The 2nd annual Neill – Blake Triathlon Camp 2012 finished on Sunday 29 January with a big wrap up party at Karen and Aaron Smith’s house for the participants and their families after a week in which experienced and beginner triathletes had a great time, learnt a lot, made new friends and training partners and the weather was mostly fantastic.

The camp started with a cocktail party at Tokio Millennium (thanks Tats Hoshina and Selina) at which the coaches discussed the 5 training zones and took numerous questions from the camp participants who took home large goodie bags thanks to our generous sponsors.

 

Wednesday’s pool session was long  but a great start to the camp with the session finishing with team relays.
Thursday’s track session and Friday’s bike to run bricks using static trainers (both at the National Stadium) taught the participants about running technique and bike skills as well as giving participants some gruelling 4 min hard on the bike transitioning to 4 min hard run on the track repeats.

 

The weekend started with a long bike in groups during which participants learnt a lot about endurance riding as well as gear selection, cornering and road safety – etiquette and riding in groups. This session finished at Clearwater and was followed by an open water swim technique session at the beach. Then in the late afternoon it was an aerobic long run session on the railway trail. Sunday was hill repeats at Horseshoe Beach followed by an aerobic long swim in Harrington Sound.

 

By carefully assigning pool lanes and dividing up the rides and runs into ability groups everyone was able to work at an appropriate level and get plenty of individual attention from the coaches. The feedback from both more experienced triathletes and beginner triathletes was extremely positive showing that despite the wide range of triathletes amongst the 30 participants everyone got something positive out of the camp.

Each participant will be receiving a disc of photos set to music that was played at the wrap up party. Thanks to Sue Edney and Aaron Smith for the food (Sue) and the use of their home (Aaron and Karen).

 

Thanks to Better Health, Winners Edge, Bicycle Works, Barritts, Goslings, Sportseller, Claire de ste Croix, Arnolds, Tokio Millennium and Butterfield and Vallis for your support.