by building the intervals. Our campers had the option of riding 2 or 3.5 hours depending on fitness ability so after we dropped off the 2-hour group at Hotel D, the 3.5 hour group headed back out on the bikes to re-climb the watershed (about 10 miles total), into North Carolina, all the way to Saluda. We turned around in the downtown of Saluda and headed back to Hotel D for run. Everyone in both groupsdid amazing and stayed mentally tough throughout the entire workout.
Because of the dropping temps, we gave our 3.5 hour group the option of not running off the bike but it didn't surprise us when all of our campers decided to run off the bike. Now that's some mental toughness!
As always, we have our awesome SAG support (Joey) with us for all of our rides and she made sure our campers had everything they needed (included a few yummy snacks/drinks).
After the conclusion of the brick, our campers went out to dinner in downtown Traveler's Rest to celebrate the conclusion of day 3 of camp and Karel and I got some work done before we finished off the day with a birthday celebration for Kevin (Happy 60th!!) followed by our evening discussion to highlight the accomplishments of each of our campers throughout camp (and athlete/coach Q&A).
Here's a recap of day 3 of camp:
9am - 10am
9am - 10am
- Transition clinic at the Furman Gym
- Individual transitions and then relays
12pm - 4pm
- Endurance ride (2 hours for group 1, 3.5 hours for group 2)
- Workout part 1: Heavy gear work up the Watershed (about 4 miles)
- Workout part 2: 2-3x's: 8 min steady, 6 min strong, 4 min very strong w/ 1 min EZ between
- Workout part 3 (for group 2): Endurance ride to Saluda and back (~90 minutes). Over 3000 elevation gain throughout the ride.
4-4:30pm
- Brick run - 15-20 minute run at Hotel D. This run included a downhill section followed by a steady uphill, flat section and then another uphill, finishing with a short downhill. Let's just say it had a lot of climbing!
7:30-8:30pm
- Birthday celebration for Kevin (60th birthday)
Coach discussion/reflect on day 3 of camp
Here are some pics from day 3 of camp:
Swimming before T1. You can check out the full transition video on our Facebook page.
Ready for transition practice!
