Lititz Training Camp Day #3

After 11+ hours on the saddle and ~14 hours of training in 2 days, the focus of the day was on the run, without disregarding the swim and bike.

Swim
We swam 4,050 yards in the morning with some fun exercises in the water, chasing each other in a 12x200 drill. 1 lead setting up the pace, 1 follower, and 1 chaser who started 10" behind. The objective was for the chaser to catch and draft. Each one had to do it 4 times. On the last set, Matt challenged me to not only catch them, but also passed them. I gave it all I had and did pass them, at the expense of the rest of the swim that wasn't pretty for me. Oh, and obviously it was chaos in the lane. Jared did not know what was going on when I tried passing him (he was in the lead), and it wasn't pretty when I passed Matt...but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Bike
We rode 56 miles and climbed 2,700 feet. This ride was amazing. It was the first ride of the season wearing short sleeves and bib shorts, no shoe or toe covers, and no gloves! Feeling the air on the skin was great, and though we rode and trained a lot in the last 2 days, we had the legs to go at it in the last 6-7 miles, averaging 26-29 mph, each one of us taking relay and pulling the group. Big Kudos to Jared who rode his roadie the entire weekend. It felt like we were riding a breakaway the whole ride. Not necessarily with the intensity, but in the cohesion that we showed, taking nice and seamless relays, up and down the hills on, again, empty and smooth roads. We all agreed that it was the best ride of the camp so far.

               

Run
Oh boy! on the menu: 4-mile run at high tempo, followed by a 10x1-mile repeat. Amazing! We had a great first run, with high intensity, focus, and motivation. We were all in it to win it, with a unique objective of bringing quality to this training session. I think we achieved just that on the 4-mile run.

The 10 x-mile repeat was physically and mentally tough. It is a training exercise that Jared picked up from one of the pro tri team. The idea was to run 1 mile, rest 1 mile, increasing the pace every interval. We changed it up a bit and did 1mile run, 5 min rest in between.
Running with Matt and Jared was a unique and invaluable experience. Both have PRs on the half marathon around 1:16 (and it may be faster), when mine barely breaks 1:20, so I knew it would be a great learning experience.
They showed consistency and determination to get those miles in with high quality. This exercise not only puts you through 10 miles after a long day of training, but it also challenges your ability to stay focus, your mental strength. I think it ended up being a 1h30 run (excl. the 4-mile run). The last 3 repeats were tough. We gradually increased the pace to reach what was a faster than race pace for me on mile 9 and 10. Tough, but GREAT! Legs are sore, but this training was very good as it boosted my confidence.