Endurance Nation 2013 "Official" Events Calendar
Hi Folks,
For 2013 we want to maximize the TeamEN presence and resources at a few key events.
The components of this push are:
- 2-3 x Regional Skills Camps -- In the OutSeason months of November through February, the coaches will lead a weekend of intense teaching and skills development. Each camp will include clinics on swim and running technique, training and racing with power, bike fit and setup, training, racing and recovery nutrition, and much more.
- 1 x National Rally -- Fun, epic training in warm weather, with some healthy EN-style, post-OutSeason competition! We are targeting Tucson in March 2013. If you are interested in helping us plan the National Rally, please reach out to us at admin@endurancenation.us
- 2 x Team Ironman Races -- Events that TeamEN will focus on and the coaches will be on hand to lead the weekend for the members. We have chosen races that have historically had a massive EN presence, are within easy travel distance for a large number of members, etc.
- 2 x Team Half Ironman Races -- Same drill, but for 70.3 events.
- 2-3 x Crucible Camps -- Epic, fun training opportunities with the coaches.
- 2 x Triathlon Rallies -- Free training camps on the courses of the Team Ironman races above.
- RnP at the Races -- Events that the coaches will target for their own races. You’re welcome to join us!!
We’d like to give you the official schedule for next season you can make plans to join us and your teammates!
Regional Skills Camps
- Dates and locations TBD
National Rally
- Tucson, AZ, March 2013. Exact dates and location TBD.
Team Ironman Races
Plan to race Ironman next season? Consider racing one of these two events. We will have a MASSIVE Team presence at each of these!
- Ironman Lake Placid -- July 21st, 2013
- Ironman Wisconsin -- September 8th, 2013
Team Half Ironman Races
- Rev 3 Quassy, Early June
- Racine 70.3, Mid-July
Triathlon Rallies
- Ironman Lake Placid, June 6-9th, 2013
- Ironman Wisconsin, July 25-28th, 2013 (registration coming soon)
Crucible Camps (registration links coming soon)
- Wildflower / Lake San Antonio -- April 5-7
- Tour of California -- May 11-19
- Blue Ridge Cycling Camp -- May 2013 (TBD)
- North Georgia -- July 19-22
RnP at the Races
Rich
- Ironman California 70.3 (tentative)
- Wildflower Long Course, May 5
- Ironman Couer d’Alene, June 23
- Racine 70.3, July 14
Patrick
- Hyannis Half Marathon (February)
- Boston Marathon (April)
- Rev 3 Quassy (Early June)
- Ironman (TBD)
FAQs [ AKA questions we expect you to ask :-) ]
What is the cost of the various camps?
We can’t give you exact numbers at this time, but can set your expectations:
- Triathlon Rallies (camps on the IMLP and IMWI courses)
- FREE to all TeamEN members
- FREE to all TeamEN members
- National Rally, Crucible, and Regional Skills Camps --
- In general we want to reward our loyal, long-term members by offering them these camps at a discount that increases as their length of membership increases. So:
- Y3 members -- $
- Y2 members -- $$
- Y1 members -- $$$
- General public -- Not applicable -- or -- $$$$
- Tour of California -- Due to the high cost and logistical challenges of this camp, there will be no scaling discount offered.
- In general we want to reward our loyal, long-term members by offering them these camps at a discount that increases as their length of membership increases. So:
Why will there no longer be coach presence at all of the US Ironmans?
Good question! Going into 2013 and our 6th year of Endurance Nation, we feel that:
- Increasing numbers of TeamEN members are focused either 100% on the Half Iron / 70.3 distance or are racing several of these events in route to their Ironman. Our focus on attending full-Ironman events only was ignoring the priorities of a large number of our athletes.
- A coach at an Ironman is equal parts coaching for you and marketing for EN. However, we’ve significantly upped our marketing game in arenas that do not require us to be physically present. This creates an opportunity for us to shift these marketing appearances toward creating a series of regional skills camps where we can coach and teach our athletes, in person, before they get to their goal race!
Why have the coaches picked Ironman Lake Placid and Ironman Wisconsin as the “official” Endurance Nation Ironmans?
Good question!
- Rich and Patrick know these races inside out, front to back. To complement this knowledge, the Team itself has tremendous experience preparing for and racing these events.
- With challenging bike and run courses, these races are perfect venues for the TeamEN Race Execution Ninja! As you know, we want you to race courses that force everyone to make decisions on race day because the Team does such a good job teaching you how to make good ones, all day long!
- These races are within easy driving distance of huge populations of TeamEN athletes, increasing Team participation in the events and associated training rallies.
- The net effect we want to create is massive numbers of TeamEN athletes training together, virtually, for months, attending the triathlon rallies, and then racing together on race weekend!
Sounds awesome! How do I sign up?!!
See the links above. As we build out dates, prices, registration, etc, we’ll update the first post in this thread and circle you back around to it via the weekly Team updates.
Got Questions?
Please post them to this thread!
Comments
I see the Tucson and Wildflower rallies, appreciate 'em, and hope to be there.
And I recognize a couple of other factors driving things: WTC's insatiable desire to have an IM every weekend betwen May and November, and the Coaches' real limits on their time and sanity.
But I also feel the lack of an EN focus IM in the western half of North America. It would be nice to have a similar focus for a driveable race for West Coast/Rocky Mountain peeps, e.g., Arizona or Tahoe (or other Cali IM when/if announced) I suppose folks from Tejas and the SE might have the same complaint?
I get that a huge percentage of EN'ers hail from the northeast and midwest and that can't be overlooked but there's an awful lot of us in the southeast and Gulf coast region that probably share the same view as myself that training for an IM during the summer is just not in the cards.
@Bob, I understand it doesn't work for you. If you recall, I was at IMTX this year (so you had some coach mojo...did you make the Team dinner or the Race Talk???) and I know how hard it is to train for a race that doesn't fit my geographic signature.
@ALL, I understand this is kind of a hard thing to understand...and it's just as hard for us to actually implement. First, let me put on my Coach Rich hat and ask you what other IM coach, for whatever price you name, is at multiple IMs a year -- and HIMs -- and Camps -- and organizing a National Rally...and organizing Race Groups with your peers at the races that s/he can't attend???
PLEASE understand that we always have over-delivered for our Members, and we plan on continuing this trend.
We went through multiple iterations of what we "could" do, but they actually ended up being MORE travel....and less focused on what we feel are bigger picture goals for educating and strengthening the Team. Case in point I flew to IMTX where we had over 20 folks racing...the Team dinner had 7 folks, including me, and the Race Talk was only twice that size. And on race day, only 5 or 6 folks wore the kit. So while I get there are quite a few of you who feel it's nice to have the Coach on site, not everyone feels as passionately about it!
Ultimately this re-focusing means less "race time face time" with RnP, but during that period most of you don't talk to us anyway. Now our focus is on other events where we can spend a weekend (or longer!) connecting, learning, teaching...and delivering you WAY MORE VALUE. While there is some friction now, we plan on hitting all IMs over the next few years with a "Team Focus", and it might be sooner with a Coach racing in your 'hood, or you might just have an EN-led group of 20 doing the same race. I think whichever way you slice it, you are still WINNING.
Totally open to more feedback, so keep it coming!
There are so few draw backs to living in Sunny So Cal, but I guess East Coast bias is one of them.
I couldn't make the dinner or talk this year... nor did I race IMTX this year. Work commitments got in the way. I was at the race from about 2:00-11:00 and saw you two or three times on the run course.
IMCdA would be a nice race but there's no f'n way I'm swimming in sub-60 degree water. That's the one and only reason why I won't do that race. I did Syracuse 70.3 two years ago when the race was in mid-September. The water was 62 degrees and it really threw me for a loop. I never warmed up during that whole race. I can't imagine swimming twice as long in even colder water with the real threat of near-50 degree water temps. Me and real cold water are a bad mix. I just can't train for that where I live. Our water temps are in the mid-80's right now.
Like I said before... I'm just being selfish. I want to join in the reindeer games as well but there are, as you say, many issues that don't work well with my geographic signature.
--What a challenge for RnP to deal with Tri Geeks from all 50 states, canada, and overseas. I've been a memeber since october 2010 I think and have gotten more back in value than what I have paid in membership....The real challenge is that everyone has valid points and their own perspective on what they desire.
--I think this is headed in the right direction for EN. And even if its NOT and doesn't work, it can be changed pretty easily back to the way it was. Although it is very cool to have coach support during races most folks seem to be consumed by prepping for the race or attending to their families. I like the idea of creating other oportunities that are a little more low key to get together and train. I also like what I'm seeing with race specific phone calls or video chats prior to the race. Get some coach love prior to departure outside the crazyness of race weekend.
--My impression from being an active member on the site is that there are really only a handful of members who are posting in the forums and probably a lot of lurkers and probably a large majority that only download the training plan once a week and that's it. So everyone has their own perception of what EN really is.
--For me, and probably some other folks, I only get a few opportunites a year to tell the family I'm going to be a super all consumed Tri geek for the weekend (more than normal) and attend a race or rally. My wife and daughter are really supportive of this and will be attending my two key races this year with me. In Fact, for IMFL I will have a huge family Entourage. See points above about the benefits of other EN Training events that aren't races. As I ponder my plans for next season I'm considering options that include an EN rally or other type of EN event that for me would be treated similarly to a "race" in terms of time commitment, money, time off of work, and cashing in those SAUs. Right now, as I only race a few times a year I enjoy the training almost as much as the racing. So traveling for an Epic EN Training weekend is a viable option for me.
--The other thing I've been thinking about more recently is all the local clubs that a lot of us are members of. I'm about to join a local tri and cycling club next week. Imagine an EN community that was so large that all these little local tri and cycling clubs were actually just local EN members who trained together and were somehow supported by RnP from a distance. There could be EN university where WSMs were actually "certified" by RnP and would lead local EN clubs...After all, a lot of the rub with RnP changing the strategy here is the fact there are only Two of them...We could pool our money and try and clone one of them but that probably won't work
--Would a IM with a selected race captain of one of the more experienced racers be just as cool as having RnP on site...maybe...We have some pretty legit folks in hause with a lot of experience who could probably give a "coaches" talk prior to the race onsite...might work...
Thanks for the discussion!
This announcement could be divided into two parts:
Racey-stuff
Our primary considerations for choosing events that the coaches would support by being physically present and that we want to achieve maximum participation from the team are:
So let's apply these decision criteria to each US Ironman currently on the calendar:
IMTX
IMCDA
IMLP
IMNYC
Unproven races, logistics at IMNYC will likely be a goat-rope, very difficult to impossible to have a tri rally for these. In fact, Patrick is traveling to NYC the week before the race to deliver the 4k talk to members beforehand due to the difficulty of find "a" space to do the talk!!
IMLou
WI
IMAZ and IMFL
Training Stuff
Did anyone notice that we are adding ~3 x 3 day regional skills camps to the calendar? You know, like, actually coaching and training with you vs showing up at a dinner, giving a talk in the grass the next day, camping in a coffee shop in case you need to be talked of a ledge, and maybe seeing us a couple times during the race and having beers with us afterwards?
How about epically cool training opportunities in CA, AZ, and the South East, to compliment the tri rallies?
Anyone? Bueller?
East Coast Bias
This is 100% a function of geography. As anyone who lives in the West Coast knows, we have dense population centers and then VAST areas and distances populated by NO ONE. These distances mean that the ideal combo of a Race + TR becomes unaffordable due to travel times, distances, and costs involved. So, for example, let's assume that this rumored Tahoe race is a full Ironman. Lake Tahoe is 500+ miles and full day up, full day back for anyone in the LA area. Probably similar for SFO people, given the mountain passes. AZ, NZ, WA = even bigger problem. Everyone else? Who can afford to fly to a triathlon rally, as many would certainly have to? Wouldn't we be kinda dick-ish to ask you to do that? Trust me, I could ship my tri stuff up to Tahoe and have a kickass time riding my dirtbike up to a rally in Tahoe...then train with like 10 people, maybe
.
The Half Ironmans we've selected
Racine and Quassy complement these TR and IM races above. Racing has historically been a huge race for the team (wallets, again) and Quassy allows us to potentially create a relationship with Rev3.
Wow, that was long
. Hopefully everyone can see that PnI have been giving this a lot of deep consideration for a very long time. And it's not about reducing our travel time. We're not skeered of work and do the math above and you'll see that we've likely booked ourselves for much more travel than this year. But in the end we are largely following the decisions that a very large percentage of EN athletes have been making for years.
I like the advanced notice on this. I was goint to race Kansas70.3 next year, but since Racine is the team race, I will go race Racine instead...
Lets talk market and value for one second....My training buddies are paying weekly what I pay monthly, they get a "personal" e-mail and weekly plan...and a "great job" e-mail after the race. They never see their coaches at races and If they want some face time...PAY UP!!! EN has always been a value, and the fact that they are rolling out more perks for free, I appreciate that value even more. We are "SELF COACHED ATHLETES" who all use the same plans and resources, so seeing the coaches is fun, but has little to do with our own success.
Thanks for picking a race in the midwest to do, and thanks for keeping the IMWI camp around (thats my personal plug for the midwest)
The idea of being at EVERY SINGLE WTC 140.6 EVENT seems like over kill. Especially since 70.3 is becoming so much more popular. Example - I am planing on doing IMCDA next year, but I am also doing 3-4 70.3 events. It's a really fun distance without the pure survival factor of the full distance, IMHO.
Also, look at the map. WTC has the events way slanted to the left coast probably for all the travel issues, population density and complications Rich highlighted above.
In short, I am stoked about the new plan and eager to try and do as many things as possible. Especially, the National Rally in Tucson. Suck it East Coast. WESTSIDE!!!!
Interested in the skills camp in CA! (maybe AZ...?)
Also planning to do IMCDA next year. See you there Rich!!
hey there
Team Half Ironman Races
Triathlon Rallies
I was going to skip Quassy next year, but if there will be an EN focus there, and there is another week between Quassy and Placid, I'm going to reconsider!
Excellent direction. Another evolution of customer focused training and racing solutions from EN. I think this is perfect and planned out far enough that we can self select what best meets our needs.
Huh. Sitting up here in EN-lonely Eugene, OR - I'd have to disagree on the Pac12 lack of love. Us Duckies get lots of it
Not that it makes up for being the only EN peep in a 100 miles, but at least it's something....
Myself, of course I would love to have a coach at a West Coast race, but I totally get the value-added thing. I am hoping that I can get myself to the Tucson rally as that would not only be fun but a great opportunity to really take advantage of the coaches' knowledge and experience first-hand when not in the mania of an IM race weekend.
I love what I have been getting out of this team as a whole and from the coaches. I am currently trying to debate as to whether I can convince the SA re: IMMOO next year. I had told her I wouldn't plan on an IM every year and doing IMCdA this year ... ... ...
either way will likely try to do either the GA camp or the Blue Ridge camp next year
I may be in the minority here but as an experienced long-course triathlete I really enjoy this sort of "hanging out" with the coaches at events. By the time you get to race day there really shouldn't be anyone who isn't completely prepared for what they are about to do - that's the entire purpose of all the resources we have here. So come race week I just want to relax, drink coffee, drink beer, get my head calm and enjoy hanging out with other like-minded athletes who aren't out hammering those last few workouts 3 days before the race because they "need" to be ready to race. So by all means, continue to improve the quality of the coaching but please don't eliminate the more casual aspect of simply being a team member as well.
Everyone,
Thanks for the discussion and the great words! Notes:
Many seem to be forgetting that we have a full time Race Director guy, John Stark, who's main job is to organize a team presence at as many races as we can. See the supported list of races for 2012. This will only get bigger and better as the team grows and we, as an admin team, get better and more efficient at supporting these events.
This will be our first year doing this. As you all know, we are constantly thinking of how we can improve your experience with EN so I'm sure 2014 will be an improvement on what we learn in 2013.
Thanks again!
First - THANKS for giving a ton of heads up on these events. I was planning on doing my 1st IM at Louisville next year but after seeing that Wisconsin will be a target this year, I will be doing that instead.
Second - The idea to have rally's at the same venue's is fantastic! Should make for some great racing at those races. I also will (hopefully) accrue enough SAU's to allow me to attend the Wisconsin.
Third - None of the 70.3's are doable - with one being near the same time as the Wisconsin camp and the other being too far travel. Am leaning towards just doing Kansas again anyway or perhaps Rev. 3 Knoxville.
Fourth - while I am new and did not experience the "old ways", I do see tons of benefit from the regional camps and crucible camps and extra opportunities to get in true to life actual coaching. Again, as a newbie with tons to learn, opportunities to get some coaching like that would be priceless to me.
Fifth - would I have liked to have a targeted race closer to home (Alabama)? Sure! But honestly - if it had been Louisville or Texas, lets say, I would have been traveling with the family which would have meant less time to spend doing EN stuff. Having it fairly 'far' lets me go by myself and will let me attend and participate in all EN activities I want and not feel like I am neglecting the family or dragging them to things they don't want to go to. Perhaps that is a 'selfish' way to look at it, but, it is something that makes it appealing to me.
Lastly - thanks RnP for being willing to change things up to try and make this incredible Team even better!! You guys absolutely rock!!
RnP,
Y'all are doing a great job! I dont know any other coaches that put as much time and effort into giving us so much value. I just hope I can make some of the camps and/or rallys. Keep it up.
Probably cannot make it to Tucson in March, as I'm going to Key West in March. However, although I have unfinished business in LOU, I'm thinking IMWI might be on my plate for 2013.....!!!!!!!!
Barb,
Thanks for the good words! More awesomness coming out tomorrow or later this week!