Have you ever had a week were looking back you wish you could relive it several times over again. Just the shear memories of the week make you smile and laugh to yourself. Well I just got back from one of those!
Last year, I was self coached and had decent success. However, this only fueled the fire to turn professional in Ironman distance triathlons. I knew in order to make it to the next level, I would have to get a coach that could provide me with knowledge, dedication and a pair of eyes to monitor my training. Finding a coach that fits your needs can be extremely challenging. I have been blessed in the past but never have I had a coach like Lee Gardner from Trismarter. I have been working with him since December 2011 and cannot believe the gains I have seen in just 3 months.
Lee set up a training camp for Louis Tafuto and me in Arizona for a week. This way I could meet my teammate Louis and have a training buddy for one of the most intense training weeks I have experienced thus far. The timing couldn’t have been any better because I was out in Arizona for a Certification in Z- Health (S-Phase) the weekend prior, which is a whole other fantastic experience.
The Camp officially started February Wednesday 15th, since Lee from Colorado and Louis from New York flew in the night prior we decided to make the workouts more of easy shakeout, to prepare for the big week that lay ahead of us. After breakfast we went for an easy hour run on the trails in Phoenix. In the afternoon we swam 3700 yards and finished up the day with an hour easy spin on the bike.
I was concerned since there were three off us; someone would feel like the third wheel which was never the case, the three of us worked fantastic together. We all stayed as Lee’s Mother’s Condo which was so nice of her. We truly were what you call a team, cooking all our meals together and cleaning up while laughing at various jokes the entire time.
Thursday, the real work started at the pool we swam 4800 yards and then spent several hours at the track working on drills and honing in on our 10K pace by doing 400’s at race pace on the track. We were preparing for our 10K running race we all signed up to do on Saturday.
Friday, was my favorite day of the camp and a huge confidence booster for my upcoming Ironman Race in St. George on May 5th. Today we started our morning off with a 4100 yard swim. The main workout was approximately 90 miles on the bike out to Cave Creek with 4 x 9 miles at IM power pace with 1 mile easy in the middle of the ride, then finishing up with a pace line back to town. Once back it was an instant transition to the run for an hour at IM pace which felt fantastic!
Saturday, was our recovery day where we did the Susan 10K run for Cancer. Louis, Lee and I all won our age groups and Louis was first place overall male and I was the first overall female, you could say that Trismarter dominated the race! Then we did an easy 2000 yard flop in the pool mainly a huge kick set.
Sunday, was game on again, we got up early to beat the sun and ran trail 100 for 23 miles which is a dirt path that would be a perfect Mtn. Bike trail with difficult sections but some fast fun single track. Louis and I got slightly lost making the run longer than planned by two mile and Louis took a digger on one of the down hills. He was in mid sentence saying, “I fell like …. Then I heard him crash to the ground, which said it all!” He got back up and seeing that he had only lost some skin and would bruise later, I told him he was fine and to finish the run with me, heartless. J He did finish the run and almost beat me. This was a total blast and the time past extremely fast! It is so much fun to run new terrain! After the run we had a major swim set at our outdoor swimming pool which I failed to mention earlier. We got to swim in an outdoor swimming pool all week, it was absolutely glorious! We finished the day with an easy hour and half spin on the bike.
Monday we got up early to hit the pool for a 4500 yard swim. In the afternoon out main workout was riding to South Mountain Park Summit were we did three times hill repeats. By the third one I was so exhausted that I reached the summit shaking; that is a fantastic feeling when you know you gave it everything you had! After the hill repeats we rode back to town totaling 65 miles on the bike and did an easy 15 minute run off the bike to wake up the legs.
Tuesday, again we started with a swim about 4500 yards and then we were planning on doing a repeat of Friday’s bike and run workouts however, I hit the wall, BAD! I had nothing left, at 25 miles out on the bike I was completely lethargic and having a hard time staying awake on the bike. You know those days were you want so badly to push yourself to perform but there is nothing left in the tank; well that is exactly what I was experiencing. I was dropping off the pace line which is extremely rare for me! Lee know I was hurting so we cut the ride short and just rode back to town easy which totaled to about 60 miles. Since I was hurting so bad I didn’t run off the bike.
Wednesday, was the last day off the camp. We swam approximately 4200 yards bright and early. In the afternoon we had our second track workout of the week. By now the legs felt completely trashed during the warm-up and I was thinking to myself how the heck am I going to get through this workout. However, they slowly started to release and it ended up being a great workout. We did 6 x 1 mile repeats with half the interval as recovery. The day was concluded with a 2 hour easy spin up and down the canal were we all laughed the entire time and sang songs.
No one wanted to leave the camp, Thursday was truly a sad day, and we all were leaving the glorious weather in Arizona to come back to snow. Being able to train all day was like a dream come true, we had phenomenal workouts everyday and got in unbelievable amounts of volume at an extremely high intensity. I had the time of my life, it is so much fun when training is your only concern for an entire week!
I want to thank Lee Gardner for all his help this season so far with Louis and I training, we are hitting intervals and power outputs neither of us has seen prior, it will be a great season, I cannot wait to start racing!
My first big race of the season is Ironman St. George May 5th.
