Mussel, Musselman (in training)

Sunrise over Seneca Lake

This past weekend was my Musselman training camp. The camp was run by two of Joe Friel's Ultrafit coaches - Doug Bush of http://www.endurancefactor.com and Patrick McCrann of http://performancetrainingsystems.com/. Since I wanted to pre-ride the course anyway, I figured it was a great opportunity to see the course and learn from the coaches at the same time.

I arrived in Geneva Thursday night. The camp didn't start until Friday at noon, so it gave me some time to explore the place on my own. Friday morning, I woke up early, and by 10:30am I had eaten breakfast, drove (and videotaped) the run course, and did a 21 mile out and back ride on the start of the bike course. How come I can't be that productive on a work day??? LOL! I checked out of the hotel, stopped at the Chamber of Commerce to inquire about restaurants that could accommodate our big WW group in July, grabbed some lunch, and found the meeting place around noon.

"Musselcamp Central" was a residential house on the Hobart College campus. It was a lot like a fraternity house, with separate bedrooms, a huge central living room area, and a big kitchen on the lower level. Most of the group was staying at the house (a bargain at only $25/night!). There were only 6 of us campers, which made for a great coach-to-participant ratio. After a brief introductory meeting and an overview of the weekend schedule, it was off to the pool for the first activity - the swim clinic.

Coach Patrick ran the swim clinic. After some swim warmup and an oppportunity to watch everyone swim, we started with some body position drills. It was interesting to see how your movements affected your balance and body position in the water, especially how lifting your head to sight or breathe causes the rest of your body to sink. It was also interesting to see how some of the guys sank like rocks as soon as they lifted their head up! (In contrast, I am about as buoyant as you can get - probably due to the large flotation devices known as my thighs and rear end!) Underwater videotaping was part of the clinic, so the instruction continued for the group while we each got our swimming videotaped individually. The clinic ended with some tips and drills for sighting while open water swimming.

While I was swimming, Coach Patrick pointed out that I was keeping my hand too high after it entered the water, making it difficult for me to get a good catch and keep my elbow up. At first I didn't get what he was saying, but after I corrected it (or tried to, at least!), I was amazed at what a difference it made! My stroke felt more relaxed, and I'm pretty sure I was faster. We reviewed the underwater video after we got back to the house, and it really showed what Patrick was talking about. My hand would enter the water, and then go up (towards the surface of the water) as it extended forward. I didn't like much of what I saw on the underwater video (I was afraid I would be too fixated on how fat I looked, but really I was fixated on how bad my stroke looked!), but now I know what I need to work on.

For dinner that night, we headed to an Italian place recommended by Jeff Henderson, the race director. Turns out "Italian" really meant mostly pizza, which wasn't really what we were all after, so we decided to head Port's, which was one of the restaurants recommended by the woman at the Chamber of Commerce. After a brief wait to see if they actually had a place to put our reservation-less group of 7, we finally got to eat a terrific meal. (Definitely a recommended group dinner spot for race weekend!)

There was talk of renting a movie after dinner, but it didn't take too long to figure out that nobody would be awake that long! So it was off to bed so we could all be rested for Saturday's bike ride.

The group met up at 8:30am (changed from the original plan of 7am due to the chilly temperatures), although it was probably closer to 9am before we actually started riding. We rode first into the park to look at the swim area and the transition area. I figured out why the distances on the bike cue sheet didn't make sense when I was in the park on Friday morning - the start of the bike course actually goes across a grassy area and through a gate in the fence to get to the road. According to Jeff H., the grass will be covered with indoor/outdoor carpeting (totally rideable), and any low spots in the grass will be leveled with dirt before the carpet is put down.

Coaches Patrick McCrann and Doug Bush

The bike course was described as "rolling hills", but I didn't know if they would really be "rolling" to those of us from flatland, or simply "hills". Pre-riding the bike course was the real reason I went to the camp in the first place, so I was really looking forward to the ride. This would also be my longest ride yet this season (previous long ride was only 48 miles). And it was a really windy day. So between the hills, the distance and the wind, this would be a bit of a test for me.

Well, I'm happy to report that "rolling hills" is an accurate description of the course. The most challenging sections of the course were the uphill stretch on Lodi Station Rd. beforethe turn onto Hwy 414 (Mile 21-22 or so), and the 8 mile stretch on Canoga Rd heading back towardds Geneva (Mile 44 to 52-ish). The last stretch might not have been so bad if we didn't have a huge headwind the whole way, but it was still generally uphill and it felt it. The one other item of note on the course was at Mile 35 - a really fast downhill on Vineyard that unfortunately ends in a hard left turn onto Hwy 89 - you will definitely need to brake hard here! Road conditions were very good (at least by Michigan standards!) on the whole course, although there is a short gravelly stretch on Kime Rd. between Hwy 96A and East Lake Rd. Still rideable, but rough.

Race Director Jeff Henderson and Musselcamper Chris

It was a chilly and windy ride, but fortunately the rain held off until we were done. The schedule called for a transition run after the ride, but I discovered after I got back from my measly 15 minute run that the rest of the group decided that eating leftover bagels was a much better use of their time. I couldn't really disagree - I've never been so hungry after a ride! Needless to say, dinner was a high priority for our group that night! We cleaned up, got together for a discussion of race pacing, and then it was time for dinner. We ate at the Cobblestone Restaurant (another Chamber of Commerce recommendation) - the food was good, the atmosphere was "intimate" (just like their advertising says!), service was slow enough to be a leisurely meal but not so slow as to be annoying. All in all a good dinner, although the atmosphere of the place did not seem to lend itself to a really big group like we'll have for race weekend.

Sunday morning was our run. Since everyone had different paces and different goals, some people ran solo, and a few went out as a group. I figured nobody was as slow as me, so I ran by myself. My goal was to keep my HR in Z1-2, and I managed to do that, although I walked up several hills to keep my HR in check (Snell Rd, Barracks Rd, the last bit of White Springs Lane, and Saint Clair St). The hill on Barracks Rd (called Poole's dirt road on the cue sheet) is pretty long (5 minute walk up). The parallel section on White Springs Lane was just as big of a downhill! It felt good during my run - we'll see if it feels as good after 56 miles of biking and 8miles of running! I ran most of the course except the out and back section along the lake (8 miles of the 13 mile course).

After the run, we talked about tapering and mental skills, and then it was time for everyone to pack up and head home. I drove another loop of the bike course to videotape it, stopped at Wegman's (fab grocery store!) for a sub and then hit the road for the long trip home. I left Geneva with a familiarity with the course and a few new friendly faces to look for during the race.