As most of you know I am hosting a triathlon camp in Boulder in May. We will be doing some training at the camp for sure. So for this coach who is not racing this year the camp becomes my goal. I have to look like I did the sport at some point. Mark Allen always looks like he can shave his legs and line up for an Ironman but not this guy. Slow metabolism is the name of my game.
Being down in Boulder this week away from the Winter Park snow allowed me to get out and ride a little. So late this afternoon I took my new 2008 Cervelo P3C for a spin. It has a power meter on it so it was fun to see how my heart rate tracked my power. I stayed aerobic the whole way with a max of 138 so I was happy about that. It was interesting to see how easy it was to put out power on the hills thus the higher heart rate but on the flats and especially on the downhill it was very hard to have a high power output. Of course this was expected and normal but it was fun to see the numbers.
The weather was very cold on this ride and it was windy. There is a long downhill section and I saw some snowflakes so I almost turned around but as soon as I started to head back the terrain got more uphill and the wind was on my back. This allowed me to generate more heat so I managed to stay warm. The last 15 minutes were crazy as the snow came in and I was a little worried as it was hard to see. I was not worried about me seeing but more about cars seeing me. But I made it safe. I called Marco after the ride and he thought I was nuts. Well one thing is sure I am fatter than him so the extra layer comes in handy.
So overall I was very pleased with the ride, I just have to stay consistent so I can shed a few pounds and start doing some of the local mountain climbs.
Since I rode late in the day and it was cold I only saw a few riders and no one was going in the same direction I was. That is rare in Boulder. This morning I drove to Home Depot and riders were everywhere. If you come to my camp In May we plan on riding early on Saturday. There would be so many riders you may think there is a race some where.
I have to write a few words as to why people should do a camp for an online tri web site so I will use some of this blog post. Let me think. In addition for a camp being a good reason to get away and train like a professional there is one good reason to come to my camp. That is to learn. Of course there are other camps that are all about training but there is a teacher inside of me so my hope is to convey to you why our training methodology works for most people that do it right. We know there are people that will not agree with me but it does not matter really. Regardless of what anyone says there are always detractors.
Over the years I had though a great deal as to why our training works. I learned a great deal from Mark, but also did it myself and of course coached hundreds. Yes there is the low heart rate training and the fat burning and the weights etc. But a race is about going from point A to point B. How do you go from low heart rate to going fast? It is very counter intuitive isn’t it? I recently went to a clinic from a guy with an MD degree who has done lots of research and read all the research training articles. I read some of his own articles which were good and had some compelling ideas. He was great to listen to and he was a very well read guy. But you can not answer every thing with research has shown or research has not shown. Research is limited particularly for ultra endurance sport. There are so many variables which are almost impossible to keep constant. Many coaches and researchers generally just apply training rules and research that is done for short events and data arrived from very short training sessions. Our sport is not short by any means. Any training works regardless because our body adapts really. The question is what training gets the best out of you and allows you to reach your potential. If you wanted to fly around the world and had to find out what the best plane for the trip was. Would you read about how some researcher took a bunch of planes on 30 minute tests and make your decision based on that. That is how I felt at the clinic. Great stuff but how applicable was it in reality.
At my camp you will hopefully learn to put it all together. Not only is there all the training but nutrition, hydration, pacing etc. How does one relate to the other? That is what I think I have done best. You be the judge. Come to my camp. One of my campers last year wrote an article about it and earlier this year many people Posted on our forum about it. They seem to like it.
I still think I can do better but I do this for a living so the information to me is just normal obvious stuff. But when you sit and listen and all of a sudden it makes sense to you will go wow! That is great, it makes sense.