Winter Triathlon Camp

What a fabulous weekend it was. I spent 13 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday talking about and doing triathlon related activities. It doesn't get any better than that, does it?

I was one of 16 "campers" in a triathlon camp put on by Gary Bredehoft, CSCS from Tiger Coaching & Personal Training. His website is www.tigercoaching.com. He is a personal coach and trainer based out of Lincoln, Nebraska and he was full of good triathlon specific information as he has completed at least 4 IM races, including Kona.

We did video analysis of our swim (underwater) and run, ran intervals, listened to seminars and got tips on bike fit and maintenance, nutrition, training schedule, workout logs, core strengthening, injury prevention, transition, open water swimming, and on and on. It was really good although I am so sore today that I could hardly get up and down off the floor to work with my kiddos.

Three major things I took away from camp...

#1. A new philosophy on running style: I am working on a higher cadence, faster arms, and a shorter stride. The key to this is keeping the foot strike below the body, not ahead, and landing on the midfoot or forefoot, never the heel. I must be doing something right because all the right muscle groups are sore, specifically hip flexors and calves.

#2. I can definitely eat more calories, I always like to hear that.

#3. I should invest in a tri bike. I can rationalize this by reminding myself that with every change you make to a road bike to make it more like a tri bike you decrease the ease of handling and stability. So since I have fliped the seat post and stem, added aero bars, changed the seat angle and slid it forward, I am now basically riding over the front wheel rather than the back. Yay, lots of dreaming about a new bike.

Anyway, lots of things to think about. Best of all, camp really got me psyched about the upcoming season. I am working on my race schedule as I continue with base training. I am so pumped up!

-keep on moving forward -