Many thanks to Sheila McGinn for her wonderful account of this unique camp:
Mont Ste. Marie Masters Dry Land Camp August 10-12, 2007
In his book “Mastery”, George Leonard writes of the journey to mastery that many athletes follow. To support us on this journey, the Ottawa Pacers have sponsored the 2007 Mont Ste. Marie Masters Dry Land Camp. Ten masters members of the Pacers, plus three of our fellow masters from Quebec and New York, have assembled in Mont Ste. Marie for a weekend of instruction and practice, hopefully on the road to mastery.
Mike and Carleen Rivet are hosting the camp. Colleen Janusauskas will help Carleen with the task of keeping us nourished, and Gavin Thulien and Grant Edgar will assist Mike with the coaching.
Mike is our regular long track coach, so most of us have an idea of what we’re in for. It will be fun, but it will be difficult, and we can’t wait to start. I’ve got my bathing suit, my towel and my sleeping bag, and I’m off to camp!
Day One
Friday afternoon starts with what Mike describes as a “light workout”. This pretty much fits with my expectations of a hill run, but Mike says that’s tomorrow. Up the hill, and core work. Down the hill, and imitations. Up the hill, different core work. Down the hill… you get the picture. Mike at the top of the hill, Gavin at the bottom. No escape. Apparently, we’re pretty slow, or at least some of us are. I check my heart rate monitor later, and sure enough, down was a lot faster than up.
We follow with some pure core work in the paddock, using a communal chair apparatus, and medicine balls… and play a game of partner tag, for agility and explosiveness.
It’s hot, we’re hot, but we make it to the lodge to change into our bathing suits before we jump into the lake.
Before supper, the expected nutritional lecture from Beth Mansfield of Peak Performance turns out to be a much deeper appreciation of the physiology of the Masters Athlete. The change in our metabolism, what’s happening to our fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibres, the impact on our recovery rate, and then how nutrition interacts with all of that.
Supper follows. Carleen has planned a series of meals that incorporate these good nutritional rules. The meatballs are hearty, and so are our appetites. After supper, there’s a campfire, complete with lessons on Tonya’s Djembe. For the energetic, that is - I hit the hay, being as I’m pretty sure Mike is serious about the 7 AM warm-up run.
Day Two
Sure enough, there’s a run at 7 AM. I’m used to 5 out / 5 in for warm-ups, but this is more like 10 and 10. This is not nearly as flat as Ottawa, and there’s footwork, too. At least the scenery’s beautiful. After the run, the skipping rope on the “to bring” list turns out to be for stretching. I’m late for this (thought I should be lining up for breakfast).
Big breakfast – Carleen’s done it again – followed by a group meeting to find out what Mike means by a hill run. Later, I find I’ve written “hell run” in my notes. This is huge. In my mind I pictured a road with an incline. Not a steep forest trail. The hill we could see from the lodge turns out to be the one we’ll look down on from the top.
Grant’s at the bottom, Gavin at the halfway checkpoint making sure we’re all still on the trail, and Mike’s at the top with the water bottles and treats. This will test our ankle strength and flexibility, our overall agility, our balance, our cardiovascular endurance, our strength endurance, our power, our coordination – not much will be missed.
We do two versions of the run. The first one’s alone. The next is a team effort – fastest with slowest, second with second last… the ropes we’re supposed to be using have gone missing, but we’re told to stay in close contact. The luck of the draw pairs me with Alain. I always enjoy an opportunity to train with a better athlete, just following in their path, trying to do what they do. It’s like that with Alain. He sights the trail markers, chooses the secure footing, I just have to try to keep up. On the steep parts, and it’s mostly steep parts, he extends a helping hand. Where it’s less steep, he encourages me as we run. A walkie-talkie problem at the critical moment means we don’t get our second time, but it’s definitely way better than my first attempt. Alain may be glad he doesn’t know how it compares to his first time, but he seems genuinely pleased with our result.
At the top the second time, there are treats specially prepared by Carleen to feed our recovery – putting our learning into action – and a chance to celebrate with our fellow campers.
Back at the bottom of the hill, after two ascents, no one feels like trekking back to the lodge for bathing suits, so it’s swim-as-you-are. Something about these group swims has everyone in high spirits, there are lots of laughs, and it feels good to cool down after a tough workout on a hot day.
There’s a little downtime after lunch. Somehow Gavin has scoffed a deal on an all-terrain skateboard. After trying variations of what appear to be more of Mike’s balance exercises, the smart people decide the dry land version of skeleton would be better. Marilyn gets the points for most distance, but Alain is clearly the overall winner for an Oscar-level performance / simulation of a close encounter with a tree.
Honestly, it’s not what it looks like… skateboards don’t develop a lot of momentum on grass.
Then the serious work begins. Frisbees and stretching for warm-up, then into the paddock for plyometrics with pylons and hockey sticks, medicine ball for core, agility ladders and finally the dreaded bungee cords (more plyometrics). Gail and Geneviève show us how it’s done:
It gets competitive at the end. The women whup the men… well, maybe by just a couple of seconds, but a clean win nonetheless.
We make it back for our bathing suits for the last swim of the day. Tom and Jim are triathletes-in-training and have decided to do a lake swim, so Geneviève and I take kayaks out as support boats. It’s perfect - a beautiful lake, the hypnotic rhythm of the experienced long distance swimmer, the sun glittering on the waves and suffusing us with a sense of well-being. A sweet day…
We spend the evening reviewing the day’s pictures, enjoying another awesome meal by Carleen and Colleen, attempting to sing around the camp fire, anticipating day three.
Day Three
Sunday starts with a warm-up ‘meander and games’, led by Alicia. After breakfast we have a group session on fitness. All the things we worked on yesterday, for sure. We also talk about rest, sleeping, and recovery. We suspect that’s homework. Gavin leads a discussion on the north, south, east and west of our development – technique, equipment, training, and nutrition.
The workout today consists of different simulations / imitations. Lots and lots of low walks (or low ‘ox’ according to one participant), and work on crossovers with ropes and belts and a good strong partner.
One last swim (didn’t make it back for my suit this time either), and it’s time for our final meal. We’d like to take Carleen home with us. We settle for the leftover treats.
Many thanks to Mike and Carleen, and to Colleen, Gavin and Grant, for all the planning and preparation, and all their work, support and encouragement. No injuries, no tears, lots of laughs, good food, good fun, we have to do this again next year! It was a great weekend, we all learned a lot, and it was, well, as much fun as going to camp.
In his book “Mastery”, George Leonard writes of the journey to mastery that many athletes follow. To support us on this journey, the Ottawa Pacers have sponsored the 2007 Mont Ste. Marie Masters Dry Land Camp. Ten masters members of the Pacers, plus three of our fellow masters from Quebec and New York, have assembled in Mont Ste. Marie for a weekend of instruction and practice, hopefully on the road to mastery.
Mike and Carleen Rivet are hosting the camp. Colleen Janusauskas will help Carleen with the task of keeping us nourished, and Gavin Thulien and Grant Edgar will assist Mike with the coaching.
Mike is our regular long track coach, so most of us have an idea of what we’re in for. It will be fun, but it will be difficult, and we can’t wait to start. I’ve got my bathing suit, my towel and my sleeping bag, and I’m off to camp!
Day One
Friday afternoon starts with what Mike describes as a “light workout”. This pretty much fits with my expectations of a hill run, but Mike says that’s tomorrow. Up the hill, and core work. Down the hill, and imitations. Up the hill, different core work. Down the hill… you get the picture. Mike at the top of the hill, Gavin at the bottom. No escape. Apparently, we’re pretty slow, or at least some of us are. I check my heart rate monitor later, and sure enough, down was a lot faster than up.
We follow with some pure core work in the paddock, using a communal chair apparatus, and medicine balls… and play a game of partner tag, for agility and explosiveness.
It’s hot, we’re hot, but we make it to the lodge to change into our bathing suits before we jump into the lake.
Before supper, the expected nutritional lecture from Beth Mansfield of Peak Performance turns out to be a much deeper appreciation of the physiology of the Masters Athlete. The change in our metabolism, what’s happening to our fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibres, the impact on our recovery rate, and then how nutrition interacts with all of that.
Supper follows. Carleen has planned a series of meals that incorporate these good nutritional rules. The meatballs are hearty, and so are our appetites. After supper, there’s a campfire, complete with lessons on Tonya’s Djembe. For the energetic, that is - I hit the hay, being as I’m pretty sure Mike is serious about the 7 AM warm-up run.Day Two
Sure enough, there’s a run at 7 AM. I’m used to 5 out / 5 in for warm-ups, but this is more like 10 and 10. This is not nearly as flat as Ottawa, and there’s footwork, too. At least the scenery’s beautiful. After the run, the skipping rope on the “to bring” list turns out to be for stretching. I’m late for this (thought I should be lining up for breakfast).
Big breakfast – Carleen’s done it again – followed by a group meeting to find out what Mike means by a hill run. Later, I find I’ve written “hell run” in my notes. This is huge. In my mind I pictured a road with an incline. Not a steep forest trail. The hill we could see from the lodge turns out to be the one we’ll look down on from the top.
Grant’s at the bottom, Gavin at the halfway checkpoint making sure we’re all still on the trail, and Mike’s at the top with the water bottles and treats. This will test our ankle strength and flexibility, our overall agility, our balance, our cardiovascular endurance, our strength endurance, our power, our coordination – not much will be missed.
We do two versions of the run. The first one’s alone. The next is a team effort – fastest with slowest, second with second last… the ropes we’re supposed to be using have gone missing, but we’re told to stay in close contact. The luck of the draw pairs me with Alain. I always enjoy an opportunity to train with a better athlete, just following in their path, trying to do what they do. It’s like that with Alain. He sights the trail markers, chooses the secure footing, I just have to try to keep up. On the steep parts, and it’s mostly steep parts, he extends a helping hand. Where it’s less steep, he encourages me as we run. A walkie-talkie problem at the critical moment means we don’t get our second time, but it’s definitely way better than my first attempt. Alain may be glad he doesn’t know how it compares to his first time, but he seems genuinely pleased with our result.
At the top the second time, there are treats specially prepared by Carleen to feed our recovery – putting our learning into action – and a chance to celebrate with our fellow campers.
Back at the bottom of the hill, after two ascents, no one feels like trekking back to the lodge for bathing suits, so it’s swim-as-you-are. Something about these group swims has everyone in high spirits, there are lots of laughs, and it feels good to cool down after a tough workout on a hot day.There’s a little downtime after lunch. Somehow Gavin has scoffed a deal on an all-terrain skateboard. After trying variations of what appear to be more of Mike’s balance exercises, the smart people decide the dry land version of skeleton would be better. Marilyn gets the points for most distance, but Alain is clearly the overall winner for an Oscar-level performance / simulation of a close encounter with a tree.
Honestly, it’s not what it looks like… skateboards don’t develop a lot of momentum on grass.Then the serious work begins. Frisbees and stretching for warm-up, then into the paddock for plyometrics with pylons and hockey sticks, medicine ball for core, agility ladders and finally the dreaded bungee cords (more plyometrics). Gail and Geneviève show us how it’s done:
It gets competitive at the end. The women whup the men… well, maybe by just a couple of seconds, but a clean win nonetheless.We make it back for our bathing suits for the last swim of the day. Tom and Jim are triathletes-in-training and have decided to do a lake swim, so Geneviève and I take kayaks out as support boats. It’s perfect - a beautiful lake, the hypnotic rhythm of the experienced long distance swimmer, the sun glittering on the waves and suffusing us with a sense of well-being. A sweet day…
We spend the evening reviewing the day’s pictures, enjoying another awesome meal by Carleen and Colleen, attempting to sing around the camp fire, anticipating day three.
Day Three
Sunday starts with a warm-up ‘meander and games’, led by Alicia. After breakfast we have a group session on fitness. All the things we worked on yesterday, for sure. We also talk about rest, sleeping, and recovery. We suspect that’s homework. Gavin leads a discussion on the north, south, east and west of our development – technique, equipment, training, and nutrition.
The workout today consists of different simulations / imitations. Lots and lots of low walks (or low ‘ox’ according to one participant), and work on crossovers with ropes and belts and a good strong partner.
One last swim (didn’t make it back for my suit this time either), and it’s time for our final meal. We’d like to take Carleen home with us. We settle for the leftover treats.Many thanks to Mike and Carleen, and to Colleen, Gavin and Grant, for all the planning and preparation, and all their work, support and encouragement. No injuries, no tears, lots of laughs, good food, good fun, we have to do this again next year! It was a great weekend, we all learned a lot, and it was, well, as much fun as going to camp.
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