Wattie Ink/Black Dragon Racing Triathlon Camp

The first thing my daughter Maggie said to me when I returned from San Diego was , "Mom, you need to write another blog. I have been checking every day and you still don't have a new one up!"  So, I guess I better get writing!!

Back in December, I signed up for a triathlon camp put on by my coach, Robert Flanigan and Wattie Ink.  The camp was located in San Diego and was to be 5 intense days consisting of 20+ hours of training. I knew nobody that was going but figured we all had triathlon in common so it should be a fun experience. Here's a recap of the amazing week!

I arrived in SD Wednesday night and after meeting my two roommates (also first year Watties), Doris and Kinsey, we all fell into bed to get some quality sleep before camp began.  When Kinsey made the hotel reservations they told her we had a suite so we were expecting plenty of room for 3 people. Apparently a suite in California-speak means a closet.  It was definitely not meant to hold 3 people and 3 bikes.

At least our bikes had a place to sleep!

We were grateful, however, that it was at least on the first floor (especially by the 4th and 5th day)! Here's our itinerary for the week...

The swimming venue at Alga Norte was incredible. The outdoor pool was set up the first 2 days in long course meters then switched to short course yards for the rest of the week. Jonathon Caron was our swim coach. (You can read a little about him here).  On our last day in the pool, Flanny and Johnny put us into 3 teams of four and we had a relay race. It was a 400 IM that could be split up among the swimmers by 50 yards however we felt best. In the end each swimmer had to have completed 100 yards total and the relay had to have 100 yards of each stroke completed (freestyle had to be swum with a band around the ankles).  It took awhile for us to understand what the rules were but once we all did we had fun strategizing the best way to put together our team. I swam a 50 fly and 50 back.  It was ugly but I got it done :-). We had a ringer on our team..Karin was a DIII swimmer in college and definitely was key in our win!

Roomies and besties!!!

At the top of Palomar

Along the Oceanside course

We did most of our rides right along the coast and could see the surfers and waves the whole ride.  Coach Flanny opened his room for everyone to load up on nutrition before each ride.  Our sponsors, Herbalife24 and Power Bar, had provided POUNDS of product for our camp.  We fell in love in particular with the PB chocolate wafers from Power Bar and I really liked the Prolong product from Herbalife24. On our two longer rides we had sag support provided by Speedfil so didn't have to worry about packing a ton of food which was super nice.

YUM!!

Everywhere we rode had a dedicated bike lane and the drivers seem to expect and respect the cyclists.  However, it is the law to stop at every red light and stop sign and there are a lot of them. All of the rides involved numerous stop and starts.  After riding in Syracuse where you can go many miles without even seeing a light it was frustrating to me!  Riding in a group was also new for me ... I had to learn when to call things out and what the various hand motions meant.  It also wasn't safe to ride in aero so I rode mile upon mile up on my hoods which was not super comfortable.  But it did feel amazing to be riding outdoors and it was nice to have people to chat with while riding.

Palomar Mountain

We made it!!!!

Our schedule got changed around a bit due to the weather forecast so Saturday became our 90 mile ride including 13 miles straight up Palomar Mountain.  I was kind of dreading this until we got started.  There was big talk about the difficulty of this climb among the coaches and team members leading up to camp. I don't do well when the incline gets too steep and pictured myself walking the bike up several points in the climb. But as often happens, it was much easier than I had made it out to be in my mind. In contrast to Syracuse hills, the SD ones are not super steep...just long, constant climbing. I LOVED it - the incline was perfect for me to keep an even rhythm and steady watts.

Our running playground

Sunday we headed over to Los Penasquitos Canyon to do a little trail running for our long run.  It was a rocky, dusty trail out in the sunlight...very unlike the forest trails here in CNY. We threw in some 10 minute tempo intervals on the rolling path while mountain bikers flew by just to keep things interesting.

A year ago they only had ONE sewing machine...the factory has grown!!

One of the highlights of camp was getting a tour of the Wattie Ink factory. We met Sean Watkins and saw exactly how a kit goes from an idea to a reality.  The Wattie Ink clothing is just amazing. Much of the work is still done by hand and the attention to detail is incredible.  Check out the product line! Kits are currently 20% off! We also had Dr Dana Ryan from Herbalife 24 and Gary from Marcpro come speak with us about their products and we even got the chance to try them out.

The marcpro providing valuable active recovery to my sore and tired muscle

Besides myself, Doris and Kinsey, there was one other first year Wattie at the camp. We all adopted Matt as "one of the girls" (he loves when I say this!!) and the four of us found ourselves hanging out together whenever we weren't training. Everyone at camp was amazing and friendly but I would not have made it through without these three!!  I seriously have not laughed this much in a long time!

The ladies at our last dinner together...

I left for camp unsure about how motivated I was for the season and what kind of shape I was in...especially after the minor injury setbacks I have been having.  I was pleasantly surprised at how riding on the trainer really does keep you in outstanding riding shape. And being able to run at all was a positive! SO now I am ready...physically AND mentally...to gear up my training for race #1 this year...Ironman Syracuse 70.3!

Inspiration

I have always been a very driven athlete. I tend to train alone with little to no outside motivation needed to get out the door each day to train. Lately, however, I am finding it harder and harder to get out of bed when that 5am alarm goes off.  Excuses I use are that I am getting older, slowing down is inevitable, my body is telling me it's tired and needs rest, I'll work out later in the day, etc...ya know what I mean?  Of course temps below zero with -20 degree wind chills don't help either!

Another reason I am lazy when I hear the alarm is that I have been dealing with a weird injury (nothing about me is ever normal :-) ) down my left leg. It seems to be some sciatic pain due to either weakness in my hips or tightness in my hips...or most likely both!  Either way, I am still able to bike and swim so I am not completely miserable. But the bottom line is I am still just not that excited about the upcoming season.

Recently, however, two separate incidents occurred that started getting my competitive juices flowing again. The first was in the form of an email from one of the local coaches. Here is an excerpt:

"there was a time, long, long ago......while driving my daughter to the high school in the late 90's in the early mornings in the freezing cold on days much like today,  when we would usually drive by an adult female runner on salt springs road who would be wearing a  t shirt and running shorts and maybe a hat and gloves and that's it. that runner would be the daily inspiration to my daughter, who was a somewhat accomplished middle distance and xc runner on the hs team, to get out there in the cold, daily at practice. she would motivate her teammates, by her example, to get the job done daily regardless of the weather. the image of that woman exhaling frosty smoke each morning would make us smile and prepare our resolve to better handle the winter conditions while others stayed inside. it was rumored that the woman was also a pharmacist..."

I awoke to this email on my phone and it put a smile on my face all day. It reminded me of how tough and determined I was only a few years (well 15 years) ago.  It's hard to put into words how I felt reading this. I was amazed and honored to be someone's inspiration. I decided right then that I would use this to motivate me to keep at it...get back to my 5:30am workouts.  It is so important to me to be a good example for my daughters...someone for them to look up to...something to aspire to be. I've worked hard at this and it was definitely not time to quit yet!

The second incident came when a fellow Monroe-Woodbury High School alum decided he was going to attempt to break the WORLD record for age 45-49 in the indoor mile run. John Trautmann was an amazing runner back in the day. OK amazing is really a HUGE understatement! He broke Steve Prefontaine’s HS national record in the 3,000-meter run then went on to win the 5000m at the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials.  He dropped out of the semis in the Olympics due to a (seemingly) career-ending foot injury. Twenty years later, foot surgically fused and 60 pounds heavier he hooks up with his old college coach to get back in shape. Read more of John's story here.

I started following his return to racing last year when he ran a 4:24 mile in Boston. He fell short of the world record last year but was back at it again this indoor season.  On Saturday, we tuned in to Facebook to see if he would break the record. The previous week he went 4:18 missing by 2 secs. He went 4:12 and smashed the record by 4 seconds!! What inspired me the most was that a year older (at 46), he runs 12 seconds faster than the year before.  He showed me it is still possible to improve...even as a masters athlete. Age is REALLY just a number!

Inspiration and motivation can come in many forms and is unique to each individual. Find your inspiration and continue to strive to be your best.