Tri-clinic with Simon Lessing & Darren DeReuck

First things first...Matthew got his red striped belt today at TKD!! Yey!!
What to say about the clinic...was some good parts and some weird parts...I think the weird parts just come from a different coaching style than I am not used to. These guys know their stuff. I mean, really know their stuff!! They live, breathe triathlons and it is their passion. It is not so much my passion as just a way to stay fit and active and relieve stress...so some of the stuff was kinda over my head but was good to listen to it. At work we try to operate the firm around the "Hedge Hog Principal". In order to have a happy work life you have to be world class at what you do, you have to be passionate about what you do and there must be an economic driver....Simon and Darren have found their hedge hog. No doubt.

The swim workout - we started out at the pool. I parked at the field house an walked the 6 minutes to the pool. I was expecting a bit of an introduction or "Hi..this is what we are going to do and why"...but no..no..no...Simon comes on the deck and says where the fast lanes are, where the slow lanes are, get in, we are starting with a 200 meter swim. Okay. In we go and he had said about 6 times to leave 5 seconds apart and don't swim on top of each other. I knew that would be interesting as this group loves each other's feet. Our lane was all wrong in its order from the get go and Simon got on us...like, really got on us..about leaving 5 secs apart. I was shaking my head at one point...more to myself thinking that I wish a few of these guys would not be so friggin macho and just let the faster swimmers by (as in me) and Simon says "Are you shaking your head AT ME!!??" Oops. So I say "No the order of the lane is not right." And he says "Well, get it right." Already then. I led the next set.

We did some head up freestyle which I am okay at, not great, and he told me my kick was "ridiculous". Ha Ha!! Which it was as my legs were tired from the bike ride yesterday...but too bad I will never live it down from CoryF.

The "lecture sessions" - Were fantastic. I loved listening to them talk about stuff from hill training and interval training and just all things triathlon. Like what the science is behind this and that and hearing their stories. That was super cool. Like I mentioned, some of it was way over my head...like when they were explaining why we should be getting our blood tested for iron levels...and one of the gals sort of had her own agenda with questions etc...but overall I enjoyed it.

The run session - This was a good session, different than what I expected but I liked it. I thought we would get some one on one time but we did a warm up, some drills, some stretching and then we ran 6x800 meters at our 10km pace. This was a good workout! I love pacing stuff so Darren told us what to do every 800 and we just did it...they divided us into 4 groups with all different paces...and he was really supportive and encouraging and excited when we were on our pace. He was calling out our 200 meter splits as we came around the track and would yell all sorts of good stuff at us. I kinda felt like a really good runner!!! Lessing scared the crap out of me as during the warm up I was jogging along, chatting, of course, and then somebody ran right up behind me and was stomping their feet, like, RIGHT behind me! It was funny but my HR went way up and I jumped about 3 feet in the air!! Nothing like getting warmed up really, really fast.

The bike session - I would rather not talk about the bike session but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. We get our bikes all set up and jump on. 5 mins of easy pedalling and then Lessing says "Okay, everyone in the big gear!" No problem...okay, maybe a wee bit of a problem. I get into the big gear and my legs have nothing...I mean nothing...I could hardly pedal...and he is telling us to keep the cadence at 90. WTF??! And I am looking at the workout thinking I should probably just leave, cause this could get embarrassing. We start the interval set and he is telling us to keep moving up in gears...there is no way...I am dead...I sign and lip synch to Jenn.."R U in the big gear??" She signs back with a shrug "Yeah??!" Shit. Lessing comes over and looks at me and looks at my bike and says (WAY too loudly...) "If you are finding this to HARD, just go down into the small ring." Shit Shit. I think he may of even patted my shoulder. Then I start to get super discouraged and super pouty. I give myself 15 more minutes...then I am leaving. I do another set of the intervals in the small ring and I am seriously pissed...everyone else is in the big ring...what the hell!!! So I jump off my bike and think there must be something wrong...sure enough my trainer was ON THE HIGHEST RESISTANCE POSSIBLE!!!! Faaaaaaaaak!!!!
Back onto the bike I go and do two more of the sets...in the big f-ing ring...and I still skip out on the last two cause seriously, my head was just NOT into this workout!!!
Here are some pics from the day:

Charlie Browne, Jenna and fast runner Lindsey...holy crap that girl can RUN!!!

CoryF and me...in my new top I bought for the day..LOVE the color!! And it is obvious from this picture I desperately need a haircut.
The Superstar.

I was trying to get a shot of the group at the track but Lessing purposely walked in front of my camera and made a face into it!! I JUST missed it...but got this one.

Me, my white pasty legs, and "The Man" Jenna is in the background having a serious talk with Darren. These two were fun...they were serious when they felt they had to be and once they had the group figured out as in, who they could kid around with etc. they were a hoot!!