DAY ONEAs with many of our campers, we had to change our tentative training schedule due to weather. With tropical storm Elsa making her way up from Florida, the weather forecast had us worried. To play it safe, we swapped a few things around and thankfully, it all worked out.
We started the morning at 9am for a 75-minute long course swim workout at the Westside Aquatic Center. We reserved three lanes for our campers. We like to start each camp with a swim workout as it's a nice way for the athletes to settle into camp and to release any nerves or worries. We mostly focused on technique with a series of drills w/ toys (ex. snorkel, buoy, fins, paddles, kick board) and finished with some open water specific work (ex. sighting).
After the swim, the campers had a short break before we met at Trailblazer parking lot around 11:30am. Most of our campers stayed at the
Swamp Rabbit Inn in TR, which was just a 1/2 mile from where we started and finished our bike/run workouts at Trailblazer Park. Hoping to miss the predicted afternoon shower, we had a quick turn around from swim to bike. The athletes were advised to have a recovery snack and meal after the swim but the main recovery would happen in the late afternoon/evening due to a packed first day of camp. Campers also had a varied mix of sport nutrition products from
NBS,
Infinit,
Skratch and other various products that I collected from
Run In to keep our athletes fueled and hydrated.
We biked out on the trail to the country roads, headed toward Marietta and then to Pumpkintown. Right on River Road and we made our way to River Falls. I absolutely love this 5.6 mile loop that I discovered during
our last GVL WBL group bike ride. The loop has a little of everything - a climb, descend, a flattish fast section and then a section to recover. We broke into small groups to keep everyone safe getting out to the loop and then we did 3 loops on the course - the first was a get-familiar loop, then heavy gear on the climb and then a 'best effort' time trial. The campers did amazing. To make things even more fun, on the last loop, we had our campers do the climb twice so that they finished on the top of the climb at Eedee's car. After the ride, we made our way back to Trailblazer Park for a run off the bike. The bike was ~3:20 and ~56 miles and close to ~3000 feet elevation gain. Everyone did a great job managing the terrain.
For the run off the bike, we had everyone do a 45-min form focused run. The loop was 1.3 miles and they reversed direction at the end of each loop so that they could see one another and cheer each other on. Although they were tired from the first full day of camp, everyone did a great job focusing on good form, fueling, hydrating and rhythm on our undulating terrain. We always encourage our athletes to take "reset" walk/stop breaks so that was a theme throughout our entire camp to help reduce the residual stress to allow for good form running.
Day one ended just before 5pm, which made for a packed first day.
DAY TWOWe had another swim on the schedule for day two but a bit earlier to start the day. The campers arrived around 7:40am for a 8am-9:15am long course swim workout. This swim was a bit more specific so after warming up and spending some time on technique, it was time for the main set - which was a ladder or pyramid, depending on the lane/fitness abilities. After the swim, we all headed over to Furman for a run workout. We parked near the amphitheater which allowed us to be close to bathrooms, and our cars, so that everyone could stay well fueled and hydrated throughout a very humid, 75-min run workout. We started with an easy jog around the lake and then woke up the posterior chain with 3 rounds of hill strides (10, 20, 30 sec w/ easy jog down). After the hills, another jog around the lake and then it was time for the main set. The campers had a steep hill to climb on the back side of the Furman lake, followed by strong running downhill. Then to the bell tower and back where this section was a reset. Each loop was a little over 1/2 mile and they repeated the set for three times total. Afterward, another loop around the lake for a quality 75-minute run workout.
We gave the campers a little bit of time to rest, recover and refuel before an afternoon bike session. We met at 1:30pm at Trailblazer park and headed out the same way that we did on day one and
headed to our ~5 mile loop. Our campers did two loops working on terrain management but overall, this was a lower stress ride. Although our terrain is never easy and brings effort no matter where you ride (unless it's the swamp rabbit trail), we wanted our athletes to finish the ride feeling better than when they started (which they were all pretty tired when they started). Somehow we missed the rain as the sky was turning pretty dark. We finished the 2.5 hour ride around 4:30pm which concluded day two of camp.
DAY THREE
It's going to be a great day of camp when you get to swim in the open water at Lake Jocassee. We all caravanned to the lake and parked at the Kayak station off Bootleg road. We started the morning with a 70-minute open water swim workout. After a 10 min out and back warm-up in the cove, the athletes did 2 x 20 min loops (with sighting "polls") with a little rest in between. We then finished with 3 short out and back sections around a poll as build to strong. After the swim, it was time for a run.
There's no getting around it but a run at Lake Jocassee is going to be hilly. Really really hilly. Our athletes had 3 x 30 min out and back loops with each loop starting on a big long hill out of the parking lot. The loops were as follows: Steady, strong, steady. Walking was absolutely allowed and encouraged. The weather started out hot and humid but we were greeted with a wonderful downpour on the last loop of our run. The athletes were very strong and never gave up. We had planned to enjoy a dip in the water too cool off after the run but the rain shower took care of that for us.
As for the afternoon, the campers were encouraged to rest, relax and refuel. Several of them made a visit to Run In to visit Dane - our shoe fairy :) Then it was time for our traditional camp pizza party (with 10 delicious pizza's from
D'Allesandro's).DAY FOUR
With this being day four, our campers were very sore and tired but they also brought a bit of excitement to the workout as it was the last day of camp. We left Trailblazer Park around 7:45am and headed out the same way that we had gone the past two rides. We continued on Pumpkintown to the very end and crossed Hwy 11. We had a quick SAG stop at the gas station before we started our 12-mile "climb" to the Eastern Continental Divide. We picked
this route as it has a lot of characteristics similar to the Ironman Lake Placid bike course. The 12-mile segment to the divide has three distinctive sections. The first is a 3-ish mile section with several switch backs. Then we have a ~3-ish mile section of longer rolling hills and descends. Once we cross a bridge, the last section of 3.8 miles is the longest and most steady section of climbing. After everyone made it to the top, we regrouped and headed back down. Whereas it took the campers at least an hour to 75 minutes to get to the turn around at the top, it was a fast and fun ~40 minutes (or less) to return back to the gas station. Several of our campers are still gaining skills and confidence on downhills so we helped them out, especially on the switchbacks and steeper segments. I had a big sigh of relief when everyone made it back to the gas station/SAG stop in one piece. We then headed back for the last 22 miles to conclude all of the biking at camp. The campers finished with ~71 miles in ~4.5 hours of riding (with ~5000+ elevation gain). After the ride, a 2.5 mile loop (with one last big hill because, why not :) + extra so that everyone finished the run together with around 25 minutes of running.
We are so proud of our campers. They really impressed us. Although this camp was by design, an intentional training overload, our campers would not have been able to safely tolerate this load without all of their consistent, previous training. Camp, like racing, is the fun part where you get to showcase your hard work...most of which is lonely, monotonous and tough because it occurs behind-the-scenes, when no one is watching.
