We got into Florida late and Wednesday night and drove the 30 minutes to Clermont. Even though we checked in late, I was way too excited to sleep and made Shaun get up at 5 a.m. to put my bike together. Here's my bike in its designated slot in the meeting room. There had to be $100,000 worth of bikes lining the perimeter of the room.
Early Thursday morning, we headed to the National Training Center to swim. The NTC's pool is gorgeous. Its an outdoor pool that can be converted from short to long course. Thursday morning I swam about 3000 yards short course. Here are Shaun and I at the pool.
After the swim and lunch, we headed out for an "easy" 2 hour recovery ride. Problem was: (1) I didn't bring enough fluids; (2) I decided it would be fun to charge up all the hills; and (3) We got lost. By the end of the bike I was completely dehydrated and ended up chugging 4 bottles of water before heading out for my T-run with Molly. Bad idea. Not only was it hot and humid, my stomach was a big sloshy mess. We ended up cutting the run short (I "made up" the distance the next morning at 6 a.m. -- much better running in the dark).
Friday was out long bike day. We headed out from Clermont and rode about 20 miles to the Van Fleet trail where we did an out and back. This was the BEST RIDE EVER. I ended up in a group of about seven riders and we all "got it." No show boating, no hammering, just riding together at Z1 pace. We ended up doing just over 100 miles and best part for me was that my nutrition was sport on -- 9 bottles of Ironman Perform and 2.5 PowerBars. Here's a shot from the ride.
Once we got back to the hotel, I headed out for a T run, which was so much better than Thursday run. My pace pretty much got back to normal and the run wasn't a painful mess. The only bad part of the day was Rick ended up falling of his bike and re-breaking his collar bone (not fun). Shaun and Brian spent a good part of the afternoon shuttling around picking up Rick and his bike, which the helpful police officer would only bring to the county line. Friday night was dinner at Carrabbas (yummy) the hardest part was staying core -- only salad, salmon and asparagus for me.
Saturday was another swim day -- this time 3600 meters in the long course pool. So nice to swim outside in the sunshine. Here are Courtney, Brian and Donna at the pool.
After the swim, we went on a 90 minute recovery ride. This ride was an actual recovery ride. Super slow around the lake. I thought my T-run would go well, but it was super hot and windy. It was so windy that my visor kept blowing off. Not fun at all. Post-run Jesse did a video run analysis. He taped each of us running and then used his computer software to figure out where our deficiencies are. I have a "squishy" right hip, need to use my arms more and need to build up my upper back strength a bit.
Sunday was Z1 bike and long run day. Here is Mary (and Jesse!) drinking coffee pre-bike.
Ride went really well (even if Shaun looks super unhappy in the picture).
After the ride, Shaun, Sindy and I headed to the lake for our long run. We set up a cooler by the car and looped around so we were able to grab drinks without too much trouble. This was by far the best run of the camp for me. Held my pace for the entire 12 miles and kept my nutrition and hydration solid.
All in all it was a fantastic camp. So many great people. At the moment I'm still trying to process everything I learned, hopefully I'll be able to articulate it shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment