After the longer ride on Thursday, Friday’s early morning ride was intended to be mellow and just help us absorb the miles from the previous days. With the threat of rain looming, we clipped in a bit earlier than normal and got out on the road. Everyone was in good spirits and we moved along purposefully through the vineyards.
After a short coffee stop in Walnut Grove, the tribe mounted up and we began our trek back home. Bob and I were a bit concerned about the dark clouds and wanted to get closer to Lodi as soon as possible, as the weather looked better back that way. I think I had this in mind when I went to the front and set the pace for the return. After about 15 minutes the winds started to really pick up. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor, nor did I have my power meter attached, so I was just riding based on perceived exertion. I was fortunate to wake up Friday morning with good legs and before I knew it I was unintentionally putting some in the group in difficulty with a few unhinging off the back. Zach, ever the diplomat, stomped up to me and told me that he just got gapped driving 350 watts and I might want to mellow out before a mutiny takes place.
That is the thing with strong direct crosswinds; they don’t provide much protection for those on your wheel. Any unanticipated surges can make it difficult for folks to stay in the group. I was actually a little embarrassed that I had accidentally ridden some folks off my wheel. Truth be told, I pride myself in setting a very steady and manageable tempo when pulling. I love to be on the front pulling the peloton for hours at a time. I was working very hard at this point to keep the group together, yet still get down the road, as I was concerned about the rain getting to us before we got home. After 14 years of living in the Pacific Northwest and training in the rain more than I like to remember, I hate riding in the rain. I mean not just a little, a whole lot! Feel free to refer to my 2010 Kona race day post to see how it screws with my grape.
So there I am pulling the crew with the pocket rocket (wife) riding next to me. She still wasn’t over my putting her in difficulty a while back and she came to the front to tell me all about it. The wind was rocking her world and she was tired from the previous day’s long ride, along with general fatigue from the entire week. I tried to make small talk with her to raise her spirits and get her to not be so mad at me for my honest mistake, but she was having none of it. She looked over at me, told me to shut up, and then she shook her tiny little bony fist at me! Ah, the married life on the bike- just a little piece of heaven…with small pockets of pain. The trial of miles and the miles of trials, as a friend likes to say.
So we survived the “easy” ride and off on the brick run we went. Everyone ran their own pre-assigned program and the Friday training day was in the books. Friday afternoon was a relaxing afternoon of downtime where folks could chill, break down their bikes, and get a massage or whatever they wanted to do after a long week of training.
The last evening at camp was terrific. Bob hosted dinner for us at the Fields Family Winery. It is quite the opportunity to hang out in a small family winery and taste the good stuff, along with eat fantastic Mexican food. It also happened to be Sal’s 47th birthday so the crew got the opportunity to sing happy birthday and hang out. A fantastic time was had by all and it was the perfect end to a lovely camp.
Saturday morning we got up early one last time to swim, which was the final workout of the camp. I stayed on deck and coached the swim with lots of stroke work, drills and video taping of the campers. I very much enjoy coaching from the deck after swimming with the athletes all week. I like to check out the camper’s stroke from underneath the water during our training sets and offer corrections each day, but it is great to watch them from above as well, as some things are more obvious from the deck. I also like to make sure each athlete goes home with drills that are specific to the issues they need to address in their stroke. Doing these types of sessions at the end of camp is ideal as we are able to keep the workload mellow and short while focusing on swimming pretty.
So that was it. Our 7 day camp jammed by and was over in the blink of an eye. We amassed 15,000 to 20,000 yards (depending on the individual) in the pool, rode approximately 250 miles, and ran approximately 4.5 hours all in one week of glorious fun. As much as Bob, T and I worried about the rain, we escaped most of it and we got in every training session that was on the schedule. I saw folks dramatically improve through the week and every single athlete got stronger as the camp rolled on. That tells me that we applied the proper amount of stress in the right doses throughout our week together. I have been to camps where everyone leaves shredded and 70 percent of the athletes got sick in the following 10 days. I don’t want that to be what our camps are about.
Our camps are not tough guy camps. There are other camps that do a better job with that type of athlete. I say it all the time that it isn’t about how much an athlete can endure, it is about how much an athlete can absorb. If somebody wants to lay down the kind of volume that they can brag about in their blogs, then our camps are probably not for you. You can see by our weekly workload that we aren’t setting any records in volume, miles or duration. What we are doing is getting the athlete to train right up to the optimum level of performance to where they can recover every day and come out and have a good day the next day. We all get tired, but we get tired the right way with specific fatigue, properly applied stress, and then we are done. We don’t take athletes deep into uncharted territory. Having said this, our athletes are challenged by the week, and for some, they do hit daily records in terms of yardage and miles, but they are sane milestones that were reached with a specific intent in mind.
This collaborative effort with Bob Korock turned out to be a wonderful experiment. Teresa and I are control freaks when it comes to our camps and we were very leery of working with another coach without being able to control all the variables of the camp. We came away even better friends with Bob, and could not have enjoyed our time with him more. He was so responsive in this effort and we not only enjoyed coaching a camp with him, we enjoyed deepening an already solid friendship as well.
When Teresa and I first decided to start coaching camps, we had a lot of obstacles to overcome. Camps are harder than they look, and it takes an enormous amount of coordination and planning to do them right. Also, there are a significant amount of resources that are involved. IMJ Coaching is absolutely blessed to have the full camp sponsorship of Hammer Nutrition. Steve Born and Kendra Powell of Hammer make sure we have everything we need, and their soup to nuts sponsorship make it possible for us to do what we love to do. It is even more amazing that Hammer signed on to sponsor us before we had ever even put on our first camp. I will never forget this and will always be loyal to Hammer Nutrition. I can say the same for Albert Boyce and Coffees of Hawaii. Albert has supported IMJ with his coffee from the day I started out on my own and there is only one coffee we will be serving at our camps.
Most importantly, it goes without saying that camps would not happen if it were not for athletes who come to them. Thank you so much to Sal Lancaster, Michelle Schwartz, Zach Poehlman, Rosie Barnes, Stu Gibson and Josh Vincent for taking time out of their busy lives to come do it up in the vineyards of Lodi. I learn and grow from every camp in which I get the opportunity to participate. This one was no exception. I got to train hard, hang out with awesome human beings, and learn a lot about myself. I count this experience as yet another blessing in an enormously blessed life.
Train with joy or not at all!
Thanks for reading.
Jonser
No comments:
Post a Comment