By Rebecca Roozen
Feb. 8, 2007 -- Today I beat Susie at tetherball. And tonight there's a co-ed dance. Okay, not really. The first day of the Multisports.com Winter Triathlon Camp in San Diego had nothing to do with over-handing strung-up balls around metal poles. I suspect the rest of the days at tri camp won't either.
Day one -- Wednesday -- was all about analysis.
Upon arriving at the Best Western in Encinitas (the host hotel), triathlon great Greg Welch greeted me with his usual, "Ahh, well, helloooo mate." Welchy didn't waste any time, grabbed my bike and we headed down to the Sandcastle room. Sounds beachy. It's not. It's really just a conference room with a bunch of fold-up tables and chairs. But those were scooted aside and crazy-good cyclist Jimmy Riccitello, XTERRA wetsuits' main man Keith Simmons and USAT coach Wade Blomgren had just begun the first round of estimated bike anaerobic-threshold testing.
I warmed up for a good 15 minutes, Welchy calibrated the CompuTrainer, and it was show time. "Now, this isn't a test. Everyone is different," said the Aussie Ironman world champ, who's obviously used to pacifying the four girls who run his household. I started out with a light 60 watts at a 146 heart rate. The plan is to add 20 watts every 90 seconds, while maintaining 18 miles per hour. "Whoa, mate! You have a high heart rate," said Welchy. He then went on to explain that because I'm young, it might be higher than others at the camp. I think he was just being nice.
I made it up to the 12-minute mark at 220 watts with a max heart rate of 185. After a minute of recovery, I was down to 140 and another minute later I calmed down to 119. I spun out my legs for a couple more minutes while Welchy, after so bluntly revealing, had to "Syphon the python" in the bathroom.
Rumor had it that the boss man, aka John Duke, took a group of campers over to the YMCA pool for a master's swim session. I headed over, swam my 2400 main set and then it was back to the Best Western for my run videotaping. Easy enough. I hopped on the treadmill for five minutes while the camera zoomed in on my stride from a few different angles. Later on, gait-analysis genius Danny Abshire will clue me in as to what my feet are doing as I crank out the miles.
It'll be an educational week. Sort of like taking triathlon as a class in school. Ironman world champ Michellie Jones will give a lecture or two, as will triathlon legend Paula Newby-Fraser and flexibility guru Brian Dorfman. As for tonight, Roch Frey will chat to the group about swimming technique; Danny will say his piece on biomechanical performance and injury prevention; and I'll find out what all this heart rate mumbo jumbo means. Be sure to check back to triathletemag.com for more tech-y numbers analysis and raw Aussie humor.