Here’s a recap of my weekend at training camp in Rochester, MN with my coach Joe Moyer.

Thursday:

Training: We started off training camp by riding out to a local time trial held by Tri Rochester. We rode 12 miles at a comfortable pace out to the start of the TT. The time trial course was a 14 mile loop with a few hills and some rollers. Each person started :30 sec after the person before them. I started towards the end of the group, my coach started 2 people (1:00 min) behind me. For not knowing the course and having done a 20 mile run two days prior, I did surprisingly well.

My coach passed my about half way into the TT, but I was able to hold on towards the end, finishing about 2 minutes back of him with the 2nd fastest time overall. After the time trial we, we biked the 12 miles back home and prepared for a transition run. My legs felt pretty good starting out on the run. We ran 4.5 miles at 6:59 pace. After the run I got my first experience using NormaTec recovery systems.

Dinner: We grilled out and had cheeseburgers & baked beans

Friday:

Breakfast: Raisin Bran cereal & banana

Training: Woke up at 6am and did a swim at local fitness center. I did a 2600 meter set that consisted of 8×200 swim/pull main set. The 2nd workout of the day was our long ride. We had a 100 mile route mapped out with the option to add another 10-15 if we were feeling up to it (we were not). It was 85+ degrees for the whole ride and our legs weren’t happy with us. The heat, hills and humidity beat us up a bit. We made a few gas station stops to refuel and get out the sun. Overall it was a good training ride to get acclimated to the heat and hills. We ended up doing 100 miles in 5 hours 23 mins.

Dinner: We had spaghetti and meat balls for dinner with corn. Afterwards I indulged (as I usually do) with a big bowl of ice cream.

Saturday:

Breakfast: We had cinnamon rolls. I think I had 5 or 6 (Mhhmmmmmm)

Training: We headed to Winona, MN for the day to do some workouts with the Tri Rochester team on the Trinona course. We met at a small nearby lake and did a short OWS. It was my first OWS of the year. It always takes me a little bit to get comfortable swimming in open water, but by the second half of the swim I was feeling good. Water temp was great, my full-sleeve suit was even a little too warm (I plan to wear my sleeveless suit from here on out). After the swim we drove over to the start of the bike course. Our plan was to do a modified 2 loops of the Olympic bike course. There is a huge hill on the bike course (Garvin Heights) that never seemed to end. It was a good tough climb, but there won’t be hills like that during IRONMAN. After completing the 2 loops we threw our running shoes on and headed out on the Trinona run course. Once again it was hot. We kept our pace at an even 7:30 min/mile and took a water/gel break halfway through. We ran 6.2 miles at 7:27 pace.

Lunch: Before heading back to Rochester we stopped off at Culvers. $14 later I was full, fat and satisfied. I had a double cheeseburger, cheese curds and a large Oreo Concrete mixer.

That evening we worked on our bikes. We got my new race wheels, my new Specialized fuselage, and rear bottle cage installed. We also did some re-fitting on the bike. I was having some saddle discomfort so I swapped saddles and repositioned my aero bars a bit.

Dinner: We were exhausted and ordering pizza sounded like the best option. We ordered Dominos chicken wings, pizza and cheesy bread.

Sunday:

Breakfast: Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Haven’t had that in ages and it hit the spot.

Training: There were a bunch of storms rolling across the whole state of Minnesota during the morning. Once we saw a break in the rain we started out on our 3hr ride (with all intentions of getting poured on during the ride). We some how managed to avoid the rain for the whole ride. We did a 56 mile ride with a few intervals in the last hour. This was my first ride with my new wheels, they felt smooth and light. Not less than 5 minutes after getting back to the house, the rain started. We still had a run to do, but running in the rain doesn’t bother me at all, I actually like it. We did a 2 mile easy warm-up at 7:30 pace. Following that we 6×1 mile intervals with 2 mins rest after each one. We started at my IRONMAN race pace 7:15. Each mile we descended by :15 seconds. The rain was really coming down, but it kept us cool. We did 6 miles (7:15, 7:00, 6:45, 6:30, 6:15, and 6:00). I felt great on the last interval which is a good sign for my half coming up this Saturday.

Lunch: We had leftover Domino’s pizza for lunch

The rest of the afternoon we spent cleaning up our bikes and doing some minor adjustments to my bike. After that I headed back home to Minneapolis, stopping for a soda, donuts and a candy bar on the way home 🙂

Summary:

Overall it was a great week of training. It was good to interact with my coach in person (that was the 2nd time we had ever met). I learned a lot from him and we put in a lot of miles of good training. I’m looking forward to recovering this week and preparing for my race this Saturday. I’ll post a blog later this week before my race!

Thanks for reading!