Regional Skills / Learning Camps for 2012-13 -- Input Needed

Coach Patrick

Folks, as part of our initiative to get RnP in the field and connecting with the Team (and connecting you with each other), we'll be doing some regional weekend events between November and February of next "season". For background on the planning, read this thread. 

The goal here will be part instruction and part training -- given it will be the winter for most folks, we could see a swim clinic, or an indoor bike session, maybe a run skills clinic. RnP will talk OutSeason, etc. These events could be stand alone or could piggyback on an existing expo or event if that makes sense for timing / participants, etc. Please note these events would be open to the public as well as the Team.

Given we have mutliple rallies and coach supported races and camps already scheduled for the 2013 season, the regions we are looking at are:

• NorthEast (NY on Up & East)
• MidAtlantic (DC / VA)
• MidWest (Chicago)
• South (Texas)
• West (CA somewhere)

How You Can Help

If you live in one of those regions above, please let us know what the options are in terms of events, facilities, etc. If you help us plan it out, we promise we'll get you a hook up of some kind!    Please reply so we can talk about this in the open and then we'll take it off-line in a few....many thanks!!!

~ Patrick

ps - sorry for hi-jacking the General Discussions forum, I just wanted everyone to see this, thanks!! 

Dave Campbell

Texas is Southwest, what about Atlanta for the South. Lots of Triathletes centered around Atlanta. Not sure what the EN presence is around Atlanta?

wareagledusty

X2 for atlanta!  Alternatively Charlotte would be a great SE area as well.  Great pool facilities, good country roads for riding.  Glad to help if I can.

chris malone

Weather is a bit sketchy here (could be 60 and sunny or winter miserable) but I have a very good swim facility nearby, the hurt barn to ride in (can hold about 8-10 with bikes) and/or very, very, good riding in the countryside, along with places quiet places to run, do form running clinics, etc. All 50 miles west of DC off route 66. (Don't tell anyone.)
If we need a meeting room or bigger venue that would be easy to arrange.

Joseph Lombardi

 Lots to choose from in the SE PA/Mid-Southern Jersey/Delaware area to choose from.  Glad to assist.

morpheus

I'm in the burbs of ATL.



Biking: good to great riding most of the year (Late Jan to the beginning of March can be sketchy). Mountains within 90 min. Traffic and commerce thins out a bit outside the perimeter, rolling hills with good roads most everywhere. And we have a rails-to-trails from ATL to Alabama that is about the flattest piece of riding around here.



Running: if you hold 'base' closer in to the city, Columns Drive is popular spot for the In The City cyclists and runners. Relatively flat with some wide trails, if looking to mix it up. Speaking only for my little NE ATL area, I could probably get the OK for us to use the N. Gwinnett HS track. A fall back would be possibly setting something up with my gym, LifeTime, for pool access and there's running options outside that could be used for hills and/or flatter runs (tho not super scenic)



Swimming: Lifetime, possibly. But, preferably, maybe SwimAtlanta or Dynamo would work with us. They have great facilities. I'm sure there'd be some sort of $ to have 15-HoweverMany EN'ers and potential EN'ers show up, but it would be worth it. Out of several pools, a few have the long course setup during particular times.

 

Oh, and it's easy access.  Major interstates piping in from all sides to go with the big airport.





Just giving something to consider. good luck with it.

Scott Alexander

If you want to center a Texas 'camp' around some cycling, there's two pretty big events in the early season:

-Easter Hill Country Tour; 3 days of "hill country", based out of Kerrville TX, on Easter weekend every year (of course)...www.ehct.com

-TX Hell week; 9 days available (2 weekends and the week between), based out of Fredericksburg TX, usually mid-March. Weather can be kinda sketchy, but has always been good for me in years past. http://hellweek.com/texas.html

Don't know about many pools or open water around those areas, but where you can bike you can run also!



I, and my side biz, Golden Adventures, can help secure lodging for participants (and any other EN event).

EDIT: Both Kerrville and Fredericksburg TX are about 90 minutes west of Austin. 5 hour drive to/from Dallas/Ft Worth. I usually drive down to Kville or Fburg at least twice each Spring.

spabblington

Another Atlanta vote!! Not many (none actually) EN'ers in Alabama, but Hotlanta is just a short drive!!

vrk3ds

Ditto on Hotlanta!

Paul Hough

Atlanta? In Jan or Feb? You've got to be kidding me ... it's cold up there that time of year! If you are really contemplating a camp dead in the middle of winter for the SouthEast, there is no other rational choice besides the National Training Center at Clermont. A few years ago it was rated as one of the top 5 winter training locations IN THE WORLD! None of the other 4 were even in the continental United States. You come to Clermont, you run on their track or in the surrounding hills. You pay the daily rate and join Sarah McClarty's masters swim group. You bike the BuckHills and Sugarloaf mountain...or just ride the GFT route (~38 mile loop) as many times as you want. You run the 10 mile orange grove road on dirt. You see ITU pro's all over the place. You run into a couple of dozen other training camps during this time from all over the country plus Canada and Australia. You schedule it so you can flip over to St Petersburg to catch the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon on 10 Feb 2013, or the Gasparilla 15K (23 Feb 2013) or 1/2 Marathon (24 Feb 2013) ... all MAJOR events.

zildgen

I'm with Paul Atlanta in Jan Feb is to cold. I would strongly second Clermont and weakly suggest even further south. We have a world class swimming facility here in Coral Springs. Great cycling year round but few climbs.

AS far as events to piggy back with, other than the great events Paul mentioned
1. Dolphins cycling challenge Nov 1 and 2 (170 miles over 2 days in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Palm beach)
2. Horrible Hundred November 18th in Clermont, includes Sugar Loaf, Buckhills and the wall
3. Marathon of the Palm Beaches December 2,
4. Disney Marathon weekend Jan 10-13
5. Miami Marathon Jan 27
6. A1A marathon Feb 17
7. 13.1 Miami March 4
8. Palm 100 Relay (6 person 100 mile relay from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm beach and back course is up A1A) Late March
These are events I just pulled off the top of my head. A little research would surely find more. Also there are a few Tris ( sprints and Olys) still going on that time of year I believe as well as the Bone Island Half and Full Jan 12, Key West sprint and Oly Dec 1, and FAU sprint in Feb.

morpheus

I vote for Clermont. It would depend on what days you chose and how the school calendar looks, but I could make it a training/Disney long weekend if everything fell into place.

scott dinhofer

New York City Suburbs here - I am working with a Swim Coach at SUNY Purchase (Purchase NY)
I am sure we could do a pool rental and given that it is a phys ed building on a college campus, come up with an appropriate room for trainers/bikes.

Easy Access via highways, access by train from NYC not so good...

thekidduxc

 RnP,

A bunch of my teammates from college are now head coaches in the Chicago Public School system. One of the guys I ride with weekly (and ran with) is a head coach. 

 

I am sure I can get some space at one if not two schools for the Chicago group.

 

This would provide indoor area for biking, swimming pool access, etc.

 

Only issue would be competing for time in the pool. Let me know if this helps out. The more lead time the easier it will be.

 

David

Coach Patrick

This is great stuff folks!!! Thank you so much for your input....who knew we had such a strong Hotlanta contingent. Remember, the goal here isn't to get outside and ride 3 x100 -- that's for a rally or a camp; so we could be indoors and do a suffer session, etc...think 70% learning / skills and 30% fitness....keep the input coming!!!

Coach Rich

What P said about this being a SKILLS camp. You can provide you with no end of free, low cost opportunities to either thrash you ourselves or show you how to thrash yourself. But the intent of these camps is to shift our appearances at races, where you see us once at dinner, once for the 4k talk, and maybe a couple times on race day, to instead creating opportunities for us to teach you and for you to also plug directly into the great wealth of experience that the team has.

Short answer is that the training opportunities concurrent with the camp location are secondary to:

• What date, venue will get the most particiation?
• Are there quality SBR teaching venue opportunities?
• Again, where will a LOT of EN folks show up?

The ATL peeps: back in the Dark Ages of about 2003 I did a camp out of Emory University because I still had a few "ins" there. I taught in a classroom, did a swim clinic in their awesome pool, running clinic on the track, and I think we "maybe" did a ride out to Stone Mtn or something.

GMAN 19030

Posted By Rich Strauss on 16 May 2012 06:02 PM

 

• Again, where will a LOT of EN folks show up?

Vegas!!! 

 

 

... and I'm only half-kidding.

Al Truscott

 Western US: San Diego or Tuscon.

thekidduxc

 I never seem to get a lot of training done in Vegas!

morpheus

re: Southeast

K, here's another idea. There's a very large rec facility in Suwanee called The Suwanee Sports Academy, http://www.suwaneesportsacademy.com/locations/gwinnettsuwanee , that would provide plenty of instruction room. Big 'classrooms' to go with HUGE airspace in the gym for bikes and trainers. There's an indoor track around the top, too. 4-5 lanes wide, if I recall correctly. So, this place can be rented for the right $ I believe. They sell out to huge camps all the time, including the NBA's developmental league in the past. Only downside is that they don't have a pool. SwimAtlanta is only about 15-20min away.

Rich - I spent 2 years post grad at Emory. The facilities are top shelf. But, I got no pull there. If you have any, you should call them in. Great place to do this kind of thing. ONLY DOWNSIDE IS THE HORRIBLE PARKING THAT EXISTED WHEN YOU WERE THERE HAS ONLY GOTTEN EXPONENTIALLY WORSE. Minor detail but worth considering when you make a decision.

William Jenks

Could you be more specific about what kind of facilities you are interested in? What should we be thinking abut besides obviously a pool?

Coach Rich

Posted By William Jenks on 16 May 2012 09:46 PM

Could you be more specific about what kind of facilities you are interested in? What should we be thinking abut besides obviously a pool?

 

I guess #1 would be the combination of a date, city, and venue that would be affordable for a lot of people and a lot of EN members would attend. So a camp(s) in a great location....that most people have to fly to is just a no-go. Beyond that:

• Indoor pool, so we're not at the mercy of the weather
• Some sort of classroom located at the pool venue (this would be ideal) so we can use the classroom for swim stuff but also other stuff.
• Super awesome if that pool has a track or grassy area nearby that we can use for running stuff.
• As far as riding or training areas go, I think it would be fun to put on a group riding clinic and then have a couple routes on which to break people into smaller groups and practice that. This is a very triathlon race specific skill, but I believe that one of the best things you can do for your training is to ride well with faster people and it's generally good to be...good...or better at all things cycling related.

So that's the list, I guess . I know I could easily put all of this together in my backyard but I also know that getting to LA can be expensive for a lot of people, due to time zones, flying, and/or the driving distances out here on the west coast.

chris malone

Vegas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

spabblington

While I had suggested Atlanta, I think Chattanooga is worth consideration as well (only 2 hrs from Atlanta). And because I am in Chattanooga quite often for business (we have a plant there) + our local Tri race organizers are halfway based there as well (Team Magic), we may get some pull with local venues and local participants. And traffic, parking, accommodations, etc. are much better in Chatt than Atlanta. But either one would be great!

Coach Rich

My family is in Atlanta so that works out very well for me but, like I said, #1 priority are locations that work for the greatest number of members.

William Jenks

Sounds like you want a location within a 250 mi radius (midwest) or 25 miles (southern CA), i.e., about a 4 hour drive :-) for as many people as possible.

Even though I could probably arrange for those facilities pretty straightforwardly, that would probably eliminate Ames. :-)

Is it worth thinking about locations that are near some of the popular races? (Madison and Lawrence or its environs come to mind in the midwest)

Coach Rich

Posted By William Jenks on 17 May 2012 12:02 PM

Sounds like you want a location within a 250 mi radius (midwest) or 25 miles (southern CA), i.e., about a 4 hour drive :-) for as many people as possible.



Even though I could probably arrange for those facilities pretty straightforwardly, that would probably eliminate Ames. :-)



Is it worth thinking about locations that are near some of the popular races? (Madison and Lawrence or its environs come to mind in the midwest)

 

Yes, we've considered the WI, Chicago area as a lot of you are out there. But the contraint then becomes the date and weather. We generally want to do these in the Nov-Mar or April time frame, as we then start to get into the race season, etc.

Paul Stone

 Scotts idea for tx is great. I know we can arrange all of that here in Dallas as well. I know the Trishop out here is arranging a camp with julie dibbens for a 3 day thing. Getting the pool, meeting rooms, etc so doing it again for EN won't be an issue. I'm in good with the owners (friends of mine) so I know they can help us out. They would love the traffic as well obviously. 

We have a lot of routes in the area as well with whatever you need.  Also endless pool available, computrainers a couple locations with pools and rooms to utilize or just the performance center at Trishop. (trishop.com)

 

Gene

 My vote is for Atlanta. Unfortunately I can not offer any local knowledge, I've never been there. I'll be moving to NW FL in July!

ebe4zippy

I think if you went for March in Chicagoland to take care of the midwest region, you could at least get outside to run. You are going to swim inside no matter what during the out season in the midwest. What about getting some time at an indoor track at one of the colleges??? The later the better when we think midwest...and Dr. Jenks, Ames/Des moines could be a good destination as far as the cost of facilities goes.