While our scheduled Olympic distance race for Saturday was not yet cancelled, we proceeded with our planned workout for the day. A 2.5 hour ride followed by a 20-30 minute run off the bike.
The morning started as usual - the coaches were working hard while the athletes were eating, laughing and anticipating the training day ahead. With such a large house/resort, the coaches (and our camp support Alvaro) were tucked away on the far side of the house (with our own kitchen - one of four kitchens in the house!).
After eating our pre-workout meal, it was time to pack up and drive to Waterfront Park to start our brick workout.
After eating our pre-workout meal, it was time to pack up and drive to Waterfront Park to start our brick workout.
It was a beautiful sunny and warm day which was a pleasant change from our cooler temps and a big shock to our midwest and northern campers. I love the heat so I said bring it!
For this ride, we broke into three groups based on fitness levels and each of the coaches (Karel, Me and Joe) had a small handful of campers to follow each of us. This also allowed us to be less cluttered on the road and to provide individual feedback to each camper as needed. Alvaro drove the SAG vehicle to our meeting spot and then joined us for some of our ride as we covered one stretch of road for the "main set" of our workout.
After our campers covered the first part of the bike race course, we turned off the race course onto Sugarload Moutain road and started our main set which included a series of rollers to work on terrain management. After a short time on that road (out and back), it was time to descend down Sugarload Mountain for a time trial up to the top. Surprise - Clermont has lots of hills!
Karel's group had so much "fun" the first time that they got to ride up it twice. My group and Joe's group only did one TT. And we were so proud of everyone for working so hard all the way to the top.
Appropriately, the end of the TT course was by the donkeys (which I had to say hello to).
It was great to see all of our campers supporting and cheering for one another. A few of our campers had never accomplished such a feat so it was great to see comfort zones being stretched. That is what camp is all about - doing things that you won't do or don't know how to do alone.
After we all regrouped at Waterfront park, it was time for the brick run. We encouraged our campers to focus on good form running and to not think about the upcoming race on Saturday.
We finished our 3-hour brick workout around 1pm which left us about an hour before registration opened at 2pm (a few blocks away). So our campers recovered with their recovery drinks and we all gathered under a pavillion for a course talk.
Sadly, just 30-minutes after picking up our packet for the race, the city told Sommer Sports that they could not hold the race due to the current health situation. While a dissapointment, Karel and I had already planned option B in the case of a cancelled race.
When we arrived back to the camp house, we had an absolutely amazingly delicious meal prepared by our camp cook Kathleen. What a treat to have her in the house preparing all of our meals. We truly believe that this made such a positive impact on the recovery and energy levels of our campers throughout their 4.5 day camp.
Kathleen prepared sweet potato cookies, oatmeal bake and had a spread of fresh fruit, veggie burgers, deli meat and cheese, along with an assortment of breads.
While there are plenty of places to sit and gather in the camp house, somehow I ended up in a kids rocking chair. As the saying goes "If it fits, you sit."
Since we were unable to do our afternoon open water swim (oh - forgot to mention that on Thursday, the swim for the race was cancelled due to the water conditions so we had two cancellations - the swim and the race!) our campers had a lot of free time to relax and recover from 3pm until bedtime. They took full advantage of it!
While some of our campers stayed inside, a few of us ventured outside and had some fun on the swan in the lake.
That was a workout pedaling around this huge swan!!
After a bit of fun in the lake, we walked on the somewhat-sketchy boardwalk to Lake Louisa...which was incredibly beautiful and peaceful.
Around 6pm, it was time for dinner. We had an assortmet of chilled pastas, chicken (for the meat eaters) and sweet potatoes.
With happy bellies, it was time for our evening talk with our campers - which occurred every evening of camp around 7pm.
Each night we went over the day, answered questions, highlighted the accomplishments and feats of some of our campers and turned over the white board (oh the anticipation by our campers) to reveal the workout plan for the next day. Although the original plan was the Olympic distance race followed by a 2-hour endurance ride, we loaded up the morning with a 5 hour brick workout. Catering to the needs of all of our campers, we were excited for each of them to put in some solid training and enjoy the outdoors for most of Saturday.
After the talk, our campers mingled for a little and then started to make their way to bed around 8-9pm. As for me, let's just say that I was ready for bed soon after our evening talk.