Camp 2009, PT1 - Good News / Bad News!

The bad news is, over the past few months Sonoma County and Northern California have been waaay below rain total averages for the season ... the good news is it started raining crazy hard about two weeks ago ... the bad news is, that was exactly the time we kicked off the annual TTE Winter Training Camp!

The week of the camp is always busy enough trying to line up all the food, gear, and logistics for everyone. Add in a HUGE pending, multiple day weather front and my busy level turned to stress level. (ask my wife Jen) It took until the middle of Day 1 of the camp to realize that I would just have to trust my judgement and adapt as we went along.

As usual we had a great group of sponsors and peoplke lined up for the camp. Some of the campers were return victims while we added 5 rookies into the mix. Before I go any farther I need to thank those supporters and sponsors who have been reliable and loyal with their support.

- ALWAYS Clif Bar / Clif Shot ... great people, great product great company PERIOD! Thank you Peter!

- Blue Seventy provided everyone new goggles for the camp ... great stuff!

- TYR ... BIG thanks to Ryan Dolan for taking care of everybody's backpack needs ... first class Ryan, THANK YOU

- ALCiS for the large quantity of pain relief cream ... always welcome for training camp! ;)

- Of course a shout out to Camelback (bottles), Oomph!, and Fuelbelt

- NEW for 2009 was support from ECHELON Cycle and Multi-sport who providing daily prizes for the "Echelon Ride of The Day" and Green Layer Apparel for end of camp awards for our outstanding performances.

Our goal for the training camp is get everyone through the minimum training if possible. The other thing we like for the newcomers to realize is the "power of the group". The newcomers (and veterans too) always find they are capable of and do things they simply just couldn't or wouldn't do on their own. This, for me, is the glue that makes a camp like this or small group training work so effectively. Beyond that structure we set up options so folks can do a little more, or in some cases if the volume isn't challenging enough, they can take advantage of opportunities to go harder ;) To do that we set up a points system fr thos that want to "play".

Cycling = 1 point for every mile ridden (we don’t allow extra riding)

Running = 2 points for every 5 minutes of running. 30 minutes is the minimum to accumulate points, 1 hour is the maximum allowed.

Swimming = 3 points for every 250 meters swum with a minimum of 2000 meters to get you any points. Everyone was playing from the same workout structure and extra points were awarded for those collecting points over 300 yard sessions.

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The other wrinkle we started last year, for those that needed a further challenge, is a little climbing competition (“KOM”) on the bike. We awarded bonus points to everyone over the designated climbs, of course first over gets the most points. Having that "competition element" forces everyone to strategically think about how they want to use their energy over the three days! We have had folks come completely un-glued at some point on day 3 because of choices they made on day 1. Teaches great lessons about what the body and mind are OR are not capable of.

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OK, enough for now ... i'll drop by in a couple of days and cover a few of the highlights from the camp! Fun people and fun times.

Cheers ... DL