Swim Focus

It is time to start Feeling Water! M

Vineman In The Books!

What a Special Day for nine of HPR athletes and their friends and family to have experienced! The swim was enjoyable for everyone and transitions seamless. The bike course was beautiful and well designed for spectators. Our support was pro level! This was one of my many proud moments on the day.

Spectating is hard and most times stressful, but our family and friends were as interested in seeing us as they were seeing the race for themselves. Your cheers and effort gave all of us energy and strength. Thank you!

The run is the last test of mental/physical strength of the day. Seeing each one of the athletes supporting each other with a smile and doing so purpose to their stride was the proudest moment for me. Smiles prevailed and fun was had by each athlete. Well done!

A few Vineman Pictures:

Vineman Full & Half

I'm very proud of my 9 teammates/athletes that have trained for this Saturday's Vineman Full/Half Iron races. They have all put in the training time, mental prep work, sorting of nutrition and equally had fun for the past 12 weeks. We will show up on race day with "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, and we Can't lose.

Here are a few pictures of race prep:

Racing with My Athletes/Teammates

I was at the Rev3 event this past weekend and had another awesome opportunity to race with a few of my coached athletes/teammates. Kelly competed in the Olympic distance race getting ready for her Full Iron later in the summer. Her effort was hard for this race, this means she would produce snot, spit and tears along with managing piercing pain throughout the race.

Kelly did just that, and had a true test with an outstanding experience! She was not alone, Tom and Aaron had a great celebration of their fitness during their Half Ironman race and had to dig deep within themselves to fine more strength. I started the race with Aaron's wave and tread water for 4min until Tom's wave went off.

I swam with Tom, more for support and direction than for pace. He is a much fitter swimmer which help with his bike and run smack down he puts in once on land. Tom had another podium finish with 2nd in his division.

I biked at IM pace for my own test of the day and then hooked up with Aaron for the run. His goal was to PR his run time and overall Half Ironman time. Having the only half to compare to (Panama City, FLAT) and because of the conditions of the day, the climbing on the bike and run this would be a true test of his training over the past five months.

We locked in on an 8:40 per mile pace and held this for 9 miles of the run. The hills were taking there toll on both of us, but he was determined to PR. With a little encouragement he ran himself into a PR of 5 hours 45 minutes for the half (15min PR) and a run split of 1 hour 58 minutes (16min PR).

I believe the greatest results of anything you put yourself through is measured in personal experience. Many athletes including professionals chase the timed or placed result and over look the value in the experience of the test/race. Racing/Coaching along side of an athlete during their event not only is an honor, but it makes me a better coach.

Thank you HPR Athletes!

After Camp Life!

Athletes/Campers,
Traveling home is always tough. You battle with yourself in your head/heart because we have gotten to be the athlete within and yet we love our life back home. As a coach at this camp, I was inspired by those digging deep to complete the training session and yet after the completion, wanting more.

There were a few with doubt and even fewer that rested on their achievements. Training camps in all sports teach strengths and weaknesses within. All of you earned your rest this week and will see the dividends of your work in a few weeks. Congratulations!

Build 1 next week and plan on shaking a few of those weaknesses... Nine weeks to the first Half Iron of the season!

Camp Season!

Being a part of an athlete's achievements is very rewarding as a coach/facilitator. Here are a few pics of some athlete's that will achieve much and have fun doing it.

Swim Focus

This week and next the team is doing its first of three two week block called Swim Focus. This block will have 5-6 scheduled swims per week with an average of 2200 per swim session. Here is an example of a perfect free style catch:


You can see more examples at www.swim.ee and go to videos or just click the link.

Brick Work for HPR Columbus

HPR Columbus kicked off the new year with a Brick Weekend of training that most would say is Crazy A-- Sh--! I once read that you can do as much base training in a day that you want. So I put team HPR Columbus through the test. They have been training since Nov 1, 2010 for six days per week and during build weeks up to 12 hours.

Here is what the four days looked like:

Thursday PM
50min Run with 5 x 30sec Hills in the middle

Friday AM
60min Drill Swim Set
115min Biking on Trainer

Saturday AM into PM
80min Bike on Trainer
15min Run
65min Bike on Trainer
15min Run
50min Bike on Trainer
15min Run
45min Bike on Trainer
15min Run

Sunday AM
120min Run on a flat Snowy Trail
30min Bike on Trainer (small ring recovery spin)

We most definitely suffered together and worked through a lot physically and mentally as individuals. I'm very proud of my athletes and their accomplishments this past weekend. Looking forward to next week's recovery schedule!

Scull Swim Drill

We had a question last night at the bike about a swim drill called sculling. We do the front or middle not the back. Click on sculling and watch.