Ironman Camp Day 1

I'm in triathlete heaven :)

As a major information junkie it turns out I'm extremely well informed and in many ways more prepared than at least 20% of the people here which totally blew me away.

Headed into CDA this morning for Starbucks and to buy a box of Uncrustables then got registered. Totally fun schwag including an Ironman bag, Multisports Visor, T-Shirt, water bottle, GU and various other things.

Lots of talent coaching the camp too. Heather Fuhr, Paul Huddle, Roch Frey, Paula Newby Fraser, Michael Lovato, Steve Katai, Jimmie Ricitello and a few others.

We introduced ourselves, and then broke into 2 groups for the swim.

I was in group 2 so we hug out for awhile before getting into our biking clothes and heading out to ride the 9 miles to the pool. It was so interesting to see what types of bikes were here and what kind of gear everyone had.

I made friends with several girls right away who were doing their first Ironman and so we rode together. There was a major headwind on the trail heading out and we were asked not to ride in our aerobars which basically made me like a windsock. I rode pretty close to the back of the group but felt pretty good in spite of the wind.

Got to the pool and changed into our swim gear. We all had caps with our names on it which was nice cause it helped me to learn peoples names. Got into the pool and divided into lanes based on our projected IM swim time. I got into the slowest lane but wasn't the slowest - WOO HOO!!!

We tried out these cool pace things that you put in your swim cap and they beep at you and you stroke off the beeps. I totally loved it! Will definitely be buying one. Did an easy warm up then a bunch of 50s to set our pace timers and see ourselves in the lane. I felt great and the interesting thing for me was that while I'm not fast I am completely consistent. I caught up to the person in front of me easily and just relaxed and sat on her feet. The first part of the workout helped me work on drafting which I am not that good at.

Started swimming sets of 400 then 4x100 intervals then 400 etc. Our lane did a few less yards then the first lane cause we were slower but all told I ended up with just under 3000 yards and felt great the whole time. Came out of the water, showered and got back on our bikes.

Headwind turned to a tailwind and negative split the way back.

After getting back into our street clothes, we spent the next few hours talking about nutrition, pre-race, during, after. What types of nutrition plans we were using (if we had one - a lot of people don't)? How many calories can we absorb per hour? Troubleshooting in the case of yarping and other GI issues.

Lots of fun and then we had a good dinner and got assigned into our biking groups for tomorrow. I'm in the first group but I suspect I'll either have a very relaxed ride with my group or decide to move up to the 2nd group since we are grouped into 6 groups based again on projected IM time. I projected between a 7 and 7.5 hour split so I'm in the 7.5 hour group. Based on today's ride we'll see but I think a lot of people seeded themselves agressively.

I'm having a ton of fun and getting to share information, experience and make new friends who are just as excited, nervous and crazy about Ironman as me.

Off to mix my bottles and get some sleep before a busy day tomorrow.

I'm sooooooo excited to finally see the new bike course. We're doing a 5 hour ride so they're expecting our group to do about 75 miles and at least one complete loop with some of the extra hills which I'm hoping we do.

More from camp tomorrow :)