Tri Alliance athletes kick start their winter campaign

“Compromise is the cancer to success” 
If you make ‘excuses’ why you shouldn’t get out of bed; decide to hit snooze instead of hitting the pool or skip an important session to watch the footy, then you are compromising the success you could achieve. And that success for our athletes is being the best triathletes they can be. 

This quote was used by VIS Assistant Coach and EnduranceTeam.net Head Coach Jarrod Evans at our Annual Winter Training Camp held in Lorne over the Queens Birthday Long Weekend. A powerful quote that was drawn upon by athletes over the weekend. In it’s 12th concecutive year, this camp was again a huge success with 61 athletes heading down the Great Ocean Road to train and learn everything they could about triathlon and making themselves better athletes – both physically and mentally. This camp helped provide them with the tools, knowledge and expertise to guide them in training and help them work towards their goals this year and beyond.

DAY 1 – Friday 8 June
The camp kicked off Friday lunchtime with an easy 1.5hour ride to Kennett River and return. The sun was sunshing on our backs and athletes were excited about the weekend of training ahead. After lunch and into the evening more athletes continued arriving at the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club – which was to be our home for the next 4 days. An easy hour run through the ‘mountain to surf’ trail and athletes had their first taste of ‘icing their legs’ in the frosty ocean at Lorne. A few braves souls including Evalin, Jo and Steve went all out and enjoyed a cold swim, while the rest of us numbed ourselves from the waist down to help aid recovery. Quick hot showers and we headed to the Lorne Hotel for our first of 3 bigfeeds there for the weekend.
Following dinner our first Camp Meeting set out the plans for the weekend and athletes received their awesome training packs packed full of goodies thanks to our partners GIANT Bicycles, Shots Sports Nutrition, ASCEND Proven Sports Protein and Rocket Science Sports. Then early to bed in preparation for the day to come.

DAY 2 – Saturday 9 June
The day kicked off bright and early and on first inspection of the weather we knew we were in for a wet ride. So athletes prepped themselves with the works including booties, gloves and jackets in a hope for staying dry for as long as possible. Our 60 athletes headed off in 4 ride groups and began their 2-4hour ride along the Great Ocean Road.Our beginner riders were treated with the luxury of having VIS Coach Jarrod Evans, which they learnt some valuable riding tips to implement. They were all pretty enthused by they time they arrived back to ‘base camp’ to then continue their learning from Anthony from the BikeLab who showed them the skills of tyre changing. We’re glad to report that all passed the test! 🙂
Next for a sit down with VIS Coach Jarrod Evans, on training smart and listening to coaches to gain the most from your training. The amount of knowledge and expertise in this guys head is mind blowing, our athletes didn’t even want to break for lunch!
After lunch Lakeside Sports Medicince Centre educated athletes around over use injuries and how core stability and pilates can help you get the most out of your body.
Then a group of brave athletes also headed out in the surf for the traditional Pier to Pub Swim in the chilly ocean waters.
Late afternoon athletes headed out for their long endurance run over some challenging terrain including a repeat of yesterday’s tough hill climbs and then it was ice, shower and straight to the Pub for dinner.
A group of our short course athletes were treated with a special chat over dinner with Jarrod Evans, chewing his ear off about racing and training. Jarrod spoke that much that he barely got to eat his dinner (not that our athletes noticed!) 🙂
An early bed and getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow.

DAY 3 – Sunday 10 June
When the alarm goes off it is tempting to hit snooze, but as soon as one athlete rises, the rest have no choice. So up and straight into it preparing for another big days training starting with our biggest ride of the weekend. We were ever hopeful that the rain overnight had cleared, but luck wasn’t on our side as the wet weather gear got a run for the second day in a row. Athletes headed off on their 60-130km rides including a couple of repeats of the Benwarrin Climb. A nice 11km climb out of Lorne. And yep it does hurt just as much the second time as the first! Hats off to the boys who willed themselves up the climb for a second time in the one ride!
Back just in time to ice the legs as lunch was being layed out and another great workshop from Jarrod. He let us in on a few of his secrets that got Erin Densham and Brendan Sexton into this years Olympics – so athletes were pretty excited about how they can implement into their training!
The afternoon continued with a workshop from The Performance and Sports Psychology Clinic on how Sports Psychology techniques can improve your performance. A great workshop that had our athletes thinking. And Jarrod spoke to athletes about Body Composition / Skinfolds and how body fat percentage can be one of the 1%ers to help you reach your full potential. Some athletes were pleasently surprised with their results and others with ways on how they can improve. A very educational afternoon!
But before athletes could get time to lay their heads down for a rest they doned their runners and head back into the hills for another long endurance run. Some athletes feeling the previous days training and others feeling like they could conquere the world!
Over dinner it was our Long Course Athletes who got the chance to chat to Jarrod and the questions came thick and fast. Thankfully one of his top Long Course athletes Dieter was there to save Jarrod from starvation and took the reins for a few minutes. (It’s amazing how quickly you can eat a chicken parma!)
Knowing there was only half a day left of training, a few athletes choose to enjoy a nice red wine over dinner, and 6 bottles later realised it was probably best to head home. Unfortunately for Steve that was after shut out at the Surf Club and he was left out in the cold until someone could save him. (Sorry Steve!) 🙂

DAY 4 – Monday 11 June
Athletes were treated with an extra half an hour sleep-in on their last day and it was definately taken advantage of! Most athletes were feeling the effects of the last few days of training, the normal morning chit chat was a little quieter, the eyes a little baggier, the clothes a little dirtier and did we mention the smell out of the boys dorms? But non-the-less, the enthusiasm was still there and the SUN was shining! So a great day to hit the road for our last ride. We were treated with a magnificent sunrise and although the air was brisk, everyone enjoyed the last ride of the camp.
Following the ride athletes prepared for our Annual Aquathon Championships of the World! This year we had a teams format with each team of 3 having to complete an aquathon of 3 x 100m swim, 100m beach run. The tactics were fierce with teams working on a strategy that would see them across the line first to win the prize money. Other awards up for grabs was the Ironjock Award – first non-wetsuit team, and best dressed award.  
The Aquathon is a fun way to finish off the weekend with a little team bonding, active recovery and a little healthy competition. Congratulations to our winners of the day:
1st – Tim Grant, Marina Jurjevic and Greg Porter. Considering Tim assisted with picking the teams we wonder if their was a little bias here??? hmmmm…
2nd – The ‘Ironjocks’ Brianna Scarlett, Des Minton and John Giordano
3rd  – Richard Sekesan, Lance Willie and Matt Collyer
Wooden Spoon – Anthony Churchward, Emma Oliver and Jill Sultan
Best dressed – Matt Collyer, how could you go past this lovely looking specimen! Well done also to Tim Grant in his yellow wig (how it stayed on we have no idea!) and Morris Caleca decked out in floaties and wasn’t even swimming! 🙂

Well done to everyone for their participation. And for their efforts, athletes were treated with an all you can eat gourmet BBQ on the decks of the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club, what a great way to finish off a fantastic Winter Training Camp!

Camp Stats….
Over the camp, athletes covered a total of:

• 120-350km on the bike
• 10-40km of running
• Pier to Pub 1.5km Swim
• 5 ice baths in the ocean
• More hot showers than one would normally have in a whole week
• 3 huge pub meals and countless garlic and herb cob loafs
• Copious amounts of SHOTZ gels and Bars
• And more ASCEND protein shakers than a weight lifter

What our athletes said…

• “I’d just like to say a massive thanks again for an awesome weekend. The camp really lived up to the hype. I look forward to the other upcoming camps this season.”
• “Thanks so much for the great camp! I had a fantastic time training!”
• “A huge THANK YOU for all your efforts in running and organising this weekend!
• “I had a great time – everyone’s been really friendly and am finally getting a hold of names! Not to mention of course the beautiful rides and runs – what a great location! I am really looking forward to training with you guys this year – bring it on!!”
• “Thankyou so much for everything. I have learned more in 3 days than I have in my years of self training, can’t want for more!!”
• “Thank you so much for the wonderful camp you and the team organised. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed my time with everyone there. It was actually a real downer to drive home!”
• “Thankyou so much for a greatly organised camp over the weekend, I feel invinsible!”
• “Best. Lorne. Camp. EVER!”

Thanks…..
Big thanks to every athlete who attended the camp – you guys were fantastic, your enthusiasm and participation in everything that was thrown at you was pleasing and our Coaches couldn’t be happier.  A huge thanks also goes to our Partners in helping make the camp educational and informative:

• Lakeside Sports Medicine Centre – Khahn, Tara & Justin
• BikeLab – Anthony & Ashley
• VIS Assistant Coach – Jarrod Evans
• GIANT Bicycles
• Shots Sports Nutrition
• ASCEND Proven Sports Protein
• Rocket Science Sports

And thanks again to Phil and Marcelle from the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club for their hard work in ensuring our stay went without a hitch. Next time we will ensure we keep Geoff out of the kitchen after a few reds! 😉

See you all again next year!
Team Tri Alliance

CLICK HERE to view a selection of pictures from the camp

Our next Training Camp: 3-5 August 2012.