Skip to main content

Weekend recap: Mini training camp


Whew. What a weekend of training.

A few weeks ago, our professional triathlete Ericka planned a visit to Greenville from Friday-Monday so that Karel could install electronic shifting on her bike. When we saw that the weather forecast was nearly perfect for outdoor training starting on Friday, Ericka was able to get off work one day early and head from NY to Greenville on Thursday.

Since Ericka trains indoors on her bike for all of the winter and requires layers to run outside, this was a great opportunity for her to train outside and put all that indoor training to good use before her season of racing starts in late April. We have been coaching Ericka since October and she is becoming a very durable and resilient athlete. With a great mind on her strong body, this weekend of training (aka mini training camp) was beneficial for us to see how she bounced back from workouts and mentally and physically dealt with a bit of an intentional training overload under our guidance. While Karel and I were able to join Ericka for all of her training sessions in this mini training camp, we had specific training sessions for her to do each day as this camp was all about her and her needs.

Here's the recap of the mini training camp (the bike/run routes were planned loops/routes so we didn't go by time/miles). The below run times/distances are mine as Karel and Ericka are much faster runners than me. All of our workouts can be found on Strava for maps:

Friday AM: 
4:47 bike (83.5 miles) with a planned 45-minute strong effort interval through Rocky Bottom to the Continental Divide (~10.5 miles, 1780 feet of elevation gain).
28 min run off the bike (3.68 miles, 260 elevation gain)

Friday PM: 40 minute, 2200 yard swim
Warm-up: 600
Pre set: 4 x 150's (snorkel, band, buoy)
MS: 1000 swim with paddles and fins

Saturday AM: 
1:20, 4700 yard swim
Warm-up: 400 swim, 300 as (50 kick, 25 swim with fins)
Pre set:  2 x 300's as (75 smooth, 25 strong x 3)
MS 2x's (first round with buoy, paddles, ankle strap)
200 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
150 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
150 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
100 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
100 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
100 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
100 smooth into 50 fast. Rest 10 sec
400 with snorkel (buoy and ankle strap)
Repeat

Saturday AM (right after swim): 
1:30 hr run (10.2 mile run with 640 elevation gain)
WU: ~40 minutes smooth, form focused with stops and stretches
Pre set: 1 x .67 mile loop (slight downhill, gradual uphill, gradual downhill)
MS: 4 x .67 mile loop (same as above) with 90 sec rest
Then: 15 minutes form focused running

Sunday AM: 
5:10 bike (89 miles with 7200 feet elevation gain)
All endurance riding with the last (almost) 2 hours as sustainable strong.

Sunday AM (right after the bike)
35 minute run (4.47 miles, 351 elevation gain)

Sunday PM (about 3 hours after the morning brick)
20 minute run

Here are some pictures from the weekend to showcase our amazing cycling playground!





















Stopped at the Firestation near Flat Rock to fix Ericka's headset that came loose. Thanks to Fireman Allen for having the right metric allen wrenches for Karel to fix her bike. 


Bakery stop at Flat Rock!