IMLP Multisports Camp report

Triathlon Forum
1

I just got back from the IMLP multisports camp I thought I would give some impressions.

Placid Thoughts: I have never been to Placid, but having heard tons of good things about it I was really skeptical. It does live up to its hype. A very beautiful area with a lot of history and tons of different outdoor activities. If I lived closer I would definitely look towards purchasing a cabin and taking up a dozen more hobbies.

Mirror Lake/swim: I LOVE the yellow cable. I am not a straight swimmer so the yellow line for the second loop will be a lifesaver. In the first loop I will be surrounded so the chance of getting “lost” is minimized. The water temps were comfortable even without a wetsuit and with the wetsuit the swim was perfect. They will be pulling up the swim course in the next couple of weeks because of kayak/canoe races, but then they will put it back down.

Keene descent/bike: I am a scaredy biker! The descent is not very technical, but I was white-knuckeling and braking the whole way down. I know – braking = BAD, but 45mph with braking is scary enough. I am so impressed with the fearless among us. Based on riding both loop minus the second out-and-back I personally expect a similar bike split to IMFL06. Kind of a strange thought, but that is what my average mph statistics suggest. Note: I could be more bike fit than November.

Camp thoughts: Friday(started at noon): introductions, ride to pool(10miles), swim drills(3,200m), ride from pool(10miles), nutrition lecture Saturday: bike(99 miles), transition run(3miles), training/taper lecture, open water swim(2,900m), IM mentality lecture Sunday(ended at noon): run(13.1miles), race day walkthrough Great weather it was spitting a little on Saturday during the course bike, but overall not bad at all. Food was much better than I expected. When I heard buffet I did not expect much, but Charlie’s attached to the Broken Arrow was very good. They had an upstairs room just for us and the entrees were all quite good including a nice medium-rare tuna. Broken Arrow was a great location and I had the best room #115. From the patio attached to my room I was 50 feet from the water and a 500m swim from the swim start. SAG support on the bike and run was a very good with tons of gatorade and clif products. The ride was a non-drop so even people who fell off the back end(me) had somebody to ride with. The pros were accessible and generally very friendly. One of the pros is going to be the head referee this year at IMLP so you get “penalty philosophy” straight from the horse’s mouth. The other campers were great. Everybody held their type-A personality in check and I did not encounter a single “i’m better than you”. The RD for IMLP showed up and answered questions.

Camp concerns: I wished the swim on Friday would have been in Mirror Lake. To drive 1,000 miles each way and pool swim is really stupid. I came to preview the course and that is not a pool swim. I understand it is a labeled as a training camp, but I have already done 318 days of training for IMLP so for me this just is a course/event preview. Spend the time on the course or in the transition areas, because that is where the “magic” happens. Pros are very different from myself. I asked a question regarding the mental aspects of the run and did not get a useful answer. I don’t think pros who are racing for the win can relate to MOP age-groupers who are racing for a PR or racing to test their personal limits.

Overall I would do this camp as a preview to the venue, but once I have done the event I don’t think I would repeat the camp.

2

Excellent report. My goal is to do IMLP next year and I had planned on attending the Multisports camp. I have used Multisports on-line program for IMWI 2006 and this year. (Did not do the IMWI camp b/c I live in WI and have regular access to the course). I think the coaches are incredible and the plan is fantastic. Glad to hear the positive comments regarding the camp.

Thanks.

3

Great report and thanks for the LP info. I’m headed up there this weekend to check it all out for the first time in prep for IMLP. You mentioned that they’re “pulling up the swim course” - do you just mean removing the yellow cable? Any idea when that’s supposed to happen?

4

“I wished the swim on Friday would have been in Mirror Lake. To drive 1,000 miles each way and pool swim is really stupid. I came to preview the course and that is not a pool swim.”

I think the theory is to improve your stroke in the pool, hopefully give you a little speed, and give you a work out that they think will be beneficial for the last part of your training. An OW swim is an OW swim…

5

“I wished the swim on Friday would have been in Mirror Lake. To drive 1,000 miles each way and pool swim is really stupid. I came to preview the course and that is not a pool swim.”

I think the theory is to improve your stroke in the pool, hopefully give you a little speed, and give you a work out that they think will be beneficial for the last part of your training. An OW swim is an OW swim…

They did not talk stroke mechanics just sets of 100-200-400 yards at different intensities.

Do you really believe an OW swim is an OW swim? I don’t.

Gulf of Mexico(IMFL) vs. Lake Michigan vs. Mirror Lake. The course shape, n-s orientation, landmarks, predominant wind direction, water “clearness”, and the swells/waves change a lot from body to body.

6

If you chose to come up to LP this Friday you could have swam openwater for free during our Epicman workout (3K swim-180K bike-21.1K run).

Dev

7

“Do you really believe an OW swim is an OW swim? I don’t.”

Yeah, that was an overstatement on my behalf - I was headed out the door and shorthanded the response. But most of what you list can be determined from shore pretty quickly and water conditions are day specific. The day or so before the race in a practice swim is more than sufficient. I rather have Roch and Michael Collins up on deck watching and coaching 60 days before the race. Best.

8

If you chose to come up to LP this Friday you could have swam openwater for free during our Epicman workout (3K swim-180K bike-21.1K run).

Dev

I am doing Rockman.

Beyond that my company paid for the camp fee. I just had to get myself to Placid and pay for a place to sleep.

9

The day or so before the race in a practice swim is more than sufficient.

I thought the practice swim had another purpose:

The steps of a typical IM trip
#6 Find swim venue. Put wetsuit on, stand around for 15 minutes. Swim 10 minutes, take wetsuit off. Look around to see if you impressed anyone.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=726537

10

I was with the Healthy Results training camp this past weekend, we were at the Golden Arrow as well, I’m happy to say that no fights broke out. My observations are that Heather Fuhr is very small in person and that there were a lot of bright orange Newtons being worn by your group. : )

11

I LOVE the yellow cable. I am not a straight swimmer so the yellow line for the second loop will be a lifesaver. In the first loop I will be surrounded so the chance of getting “lost” is minimized.

what’s the yellow cable, and is it as fun as the black line you usually get to look at for hours and hours and hours?!

12

Thanks for the on the camp - I’m familiar with LP but it’s great to hear how a camp on a course I know went.

13

I LOVE the yellow cable. I am not a straight swimmer so the yellow line for the second loop will be a lifesaver. In the first loop I will be surrounded so the chance of getting “lost” is minimized.

what’s the yellow cable, and is it as fun as the black line you usually get to look at for hours and hours and hours?!

The buoys for the swim course are every 25 yards or so attached by a yellow cable anchored at the ends to the lakebed.

At the corners the cable color changes to green so you know it is time to turn.

I am not great at sighting so looking down and to my left at the yellow cable is a great help.

14

Ohhh. Hmmm.
Does that cable prevent you from swimming an inside line?

15

No, it’s well under water.

16

As Roch indicated, the purpose of the pool swim was to show us what IM swim training should include, as well as for them to observe our stroke and make corrections, which did happen to several people in our group.

Also, re: the mental question - Paula’s answer to you was right on point about the mental differences between training & racing!

Overall, an amazing camp! When else do you have the opportunity to ride with such an illustrious group? And their patience, kindness and respect to all the campers was truly great to see.

17

As Roch indicated, the purpose of the pool swim was to show us what IM swim training should include, as well as for them to observe our stroke and make corrections, which did happen to several people in our group.

Also, re: the mental question - Paula’s answer to you was right on point about the mental differences between training & racing!

Overall, an amazing camp! When else do you have the opportunity to ride with such an illustrious group? And their patience, kindness and respect to all the campers was truly great to see.

I did not hear any feedback on stroke and I definitely have a broken stroke. To me the swim was a clusterf*ck as we self-seeded. I got thrown into a fast lane, because a lot of people sandbagged. Here is how I would describe the swim – swim a set, non-useful times are given, lanes get rebalanced, repeat. I am glad somebody got something from the swim, because if I had known that is what it would be I would have done a mirror lake swim and a bike/run.

I guess I still don’t understand the answer. All I know is that I look at my swim and bike times and think that those are the best I can do given my training. On the run I don’t feel that and not because I blow all my energy on the bike, but more that mentally I am tired/lazy on the run. For me this is common from sprint up to IM. I was looking for an answer and I felt she blew off my question. Maybe I rubbed her wrong or her personality is not conducive to my questions. I asked her a simple question “Is the run course marked?” on Sunday and got another terse/non-helpful answer.

18

Strange - Paula was great! And her answer was designed to get you to analyze what you are doing in training and why is would feel differently in racing. It is your effort afterall - if you feel that you slack in the run during a race, are you giving your best effort in training or do you also ‘slack’ in training, as you said, saving it for your race day?

She did mention a number times that there is ‘no magic bullet’ or an easy answer - just training and the ability to push yourself in training to race more effectively.

19

Strange - Paula was great! And her answer was designed to get you to analyze what you are doing in training and why is would feel differently in racing. It is your effort afterall - if you feel that you slack in the run during a race, are you giving your best effort in training or do you also ‘slack’ in training, as you said, saving it for your race day?

I did not expect a silver bullet just something more than what seemed a flippant response.

Here is a quick summary of training and intensity – note: this should NOT be considered model training, just how I train:
Swim – laps with drills interspersed ALL at a comfortable pace. 90% of the sessions are 1,500m total. – 2-3 days/week
Bike – I choose a route based on schedule and traffic and bike at IM pace, but definitely not distance. Any pace or heart rate changes are due only to wind and/or hills – 2 days/week.
Run – varying distances based on schedule. Pace is based on distance with some tempo runs. Race throughout the year in distances from 5K to marathon. – 5-7 days/week

My run workouts are by far the MOST directed, MOST intense, and even have easy runs for recovery.

Based on my training I understand why I swim slowly, bike fairly well, but I don’t understand why I tri-run slowly.

I asked the question and her answer was a dead-end for me.

20

She did mention a number times that there is ‘no magic bullet’

No Magic Bullet? Then how do you make salsa in under 7 seconds?

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