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riding with the pack chatting on group rides helped the kilometres fly by until fatigue took over
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NOOSA
TRI CAMPS
Noosa Tri Camps offer an unforgettable multisport experience in one of the world’s premier triathlon destinations. Camp participant and first time Ironman Ange Coleman shares her experience. t e x t b y N i c k C r o f t a n d An g e C o l e m a n p h o t o g r a p h y c o u rt e s y o f m u lt i s p o r t c o n s u lta n t s
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Ang e Coleman
s a location Noosa Heads has it all, with one of the best training environments you will find anywhere, including open water swimming in Laguna Bay, running in the Noosa National Park and cycling on undulating hinterland roads. It’s a tourist hot spot all year around with great climate and world class facilities to support your stay, and there is something for all triathletes in our yearly calendar of camp packages. Whether you’re new to the sport or an experienced campaigner, going short or long, Noosa Tri Camps have a package and camp theme to suit all budgets. From a one-day clinic to a five-day camp, you will get to immerse yourself in the sport and come away with the information and motivation to put into your preparation for your next event. In each Noosa Tri Camps package you also get to experience the famous Noosa cuisine at local restaurants and cafes to round out your stay. The camps offer a mix of training and learning, with both practical and short, clinic-style sittings from our coaches and specialist guest speakers who are experts in their fields. Add to this a good dose of fun and light-hearted moments and the enjoyment factor is certainly high with the mix of activities and social outings a Noosa Tri Camp offers. Quite simply, if you are passionate about the sport as we are and you want to raise the bar to be your best, then Multisport Consultants can offer the training and triathlon experience to set you on your way.
Noosa Tri Camp Diary By Ange Coleman
Arriving in Noosa on the Tuesday, I was both excited and nervous. I’d been lucky enough to get the best kind of Christmas present from my husband – a five day Noosa Triathlon Camp with Multisport Consultants to help me on my journey towards my first ever Ironman in Melbourne. Looking at the itinerary in the weeks leading up to the camp I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be fit enough to keep up with the other Ironman campers. To non-triathlon types, the itinerary might have looked like hell, but to me and my circle of triathlete friends, it looked like an amazing experience. Thankfully on meeting my roommate for the week I realised that all my excitement and nervousness was also shared amongst my fellow campers. Paula was training for her first Ironman in Port Macquarie and Fi was also doing Melbourne. Immediately the nervousness subsided and we quickly got on with laughing, chatting and training hard that week. The weather in Noosa on arrival was torrential – it was raining and blowing a gale and I was certainly worried I’d get a bad run of weather for the week. However, in keeping with that Queensland tourism slogan I remember so well – “beautiful one day, perfect the next” – Noosa turned it on for the entire training camp.
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Day 1 Arriving bright and early at Noosa Lions Park at 6.30am, we gathered around coaches Nick and Jess like it was our first day of school to do a meet and greet. The group comprised 20 campers, with the majority being female first time Ironman participants. A support team consisting of Tom and Justin on bikes and Bardie in the support vehicle also joined us. Some of the group had even done previous Ironman Camps with Nick and Jess, another great sign! Once everyone was accounted for, we set off on a 150km ride. We set out from Noosa into the hinterlands through undulating terrain which progressed from urban, rural, hinterland and farmland. The scenery was beautiful and the road challenging in parts, but chatting to fellow campers meant the kilometres and time flew by. Our first stop was the small town of Kin Kin, where Bardie and the support vehicle provided much needed water, nutrition, lollies and some amazing homemade baked muffins by Jess. We then continued on our way, returning back towards Noosa through Pomona, Cooroy and Tinbeerwah, returning to the Noosa Lions Park at 100km and again refuelling as needed for the final leg of the ride. For those not keen to continue longer, the option was to do a short run off the bike. This time we headed out towards the coast, on our way to Coolum and back to complete our 150km morning ride. But our session was not over, there was still a short run off the bike to complete it. Once done, we were all keen to get back home and have something to eat. Later that afternoon we met Jason from Infinit Nutrition who gave us a talk about the Infinit and Nuun products, which we were lucky enough to be trialling during our camp activities. We had a selection of GoFar, Napam and Mudd, as well as all the flavours of Nuun. For many of us, the finer details of our race day nutrition were something we hadn’t given too much thought. Following a fantastic BBQ dinner at NAC and presentation of our goodies bag (just like a show bag for triathletes – including MSC kit, hat, towel, bento box/fuel belt and bag), we had a presentation by Gary Slater, a sports performance dietician and physiologist, about our Ironman nutrition. This was extremely useful in understanding the fuelling requirements of our training, recovery and race day plan. Providing us with a plan to help prepare our nutrition race strategy, we left more informed about what we should be doing. After a long first day, we were all ready to call it a night.
Day 2 Thursday morning was a 5.30am start at Lions Park, where we got ready for our 2.5 hour run. The first 10km would be out into Noosa Heads and the National Park Tanglewood trail, one of my favourite spots when in Noosa. We then headed back towards Lions Park for some water and
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“We set out from Noosa into the hinterlands through undulating terrain which progressed from urban, rural, hinterland and farmland... chatting to fellow campers meant the kilometres flew by.” nutrition top ups, before heading out towards Tewantin, and for those keen and fast runners, out towards the Noosa Hill. After running 45 minutes out I turned to run back into Noosa, enjoying the scenery as we came back into Noosaville along the foreshore and returned to Lions Park for breakfast. Bardie had setup a banquet of cereal, toast, fresh fruit and Infinit Mudd, which was a real hit. Once we had a chance to recover from our run, we headed back to grab our bikes for a midday recovery ride of 50km. We regrouped and headed out to Boreen Point. On return, we grabbed lunch before heading up to Noosa Junction for a yoga session – by then our legs were looking forward to a good stretch. Our final session for the day was the open water swim at Noosa Beach. I was really looking forward to getting out there for a swim and shaking out the legs, which was nice and refreshing. We did a 1km warm up, followed by some warm up stretches and a couple of drills. We finished it off with a couple of beach run/swim laps for the day. Probably one of the most interesting drills was the 100 stroke swim with our eyes closed. We were sent off in small groups so we didn’t crash into each other and also so we could see any imbalances from the beach which was hilarious to watch, with a couple of campers doing circles. We’d worked up an appetite by then, and we were well and truly ready for some food. Once suitably fed, we were keen for another early night.
Day 3 Friday morning was another early start for our big 180km bike ride at 5am at Lions Park. This time we split into two groups and headed off out towards Cooroy – 45km along undulating terrain. It was a great day for a ride, with the sun shining and beautiful scenery out into the hinterlands. After a short top up of water/nutrition and food (Jess
again made some awesome homemade muffins!) we were on our way out to Gympie. The terrain markedly changed from green rolling hills to undulating plains and it started to get warm. Finally, we arrived in Gympie, the halfway point (90km) for a stop at the bakery. This was a good opportunity to stretch out the legs/back/shoulders, have a quick caffeine hit and top up the nutrition before heading towards our next stop in Cooran. By now most of the banter between riders had stopped, with heads down and bums up into cycling towards the next stop. Along the way there were a few unsuspecting hills which got us out of the saddle and breathing heavy. Finally we were almost home, a quick stop at Boreen Point to grab a cool drink/ice block and then we were on our way to completing the 180km ride. For many, it was the first time at that distance. Having done that distance before, it also improved my confidence in my training, and it was another solid session in the bank. Arriving back in Noosa we had a chance to head back and get changed, refuel and rest before our afternoon Body Spanner session in Noosaville. There we learned about the Body Spanner system and the very useful ways of stretching and manipulating tired muscles. All relaxed and stretched out, we were able to head back into Noosa for some free time before a group dinner at Café Le Monde that night.
Day 4 After a well-deserved sleep in, we started day four down at Noosa Beach for a 4km open water swim at 7.30am. The sun was up and the conditions were lovely, giving us the opportunity to do a solid swim at the Ironman distance. The swim went out around the headland, with a short break at a small beach before returning to the main beach and enjoying breakfast. Around lunchtime we were especially lucky
IRONMAN REFLECTIONS “Sunday March 24 came around quicker than expected – it felt like only yesterday that I was a spectator watching and being inspired to sign up. Today I would be a competitor and I was ready. It couldn’t have been better – everyone’s journey is unique and I’m thankful that I felt prepared due to my Multisport Consultants program and also the Noosa Training Camp. Not only did I have a great time and do lots of quality training, I also met some great fellow campers who I was lucky enough to see out on the course, adding to the encouragement and support. I honestly recommend the Multisport Consultants training camp to anyone doing a long course or Ironman event!”
Ange Coleman
long way to the top noosa’s hilly roads provided challenging & scenic rides
to be able to trial some Zipp race wheels at the Zipp Clinic – I selected the firecrest 404 and 808 combination for a trial ride, which was highly anticipated. Chris talked us through recent product launches and information about new products in the pipeline before letting us ride off and try the wheels on a 20km short test drive out to Noosa Hill and back. Reluctantly we returned back to Lions Park to remove the wheels from our bikes, while texting and sending photos of our bike with those lovely wheels to our significant others – hint, hint! Maybe next Christmas! We then regrouped for a Q&A session at Café Le Monde where all of our burning Ironman questions were answered. It was a great session with Nick and Jess offering tips, advice and a recount of exactly what Ironman was about. From the swim start tactics to the transition process, it was all covered. For a first timer like myself, this was invaluable in understanding how it differed from the average triathlon event and gave me a little more peace of mind in the lead up. The afternoon was free time, when we were able to recover, kick back, relax and enjoy Noosa before a group dinner at Zachery’s in Noosaville. Carbs were on the menu, with pizza and pasta before the final day’s trial race. This was also a good opportunity to catch up with everyone and enjoy our final night at the camp.
Day 5 The final day was an opportunity to race a Half Ironman or Olympic distance triathlon, putting together the nutritional strategies learned and tips given to us over the previous days. Fatigue was well and truly in the system for this day five camp activity! Our final hours of the camp concluded with a lunch at Café Le Monde, which was an opportunity to congratulate the rest of the team on their race efforts, as well as have a bit of a debrief of the week before saying our goodbyes and thankyous to Nick and Jess. Sadly the camp concluded all too soon – time flies when you are having fun. Those five days were an amazing experience filled with hard work, lots of sweat and thankfully no tears! Coming home and into my final weeks of Ironman training, I know the training camp gave me some solid training blocks which would not have been possible at home, as well as a serious amount of kilometres over five days. Not only did I get an amazing riding kit tan line to go home with, but I got a heap of great memories and a lot of practical knowledge and training that will be etched into my mind as I get ready for Melbourne Ironman.
First time Ironman “Finishing my first Ironman felt unbelievably fantastic! All those hours of training paid off. The other factor that made a huge difference to getting me over the finish line was Noosa Tri Camps Ironman camp in February this year. Days of extensive rides, runs and swims just took me to the next level of fitness. The nutrition session was very informative and I was able to implement many of the suggestions both in training and on race day. The camp also gave me a huge insight into how an IM works compared to a 70.3, from what to wear to the strategy of setting up. Training for an Ironman means many hours on your own – the camp for me was a great way of spending a week with like-minded people! We not only learnt a lot from the camp sessions but also from each other.”
Angelika Hannon First time Ironman finisher “The February Ironman camp in Noosa was invaluable in my preparation for Melbourne Ironman. With the swim as my weakest leg, the camp open water swim gave me great confidence in what turned out to be a very choppy and difficult swim on race day. Similarly, having completed several long, hilly rides during the camp added to both my strength and endurance when a strong headwind was encountered on race day. The advice and support I received from Nick and Jess during the camp regarding nutrition, pacing and race planning, and even little tips like what to have in my special needs bag, all played a huge part in me completing my first Ironman event.”
Andrew Pearce First time Ironman
Thanks Nick and Jess for helping towards my Ironman journey! Australian Triathlete |
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