back to school camp...

Another training camp done - this time 5 days (Monday to Friday), for the Dio school cycling team. I guess the main idea is get in a week of solid training to bring the fitness up and to teach everyone a few new skills (or remind a few who have been there before - and who are a little rusty). I was one of three coaches - Vanessa is head coach and Scott is the other coach there. It quickly became apparent that there were two distinct groups for the school girls- those that had hung their bikes up at the end of last season and done little else between the end of last season and the start of camp - and the others who had done a good amount of training and were in pretty reasonable shape. Unfortunately there were a few were sick and/or injured too.

The first proper ride was full of complaints and there was some pretty slow riding. The pushing had already begun (fellow coach Scott and I pushing the slower riders back into the bunches). While the average speed was pretty low, the coaches efforts were not so! The next day involved a couple of time trials, one 8km and one of around 2km, but mostly up hill. Sort of seeding TT's for the first few races of the season. Of course the complaint level escalated, as plenty did not want to do TT's - especially those that were very unfit! Those that complained the least generally did the best - probably because they had a better mental attitude that a huge physical benefit. At the end of this day it was time for the coaches to have a bit of a growl - and tell a few to "harden up". The next day was the bigger ride at around 90km, and to be fair, the attitudes had improved a heap, and all were riding a lot better. Having said that a few had left camp as "sick" or sort of thrown in the towel. Some were genuinely sick, but some were just giving up. The last day was an easy ride (33km), and all went very well for the front group, which I was taking, and Scott got the short straw, having to push the slower riders along...

From my perspective most of the rides were very easy overall (average HR for the rides were between 109 and 118) - but there were a few harder aspects, and they did tend to be quite tiring overall. Probably just been on the bike seat for so long! The back was pretty sore each morning too - and that was no doubt from all the pushing! Scott and I had to do the time trials - which were a bit of a blast - but you had to make sure you weren't beaten by the girls! The power graphs are below - 8km with an average of 374w and the hill climb (just over 1km) and an average of 444w. I went out pretty hard in the TT to try to catch Scott, and made a big gain initially, but then "popped" a bit and had to try to hold on to the end. The spike toward the end is a little hill - just for when you are getting tired. I was not that enthusiastic for the hill Climb, and went out hard to get speed up before the climb actually started - then just survived it really. Should have probably been over 500w average, but that was not there! Ended up one all for the coaches bragging rights and not beaten by any school girls! Whew! Probably not too bad a result for where I am fitness wise either.



8km road TT...




Hill TT - getting a bit tired now...


One thing that was a little bit of an eye opener for me was being "on camp" with girls. I certainly don't claim to know too much about the other gender and this just added to that mystery! Each night the girls organized a few games - in a guys world it would be called "team building", but here I am pretty sure it was just high school girls entertaining themselves. I maybe scared for life from these experiences, as the coaches did get roped in to these events. First Major was the marsh-mellow game. The contestants line up and you have to put a marsh-mellow in your mouth (not eat it) and say "fluffy bunny". Add another marsh mellow and say the words. At some point you fail and lose the marsh mellows! Pretty gross really. Three groups get through this game and I have to say it was amazing how many marsh mellows fit in a mouth and how disgusting it is when they come out! Then the call comes for the coaches to have a go. Gulp! OK - I am not moving and if Scott says no, we are safe (Vanessa is not doing it!). Scott cracks and we are lined up with bowls in hand and someone handing up marsh mellows! We get a few past 20 and Scott cracks and off to the kitchen to remove the marsh mellows, and I do something incredibly stupid - eat the marsh mellows! I then proceeded to feel VERY sick for the next hour! Next night is "here is a waikato times newspaper - take a coach and dress them in this - in some cycling theme". Let's just say that standing around in my short shorts having newspaper sellotaped to me by 15-17 year old girls is quite scary. I am not sure I have all the sellotape removed yet either! The only redeeming fact is Scott looked like a bigger Dork than I did! The last night was sing star night - pick a song, dress up and do a dance/sing in your team. Coaches are judges (I am no singer or dancer!)! This actually went OK, and I did not mind being the "Simon Cowell" judge either. The girls really got into this. I can't imagine boys doing this sort of stuff! The judges retired and the girls continued the dancing and singing outside (9pm ish). One of the parents then come in and tell me I may have to rescue girls from the pool - the singing dancing has progress to in the pool... oh dear...
There is photographic evidence of the weeks training and "Team building" - but I am not sure they should ever be published! Far too scary!

Getting scared...

I have started easing myself back into some training. It is certainly a little up and down, but I am trying to remain reasonably low key at this stage. On the swimming, I can really only fit in 2 squad sessions, and have not quite sorted out another time to swim yet. I can get to 4km if I try, but I can feel my fitness slipping a little. I am pretty sure I need 3 swims a week to maintain or perhaps not slip away too much. The 3rd swim does not have to be that special, it can be pretty easy, so I suspect it is a muscle memory thing - perhaps the muscles are more forgetful at the moment. I can get through the sessions I do OK, I just notice the times are getting a little slower each week for the same effort, and I "hit the wall" and get just plan old slow after around 3km.

Cycling is OK, probably the thing of note is that the HR is getting a bit higher than usual on the harder efforts. Power output is down a little, but I am also not really pushing it either. An effort and output that would usually give a 166-168HR is now giving 172-174HR. Pre Ironman, any thing over 170HR was making my eyes water. At the moment low 170's is just "pretty solid". The first few easier rides back post Ironman were pretty pathetic as far as output were concerned. while that did not worry me, I was a little surprised at how much and how quickly the basic aerobic fitness had fallen away. Just to show how my basic fitness has changed, the table below shows my last longer "easy aerobic set prior to Ironman - a little over 2 hours, average power 211 watts and average HR 124. The final column is the ratio of power to HR - just to quantify the bodies efficiency. The subsequent rows are the easier rides I have done post Ironman. The "2:02" ride is perhaps an aberration - it was on the road (the others are indoors), and it is really in a different training zone to the others, so perhaps should not be included. You can still see reasonably clearly that the power output has dropped off, and while it has come back quite well, still a fair way off what it did get up to pre Ironman. Given that it is actually a bit cooler now that at the end of February, the difference shown is perhaps slightly less than in reality. It will be interesting to see how this trend changes over then next few months, as I do work more on basic aerobic fitness.



Running is very low key at the moment. Prior to this week, it was a 15-20min run with the Dio Tri-squad and Friday morning "not sure I should be going this hard" intervals. I am hoping to do a couple of 20-30min runs this week also. Hopefully the weekly run volume will go from 50min to around 2hrs. I have started back doing weights, even though I tried to go very easy, I still suffered major muscle soreness after the first 2 sessions. Now I just have general aches and pains! Nowhere near as bad. Strength is already improving quite a bit - after 4 gym sessions!
This year I have become far more involved with junior athletes - especially as Triathlon coach at Dio school, and assisting with the school cycle coaching too. This is on top of what I do RRwith the athletes I coach personally and with the triathlon club. Coaching the younger athletes can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride I have to say. They can be absolutely amazing with what they can do and achieve and can be very frustrating with lack of focus and drive ("don't you realize how good you could be!!!"). It has also proved to be a bit scary!
Last Monday I was at the Auckland secondary schools Triathlon Champs - which was a great day of racing. Capped off very well with young Alex winning the senior boys race in a very mature execution of a well thought out race plan. My observations were that there are very talented athletes that can already go very fast at a young age. As you go through the age groups the athletes get better overall - ie have less weaknesses. The younger athletes tended to have a weakness. They are also a little less skilled at hiding nerves, and are a little unsure how to handle those nerves and why the heck they were there in the first place! It was great to see so many just going out and having a good time - especially the younger age groups!
Then last weekend I was away for the weekend helping with the "introductory cycling camp". This is a prerequisite to go on the schools "main cycling camp". So making sure that these young budding cyclists can clip in and out of pedals, start and stop OK, brake, and ride in close to a straight line. To be fair I was quite scared, and probably as nervous as I have been for any race! There was a good chance someone I was in charge of making a competent cyclist could send me off the road and down a bank! Images of broken bones and angry parents were swooping through my mind. In the end my nerves were only slightly frazzled and those that had the least skills to start with (could not ride a bike AT ALL) made the greatest improvements and were riding along quite nicely 24 hours after not being able to get on the bike and ride at all. End result - a quiet calm feeling of a job well down! Whew...

For the next month:
Sort out a routine that will get in more than two swims per week. Two good gym sessions per week, and a 3rd lighter session every second week. I want the overall intensity of training to be reasonably low. I will get back to doing the bike and run intervals quite hard, but make sure I have most of "my" training sessions done at an easy or very easy pace/effort. Cycling I will have a couple of bike classes and will do a couple of easy rides on top of that - even if they are quite short. Will try for at least one week with 5 rides. On the running front, I don't think I will be doing much, as I still need to sort out a niggle in my leg. It is OK, and I will build up to an hour, and try to get in two runs of 50 minutes to an hour (including the interval session) and a couple of 30 minute runs. I don't want to push the running until I have made some good progress on the strength and flexibility. But one week with 5 runs in it would be good too (2-3 of those runs are 25-35min).