This is my rendition of a triathlon camp that I did out West. I’ll be posting a piece each day this week to give people an insight into the daily adventures of a pro-triathlete.
Alright, so I’ll give anyone who is reading this a little background if you don’t know me. If you think you do or don’t care and just want to read about the pro stuff, feel free to skip ahead. I’ve been doing tris for about 2 years. I started as a duathlete but converted over because I found duathlon didn’t get the recognition that triathlon does. Having never been a swimmer in my life, and having done none as a kid, this posed a big challenge. Sign me up!
In August of this year my mom and brother competed in Ironman Looville, which is where I was introduced to Lifesport. If you haven’t heard of them they are the “official coaches of Ironman”. You can check them out online. Their headquarters are in Victoria, which is also where my story will take place. I talked to Paul Regensburg, senior coach at Lifesport, in Looville about maybe seeing if the pro option was in the realm of possibility. He said that they would be putting on a camp in the winter and I should come out. So, without further ado.
A week ago Thursday my flight got into Victoria. I had my bike, running gear and swim stuff all stuffed into a hockey bag. A little tip – this saved me all the bike handling fees that Air Canada charges for . If you pack it right, it’s a very good (safe) way to travel (if anybody has questions about it email me).
Being a part of a Pro camp gave me the luxery of free room and board for the week. My “homestay” as they call it, was a guy named Clint Lein (checkout Peak Performance). Great guy who reminded me of Billy Bob Thorton if he was a triathlete. He was really sarcastic, a little impatient but knew his stuff. His day revolved around teaching swimming, writing movie scripts, sleeping and watching movies. Honestly, I never saw or heard of one person while I was there that actually had a real 8-5 job.
So Friday was my official first day of camp. On tap was:
AM – 2 hour ride easy on your own
OM – 1 hour swim – 2 x 800 TT
PM – 2 hour(I added this because I couldn’t stand to waste not having any snow on the ground!)
Victoria I found to be a good cycling community. Pavement was nice. Most roads had a good shoulder. Plus, no snow for almost the entire year. No wonder it’s the triathlon capital of Canada.
Having no car, I relied on my Cervelo commuter tri bike to get around. Everywhere I went, swim, run practice, bike practice, heck even recoveries all had to be commuted too! I was constantly asking Clint where stuff was (as I didn’t bring my computer). You could tell he was a cyclist as he gave me good routes with minimal traffic to all my destinations.
First up was my swim at the Commonwealth center, a swimmers wet dream with a 50 meter pool, two 25m pools and a kiddy play place. Very impressive. On deck I met my fellow campers. Magali Tisseyre, Brent Poulsen, Amanda Stevens, Lisa Mesnik and Brent McMahon. Go to any tri mag and you’ll see their names at the top or near the top at any race they’ve been too. Luckily I don’t get worked up over celebrities and found that everyone was (mostly) happy to be here. My goal for this camp was to learn as much as possible and hopefully take home a few pointers from them.
In the pool I learned quickly that my swimming needs a lot of work if I even want to come close to being in their draft. Thankfully, at the same time this swim was on, Lifesport teaches a masters swim which I participated in. It sucked that I couldn’t hang with the big boys/girls. I have to be honest with myself and realize that most have been doing it since they were 12. It still didn’t stop me from admiring how effortless they were from my lane. So smooth. So fast. Someday…
After I was done I returned home to Clints place, grabbed a quick snack, then hit the road for another 2 hours. To me coming from the frozen wasteland, it was awesome to be outside again. What I realized later though is that “extra” work is somewhat frowned upon. Why? Well you’ll have to read tomorrows entry.
Happy Trainin,
Cliff
