Rockies Peak 2011

I’ve just returned from a ten day trip to Colorado, which included a four day camp called Rockies Peak.  I planned the trip to arrive several days early, which would help my body acclimate to the altitude.  While I suspect that it helped some, it wasn’t long enough to overcome all of the challenges of training at over a mile high.

I was able to get in one decent ride before camp, a simple out and back on the road between Boulder and Golden, and it was a good indicator of what was to come:  a long slow uphill followed by a long fast downhill.  Living in Houston it is difficult to get in any hill work, but I’ve done a fair amount of threshold training on the trainer which is supposed to be the same thing.  The biggest difference I saw was the length of the hill.  I found myself putting out maximal effort 20+ minutes, not my normal 5.  When combined with the lack of oxygen, the road out was very difficult and had my breathing maxed out of quite a while.

I won’t bore you with the details from all the workouts.  Here is the gist:  I sucked wind for all of them, especially the swim.  I hadn’t really thought much about swimming at altitude, though I’m not sure why since I’m always breathing hard at home when I swim.  While I was finally able to find some sort of a groove swimming, it was a long time before I could go further than 50-100 yards without needing to catch my breath.

I did finally get some quality swim assistance and coach pointed out a couple of areas on which I need to focus.  I sort of knew about one of them and have been working on it on my own, but obviously haven’t been successful at solving that problem.  I got pointers from several coaches and can’t wait to put them to work!

I toyed with doing an Olympic distance race the day after arriving and am very grateful that my coach told me no.  I suspect they would have had to rescue me from the swim 100 yards from the shore!  Instead I volunteered and met Miranda Carfrae, the reigning Ironman world champion who was there to cheer for “her man” Tim O’Donnell.  I should have paid more attention as Julie Dibens was also out there cheering!

Yes, the training was intense.  It’s been two days since camp ended (both of which I spent driving) and my legs are still sore and tired.  I probably need to get out for a little jog or bike ride to shake them out.

The best part of camp wasn’t the actual training (though I loved it all), it was the interaction with the high caliber coaches.  There are many camps out there, and what set this one apart was the coaches.  If you follow the sport at all you know Kelly Williamson, Hillary Biscay, and Richie Cunningham.  It was awesome to see that they are all just like every other triathlete I’ve met:  nice and more than willing to help out and pass on their knowledge.

We discussed things such as hydration and nutrition, sweat rates, pacing, stride lengths, swim drafting, dolphining for a shore entry, race strategies, which races to run, equipment and numerous other topics.

Practicing my dolphining start.	This is where we started our first bike ride, and ended up somewhere up in those hills.	Day 2 of the bike rides, preparing for our hill time trials. That was an intense 11 minutes, and most of the people were even faster!

The million dollar question is whether I will come back again next year. The only hesitation I have is due to the cost of camp and being away from home for 10 days and the long drive. That aside, I’m in 100%. However, I think I would invest in a different cassette, better suited for riding in the mountains!  It is worth pointing out that I was the second oldest triathlete present, the only one coming from sea level, and one of only a couple that came from a very flat area (is Indy flat?), which definitely put me at a disadvantage.    Next year I’d want to bring along some other Houston people so I wouldn’t suffer so much by myself!

Here are more pictures if you are interested:  Rockies Peak Camp pictures.