The last day of training camp is typically filled with mixed emotions - happiness, exhaustion, satisfaction, sadness, joy. Friendships are formed and the realization that in just one more sleep, it's time to return to normal life. One of the best parts of a triathlon training camp is the escape from every day stressors, responsibilities, excuses and distractions and the ability to focus only on training and doing things well.
The other great part about a training camp is putting yourself into environments that would otherwise feel slightly out of your comfort zone. New terrain, conditions and weather are likely to be experienced at a training camp but with the support and enthusiasm of fellow campers, it's easy to shut off the brain and just get to work with a great attitude.
For our last workout of training camp, we started with a long dynamic warm-up at the camp house/lodge before the start of the run. All of our campers had about 30-minutes to warm-up around the Furman Lake (off the Swamp Rabbit Trail) whereas some campers covered more/less distance than others. However, every camper was given the opportunity to warm up as needed without feeling pressure to run faster/slower than what was comfortable, with coach Karel, assistant coach Joe (on a mountain bike) along with myself running alongside our campers.
Once we arrived to the meet-up point for our main set (back gate of Furman University, close to Roe Ford road), Karel explained the main set which was:
3-4 x .67 mile loops on rolling terrain with each loop covering about 200 feet elevation gain.
90 sec - 2 min rest between each loop
As you can see from the course profile, there's a gradual downhill section before a gradual uphill, which then gets a little steep at the top. Then a downhill, followed by a false flat uphill, finishing with a gradual downhill to finish the loop. There are two turns on the course (not counting the start to each loop).
Our campers ran a warm-up loop (to make 5 loops total) to understand the terrain. The focus was to start with good form, gradually build the effort on the uphill, finishing with 8-10 strides bounding to activate the posterior chain (hamstring/glute/calf muscles), followed by a quick recovery while running downhill. For the false flat, the focus was to run strong and then carry quick foot speed running downhill to the finish of the loop. This is a perfect course to work on terrain management and also to apply all components of good form running to an undulating course.
As with all of the past workouts, although some campers are faster/slower than others, everyone gave the same work ethic and nobody felt excluded from the workout. Everyone cheered for one another to keep the positive energy high on the last day of camp. It was very impressive to see our campers work so hard on the last workout of camp but with so many of them racing in the next 2-3 weeks, we could tell they were focused on their racing goals and not willing to give anything short of their best on the last day of camp.
With our 12th group training camp behind us, we are relieved and sad that it is all over with. Karel and I just love putting on training camps, despite them being mentally exhausting and very time-consuming. We gain so much valuable feedback from seeing our athletes/campers in action and it helps us become better coaches. We may be a little bit biased but we feel we have the most amazing team of athletes as everyone is so supportive, kind, enthusiastic and positive.
Thanks for reading along over the past few days of my camp reflections. And that's a wrap of the 2018 All Levels Triathlon Training Camp in Greenville, SC!
We'd like to give a huge thank you to our SAG support and photographer Joey, along with our assistant coach Joe and our friend and superstar swim coach/swimmer Kristen for helping out with our camp. Also to the Swamp Rabbit Lodge for providing the most awesome lodging for our campers (in the most perfection location).
Also, a big thank you to the following companies who provided products for our athletes to use/consume at camp:
Also, a big thank you to the following companies who provided products for our athletes to use/consume at camp:
- Amrita - bars
- Base Performance - bars and hydro
- Veronica's Health Crunch
- Mg12 - balm and roll on
- Clif Bar - blocks, Luna Rice bars, gels, hydration, recovery
- Pjuractive - anti-chaffing cream
- Klean - recovery protein, BCAA, hydration
- INFINIT - sport drink
- Carbo Rocket - half evil 333 and hydration
And to Canari for shipping our team kits in time for camp, Furman University for letting us use the pool and track, Sidewall pizza for our Friday camp pizza party, BOCO gear for helping us design the coolest backpacks ever and to Greenville, for providing us with the perfect triathlon playground for our training camps.