An enthusiastic Triathlon Camp participant posted the following re-cap of his experience at the Sports Center on his personal blog....thanks Andy!

On Sunday, January 17th I took part in a triathlon training camp held at Chelsea Piers — graciously provided by KT for my birthday. Thanks KT! I’ve written a review so you can have a sense of what we learned. Overall I thought it was a great experience and learned a lot.

It was a 4-hour camp for anyone that is new to triathlons (complete beginners are welcome). Be prepared to workout — they will have you swim, bike, and run using the facilities at Chelsea Piers (state of the art…I was impressed).

The focus of the day was to go over drills in each discipline that will teach good form and technique to prevent injury. They also covered transitions, gear selection, and learning your training zones.

Four training zones were classed as:

Easy – warm up / cool down

Steady – aerobic capacity – if you can’t carry a conversation, you’re not in your steady zone

Solid – your race pace

Hard – above race pace. aka when you want to drop someone in the peleton. This is where you build up your “pain bank” — your toleration for pain.

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1. Weight loss is a simple equation: you must expend more energy than you take in. This means that either your physical activity must increase and/or your calorie intake must decrease.

   It takes only about a drop of 250 calories per day to make a difference in your weight. Try cutting out that second portion of a meal. Before you reach for those 2 cookies at work, think about whether it would help you reach your goals. Try adding an extra 20-30 minutes to your workout to boost your energy burn. And remember, building muscle mass boosts your metabolism, so keep the strength training going.

2. Make time in the day to try something new, even if it means leaning on your partner or family member to watch the kids for an hour. It sounds cliche, but if you have never taken a yoga or boxing class or scaled a rock wall, check it out. You might find an activity you actually enjoy. Since we tend to get tied down to the same routine physically, our bodies become comfortable with their energy expenditures. Offering a challenge to the body forces it to input extra effort to learn and master something new. Just like any relationship, the one with your body must be kept fresh and exciting.
3. Use your kids as role models! Kids are energy burning machines! Instead of just watching the children play, participate. Soccer or basketball games, playing on the playground, even chasing your 2-year-old around the house – all of this activity adds up! Plus, it builds your bond with the kids and cancels out the excuse that the kids keep you from finding time to work out.
4. Find friends who are in the same boat. This can benefit in two ways. Number one, sometimes working out with a friend is simply more fun. Watching someone else workout can be very motivating. Just make sure your workout is not compromised by excessive socializing. Establish goals for the session and stick to them! Number two, when you have friends with infants or toddlers who also want to get in shape, you can create some sort of daycare system. While one of you watches the kids, the other can work out.
5. Don't overdo it. Set yourself challenging goals, but within your given parameters. Think about your lifestyle and be realistic. If you fail to achieve once, it will become more likely for you to allow it to happen again or just give up entirely. So, make sure you set means to slowly measure your progress, whether it is a number on a scale, a number on a treadmill or a number of days active per week. When you start seeing small goals achieved, it will give you the confidence to keep going and pushing toward your larger goal.
6. Lastly, find motivation. This is extremely important for being healthy. Maybe it’s a trip to the Carribbean, a medical reason or just wanting to be a role model for your children. When you have something to make all the hard work worth it, especially something like your health, it will count when you are finding yourself under temptation to skip a workout or binge on food.