Triathlon Team X Killer Kelowna Training Camp

In the midst of a flurry of luggage, bikes and backpacks, the main group of Victoria's triathlon Team X left Kelowna, British Columbia on Saturday after wrapping up a 5 day training camp. While some of the athletes returned home and others remained in Kelowna to finish out the week of training, most of the athletes are now are focusing on Race #4 in Triathlon Provincial Race Series, Panorama Classic Triathlon on June 5th in Victoria.

Following on the success of the North Shore Triathlon on May 23rd, the camp started with a full training schedule after one days of active recovery. Head coach of Triathlon Team X Steve Chater set up key workouts; that were not only a physical challenge but a nutritional challenge trying to develop different hydration strategies to balance electrolytes in response to the hot training conditions.

Training highlights included a 2 x 140km cycling workouts; Tuesday riding along Westside road to Vernon and then back along the highway to Kelowna and Thursday in a reverse direction paralleling Highway 97A to Vernon and back on Westside road to Okanogan Lake Resort. Recovery runs were met with less eagerness around the resorts golf course and surrounding areas followed long rides. Okanogan Lake Resort was the site of the great swim sessions in the frigid waters of Lake Okanogan. To conclude the excitement the athlete's were treated with an exhilarating glimpse of my legendary butt swimming at their last open water swim session.

The defining workout for myself was Wednesday's 90km+ ride to Crystal Mountain; 30 km west of Kelowna, with a 10km ascend to the base elevation of 1200m (3936ft).

Thursday night concluded with a relaxing BBQ at the resort. The BBQ was a reflection point of the hard but enjoyable week behind us with an excess of 350km already in the saddle the party was cut short by exhaustion and most the athlete's were heading off to bed before 10pm.

After packing up all of their gear from the resort Friday morning and off to settle in at Charlene's parents house on the opposite side of the lake, the mornings workout started with an hour run in Kelowna's City Park broken up with 2 x 10 minute tempo runs. A procession of cars left City Park in a hurry to proceeded to Westbank were we started our short ride to Peachland elementary school for a triathlon show and tell to practice our public relations skills and to promote the sport and bike safety. The athletes rose to the occasion and delivered an excellent presentation for the school. With temperatures in excess of 30 degrees celsius and rapidly rising humidity, the remainder of the afternoon was spent riding back to Westbank, which I did with a flat tire for six kilometres, sitting in a traffic jam for an hour and skipping out on the remainder of the our afternoon's workout to drink some beer.

Throughout the entire camp, the athletes met each new challenge with a healthy mix of cooperation and enthusiasm. Development and age group athletes benefited from the mentorship of senior elite athletes, and the atmosphere of teamwork served to push everyone to new levels during key workouts.

For many of the athletes, the conclusion of the Kelowna training camp marks the beginning of their back-to-back weekend race schedule spanning till the end of August. I would like to thank Charlene and Team X for inviting me on the training camp and congratulate all athletes on their dedication and strong work ethic during the camp, and wish everyone a successful race season.