Lake Placid, NY Open Water Training Camp

The World Championship Open Water team all met in Lake Placid for a training camp before going to Montreal for the competition. There were 8 athletes...4 male and 4 female...and 6 members of the coaching/medical staff. Margy Keefe qualified to swim the 5K from a pool competition...Erica Rose qualified to swim the 10K and 25K at open water Nationals in Ft. Myers...Erica Watts qualified to swim the 25K from nationals but had to leave the team at the end of the camp and was replaced by Rendy who also swam the 25K at nationals...I qualified to swim the 5K and 10K at nationals. On the men's side: Scott Kauffman (my teammate from U of F) qualified for the 5K from Ft. Myers...Chip Peterson qualified to swim the 5K from the pool competition and the 10K from the open water nationals...John Kenny qualified for the 10K and 25K...Sean Seaver qualified in the 25K. So that is the USA team for the Open Water events!
It was really fun to get to know all these people...and all the staff. Everyone was really excited about how fast this team is going to be. The training camp was a really good idea because some of the team was really new to open water and this was a great time to learn the techniques and practice some of the small things that make a big difference in the race.
We stayed at the OTC (I will compare it to the OTC in Colorado later:) so rooming and food was all taken care of...the surprise part was where we were training: in a beautiful lake (same lake they use for the Lake Placid Ironman in 2 weeks!). It is called Mirror Lake and no motor boats are allowed on it...perfect for swimming. But that's not all that was perfect...they set up a course that was identical to the world championship course: two rowing lanes with small buoys every 10 meters and larger buoys at the turns.
I had a great time swimming here...too bad there is not an equivalent in Colorado Springs! Since I'm attempting to keep my triathlon training going...I had my bike and run stuff with me and took advantage of the amazing roads around the OTC. Lake Placid is a very rural area so even the highways are not busy...meaning biking conditions are great. I rode along a beautiful river which is also part of the Ironman course...and did some trail running through beautiful pine trees.
*Since our departure from Lake Placid I have wrote an e-mail to my triathlon coach in Colorado Springs to start to convince him to plan training time at the Lake Placid OTC next year!*
Our 4 days were over way too fast and we started to pack up for the bus ride to Montreal. I look forward to returning soon! I was able to keep my bike out of the bike box for the travel...always a bonus! News from Montreal next.