So every year I've choosen a couple of weekends to make into mini "training" camps.  Last year I did two of these camps in addition to the formal Endurance Sports Camp in Tuscon and my extended camp in Kona. 

What do I love about these mini camps?  They're close to home but not at home, totally focused on training and I believe a great way to hammer in some miles and boost our overall fitness.

So normally I just do these camps alone but this year I decided to see if anyone wanted to join me for one of these camps.  I'm planning my first camp the end of April 4/30 - 5/3 in Hood River, Oregon just 3.5 - 4 hours from Seattle, an hour from Portland.

I've spent lots of time riding in "The Gorge" and love it.  There is some good challenging riding, generally uncrowded roads (both cars and bikes) and good weather. 

This isn't a formal camp. No "pros", big name coaches, or fees hopefully jsut some passionate triathletes who want to spend some time focusing on getting ready for the season and enjoying each others company and learning from one another.  My focus for this weekend will time on the bike with a little running thrown in.  It would be fun to get some open water swimming in but since the columbia will probably only be in the upper 40's I'm not planning on it.

See the Camp page for more details, tentative schedule, dates, accomodation recommendations, and general bike pace guidance (doesn't mean you can't join in if you ride slower or faster).

If you're interested in joining in for all or part of the time get in touch with me.

 
 

Well I continue to grind out the winter base training although it's hardly felt like winter in Seattle the past week or so but this I'm sure will come to a screeching halt this week as the rain (that plagued California last week) will return to it's righful home. 

I'm focusing on form in the pool, power on the bike and overall run fitness (speed and endurance). 

My swim workouts have been really good although my coach nearly killed me last week giving me a workout which was almost entirely bilateral breathing (three strokes then breathe or five strokes then breathe).  When I got done my head hurt, yep oxygen deprivation will do that to you.  It doesn't help that I only really get a good breath on my weak side about every other breath on that side (the other is a mouthful of pool water).  Despite this I'm feeling great in the water and was hitting my 100's around 1:20 (no flip turns) and longer intervals are sub 1:30 average per 100 for the most part so perseverance pays off.

I had the opportunity to get out on the bike this weekend for the first "longish" ride of the year with a nice dry 2:40 on Saturday.  It was cool (i.e. - frost on the roofs) when I departed but I was pretty toasty by the time I got halfway through the ride probably due to the freakin hilly route I chose.  Nothing specific to focus on but I definitely noticed a better pedal stroke on the climbs.  I could definitely tell it was early season but I'm really happy with where I am so early in the season and am looking forward to some long training weekends in the coming months with some focus on riding. 

My running continues to be really good.  I'm mixing up the really fast running (on the track) with moderate distance hard tempos and long slow runs.  Overall I'm feeling really good about my running right now and am going to be interested to see how things are shaping up at next months Mercer Island Half Marathon. 

On other fronts one of the athletes I coach will be racing his first Ironman at IMNZ in two weeks and I think he's as ready as he can be given that this is effectively a winter Ironman for us in northern states and the crummy weather and short days.  He's improved significantly in his weaker disciplines and if he holds back on the bike a bit I think he'll have a really good first IM.

This week I'll also be taking time away from my training to attend a great event here in Seattle (well Bellevue technically).  On Wednesday evening at Sammamish High School there will be a screening of the movie "Darius Goes West".  It will be a fundraiser for Charley's Fund and will be a great event with the cast, producer and start in attendance to do Q&A.  If you're in the area I'd strongly suggest that you consider coming it's a fabulous award winning (I mean lots of awards) film and will be a fun evening.  Movie starts at 7pm and it's $10 per person and other donations will gladly be accepted.

Other than that just getting my miles and laps in, getting my work done, keeping my athletes up to their eyeballs in workouts and looking forward to the longer days of spring and summer.

 
 

Wheez…hack…Wheez…hack.  I bruised my ego tonight on the track.  

As part of my “plan” for this season I felt I needed to get some really hard intensity in my running.  Now I throw in plenty of intensity but we’re talking about very different levels of intensity.  Two years ago as I was beginning to find my fitness after a bit of a respite from running my intensity was low but steady working towards being able to go long but there wasn’t a whole lot of faster running.  Last year I added in tempo work consistently and it paid dividends as my overall run pace dropped.  At the end of the season I assessed my current running and drawing on many, many years of running on the track, trails and roads I knew what I needed to do to take it to the next and move to the next plateau in my run fitness…I had to hit the track.

Why do I need to hit the track?  For me and many other runners and multisport athletes who grew up running there is difference between running hard on the road or trails and running hard on the track. There is something about the track that is associated with speed, fast running and frankly pain.  So for me it’s a motivator to help me run hard.  My goal with hitting the track isn’t to become a top class miler or 800m runner but rather to shock my system a bit.  The focus is to run hard for short durations with a focus on form, fast turnover and pushing the body hard for short durations.  The goal is over time that my body will begin to remember what it’s like to run hard and run tired because to be fast on the track you have to be able to finish strong.  

So tonight I returned to the track.  It was short, intense, painful and ego bruising.  I ran over to my local high school track and proceeded to test myself with 4 x (400m hard/200m jog recovery/200m hard/200m jog recovery). The goal was simple; run hard, run consistent and focus (pump the arms, turn the legs over, drive forward hard and run through the finish).  I did well but it hurt.  Tonight I hit my 400’s pretty consistently at 1:25 (5:40 mile pace) and my 200’s were at 40 seconds (5:20 mile pace).  I started to doubt whether I could hold the pace for all the intervals after the second one but I managed.

Now here’s the dark side of getting back to the track.  My ego got a little bruised tonight.  Not by anyone else running there tonight but rather by my youth.  The last time I was doing track intervals was quite a few years ago and at that time I was doing 400’s repeats in 1:12 and in my prime in college a typical track session would be 15 x 400 averaging between 58 seconds and 1:02.  Tonight if I had spikes on and was running an open 400m I think I would have been lucky to break 1:10.  I have learned from the past few years that you can’t compete with your youth because you won’t win but if you want to improve you need to live in the moment and savor your abilities and accomplishments today.

So when you get stagnant think outside the box a little and push yourself, go further, go harder and shake things up and you just might find a little bit of your youth again.

 Now I need Advil, an ice bath and a cold recovery beer.