Justin Daerr Elite Triathlete
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Archive for March, 2008

EC Tucson Camp Day Three

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Day three of the Camp was meant to be a bit of a regroup day; at least in terms of cycling mileage.

The day kicked off for most folks with a morning swim main set of

500, 5 x 100
400, 4 x 100
300, 3 x 100
200, 2 x 100
100, 100

After knocking out the swim everyone headed back for another stelllar breakfast before rolling out for the day’s ride. One group opted for a mellow 30 miles and a second group went for slightly more miles at a good clip. Mat, Gordo, and I headed up the longer route and Mat reminded all of us (again) that he responds quite well to altitude (as he put in big pulls down here in AZ). I was rolling along second in line telling Gordo that we should probably nickname him “The Responder” given the way he rides down low.

After finishing up Mat, Jonas, and I went for a quick easy swim since we (minus Jonas) missed out on the morning fun. Jonas offered up a nice mellow drill/swim set and followed up with some stroke pointers for both of us.

After swimming we headed up to the EC HQ to run a nice easy 10K on some local trails. The scenery in the Saquaro West Park is really beautiful at this time of year and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The abundant moisture in the spring has left areas green that might not be otherwise.

Day Three closed out as every day does: Eating and Socializing. The conversations lasted a little longer than the previous two nights since most folks expended a little less energy throughout the day. Dr J headed up an informal discussion on bike fits and plenty of people we able to add valuable insight or offer questions.

Day Four is meant to be a balanced mixture of training with an emphasis on swimming. Some of the athletes might be heading into one of their biggest swim sessions of their season (or life??).

Until tomorrow,

jd

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Endurance Corner Tucson Camp Day 1 and 2

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

The EC crew is hosting the first of two training camps here in Tucson, Arizona. Even though I lived in Phoenix for two springs (’04 and ‘05) I have never trained in Tucson (which is a much higher profile training spot). Yesterday was the second day of the camp and it included a summit up Mt Lemmon (21 miles and 6000+ feet of elevation gain). I had always heard about this ride, but (as mentioned) I had never done it.

I learned a couple things on that ride yesterday:

1. It takes a long time to climb Mt Lemmon.

2. Early season climbs over 20 minutes are quite tiring no matter how long I have been doing this.

I think all the campers (encompassing a wide range of abilities) felt a great deal of satisfaction after reaching the 8000 foot summit. I don’t care who you are; 6000 feet of continuous climbing is challenging and should not be taken lightly. All the athletes reached the summit at ease and then cruised down the mountain to finish off with a short run off the bike.

As we transitioned to a run in Udall park we came across Bobby McGee (World Famous Olympic Running Coach) who was going through his famous drills with the Resident Triathlon Team (here on a training camp). Nice to see a cross section of athletes and lifestyles in one place. You know what they say about great minds….

After finishing their runs the athletes regrouped and headed up Star pass to the EC HQ for another one of Brooke and Russ’ famous dinners. No one left hungry and everyone left happy (its close to the slogan: “Come Hungry; Leave Happy.”

Today is a regroup day (for some) that includes an early morning swim; a moderate ride; and a midday run that ranges from short to long (10K to 10 miles)

More updates tomorow. I’ll get some pictures posted as well,

JD

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A to B

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

A lot is going on in JD’s little world and so this blog will have to be short. We are finalizing all the preps for next week’s Arizona camp and so any downtime I actually have is spent SBRing instead of writing down my thoughts for the week.

I only want to mention one quick point about a conversation I had this week. A buddy and I were talking about how different people approach training, particularly those who are either ‘all in’ or ‘all out.’ This is not limited just to training hours, but to diet, alcohol, sleep, etc. For many, if they cannot do things “right” they choose to not do them at all.

I have continuously seen this with Long Course triathletes who believe that anything that isn’t long, hard or stressful is not worth their time. They would just as soon ‘take a zero’ instead of logging 30 minutes of exercise that day. To them, triathlon cannot exist without the above.

I don’t necessarily have these same issues. Part of that is a result of being in the sport for over seven years and knowing that any and all adaptations take a (very) long time. The second reason, and the one I want to expand upon a bit, is that I always see myself progressing forward; only the speed at which it is happening is what changes.

Lets make this visual. Take a line with two points. At one end is Point ‘A,’ at the other end is Point ‘B.’ Point A represents the first day you ever set out to improve as a triathlete and Point B is the best you could ever become.

A————————————————-B

In my mind I am always traveling from left to right. If I need a day off or when I go into the offseason I do not see myself as moving back towards the left; I merely stay at the same point on my path to B. I think this perspective allows me the flexibility to listen to my recovery needs better than others as well as maintaining a mentality that every session counts not matter how little the impact.

Don’t let the complexity of life get in the way of your path. Keep things rolling and exploit the moments when you can speed things up a bit.

See you in AZ,

jd

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Xtri Article

Friday, March 14th, 2008

You can read my latest article on xtri here.

jd

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Kristy Gough

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

Kristy Gough was tragically killed this past weekend on a training ride in Northern California. You can read the specifics on xtri.com here: http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=4538&CAT=24&xref=xx

The photo above was taken in 2004 in Kona, Hawaii; probably 2.5 weeks before Kristy went on to be the Top Female Amateur in Kona. I met her at Epic Kona that year and trained with her (and others) for the three weeks preceding the race. I have not seen her since those three weeks, but I still remember her well. I remember her personality and character more than her athleticism, which is a great sign considering how accomplished she was athletically.

Rest in Peace Kristy.

JD

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Solvang Day Five and Epilogue

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

I’m back in Boulder on this Tuesday morning, but I still never recapped the final day of the camp before leaving Southern California. It was a day (and camp) to remember.

The final day was scheduled to be a handicapped race that included the entire camp; both coaches and campers (65 folks). The A,B,C and D groups were divided even further so that we had a D1 and D2 group, C1 and C2, etc. This amounted to 8 groups rolling out across a 16 minute window. Mark P, Gordo, Mat, Gardie, Riley, Stan, and I were in the final group.
The entire camp had a neutral rollout for about 25 miles to the starting point for the race. The race course was a 28 mile out-and-back that had three climbs in either direction (six total) mixed with flats and wind (turnaround was at the Pacific Ocean).

All groups were divided by two minutes except for the two A groups that only had one minute between them. The first A group had Robbie Ventura, Captain Morgan (aka Strong Rob), and Brian Hass so it was hardly ’slower’ than our group; it mostly depended on who was going to be doing the work.

Our group started out like the race was going to last about 28 seconds, and not 28 miles. The pace was fast and hard and it took a few minutes for us to calm each other down. Fortunately we hit a climb and the speed settled and our pace did as well.

Except for Gordo.
He started to slowly pull away and we were rather confused as to why he was riding up the road. Soon enough we realized that he was using the first climb to bridge to the first A group before they started descending. He managed to do so and it was a pretty clever move. Once our group ascended the summut we started bombing down the descent to try and take time out of A1. Unfortunately we must have been going too quickly because Mat was out in a tigh switchback (pic afterwards above) and we lost him.

We lost a bit of the wind in our sails at this point and we slowed up to make sure he was alright. We got word that he stood right up and was going to be ok so we regrouped and pushed on. From there we pushed the pace to the turnaround where another crash had dissolved Gordo’s group and he was forced to ride solo. G mananed to link up with Jason Shizzler so he had one other rider to work with to the finish line. At this point we had four folks left: Mark P, Gardie, Riley, and myself, but we still had a good gap to make up and not many miles to do it.

It was really fun to see the team dynamics over the next 14 miles. We stayed together on the climbs to make sure we all summitted together and then Riley and Mark P would push the pace in the flats and downhills. This pattern was bringing us closer and closer to the two riders up the road. Gordo had no choice but to do all the pulling at this point so Shizzler was in a great position to be first to the line.

With 2K to go we were getting closer and with less than 500 meters to go our group caught Jason and Gordo and Gardie sent Riley up the road to duke it out for the finish. Riley was out-sprinted by Jason, but I think we all felt a great deal of satisfaction to have done everything we could to be in it in the end. I think all of us (except maybe Gardie) had moments where we felt we could no longer contribute, but we held each other together all the way to the finish.

The photo above Mat is the four of us after this finish. Nice country in the background, huh?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Vision Quest Camp in Solvang was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot about myself and about how a camp and its dynamics can bring so much out of its participants. Regardless of ability, everyone had moments in the week where they reached into their reserve and pushed the ceilings the place on themselves a little furhter into the sky. I am pretty certain that Mat is going to come back to Boulder with more confidence in his riding and ability. I don’t know every cyclist at the camp, but I know that he stepped it up like few I have ever seen.

Another component of the camp that will stick with me many years into the future was the presence of a guy named Gardoe Jackson. Gardie is a functional strength trainer out of Park City, Utah who is also a Cat 1 cyclist and one of the top 50 cross country skiers in the country.

He is also 40 years old and was easily the strongest amigo at the camp.

His athleticism was impressive, but his positive attitude and impact on others is what is going to last with me. Instead of internalizing his strengths, he spread it out to everyone around him and the entire camp became stronger, smarter, and more positive. I hope I can do the same for others one day when given similar oppurtunities.

Thanks to all the support and coaches in Solcang. I hope to hang with the VQ crew again in the years to come.

cheers,

jd

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Solvang Day Four

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

The picture above is Mark P rocking out with syrup on his fruit. The energy he got from that sugar would come back to haunt me later that day.

I apologize for not writing this sooner, but the last couple days served up a lot of training and I found myself with little down time as well. At any rate….

Day four was meant to be a “Submax” 100-mile ride. Vision Quest defines Submax as the first break point above baseline (in terms of lactate) which equates to a blend of steady to moderately hard intensity in EC’s terms.

Given the challenge of the day the triathlon group opted for a pre, as oppposed to post, ride swim to get that out of the way. Gordo and I swam 24 x 100 on a 1:30,25,20,15 pattern and I was happy to see that the fatigue was not wearing away at my swim abilities too dramatically. After the swim was completed we headed back to the hotel to get some breakfast in before the ride. Mark P dominated the syrup so it forced me take a photo to remember the day.

The route for the day was a mix of rolling and flat terrain, but the only thing on our mind at the start was the Mile 20 sprint marked with an orange cone 2K out. After getting outworked in the previous day’s sprint I was hoping to get a little redemption. My legs felt pretty foul for the first 30 minutes of the day, but they slowly came around as we warmed up.

Things began to ramp up before the 2K-to-go point and I was looking forward to duking it out with the folks around me. I felt great going into the final 500 meters, but my position was poor and I found myself drilling it in the end to try and take 3rd place from Gordo, but I missed it by a hair once again. Oh well.

After regrouping we headed along on our route and everything was going nicely as we approached the base of a steep climb. At the base of the climb we went over a cattle guard and I had the misfortune of dropping a water bottle. Given my thoughts on ‘treading lightly’ I immediately swung around and went back for it. My conscience was clear, but so was the group at this point. I had to make a monster effort to try and bridge back up. I had not closed the gap by the time the summit arrived and it forced me to continue to work the descent and again in the flats that followed. When I finally made it back I was DONE. We rolled on, but I was never the same and when Mark P picked it up in the final 20K I was absolutely miserable. Mat had missed the group somewhere in those last 20K so I dropped back and rode steadily into town with him.

After getting back into town I ventured out for a few more easy miles with Mark P and Dan. Following that I ran 10K+ off the bike and actually felt like a million bucks. Always intersting how that works some days.

And so day four was complete. Seven hours in the bank.

Day Five was a handicapped race that served up plenty of excitement so tune in again to read up on that.

jd

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