Taleo Team Training Camp

2010 Taleo Team Training Camp

Here's a quick summary of our first-ever team training camp, held January 23-24 in Sonoma County.

- Over 30 of us met at the Petaluma KOA campground on Saturday
morning. The KOA is a great facility -- heated cabins for those of us
who stayed over, a rec room w/kitchen where we had instructional
sessions, cooked, ate, drank, and hung out, and right at the gateway
for many terrific rides in Sonoma and Marin Counties. Plus only an
hour from the Walnut Creek area and from SF. Carlos (lodging
chairdude) worked with the KOA to make sure everything ran smoothly,
and ChrisK (finance/registration chairdude) made sure all of the many
back-office details were airtight.

- We had coffee and pastries, introduced ourselves, BobH (ride/route
chairdude) gave us route slips and maps, Fred (instruction chairdude)
took us through a quick paceline drill, and we were off.

- We did a terrific ~3.5-hour ride, which included an epic hailstorm
on the front side of the Marshall Wall. Except for that section, the
sections of rain on that ride weren't too heinous. Fred coached us
through paceline drills on his motorcycle and MattL made sure
everyone was safe in the follow car.

- Once we got back, Jonny (food chairdude) immediately got rolling on
getting lunch together. After we ate, we had a great afternoon
session of instructional presentations and discussions. Fred took us
through many skills that we can use in training and racing, peppered
with his entertaining anecdotes from his life racing in the European
peloton and coaching racers. MattL gave an excellent presentation on
performance testing and its relevance to training plan development.
And, I led an interactive discussion about the mental side of
cycling, in which many of our teammates contributed things they've
learned about becoming more mentally fit on the bike.

- We were all pretty gassed by the evening, but the BYOB happy hour
was fun, and although one of the two ovens stopped working, Jonny and
team found a way to get dinner on the table. Then ScottP
(entertainment chairdude) took the helm, showing The Road to Roubaix
on the bigscreen TV, holding a raffle for a performance test (thanks
again MattL and Dave), which LauraT won, and conducting a poker
tournament in which Demian won a performance test as well.

- After breakfast on Sunday, we headed out again for a shorter ride
on a different route with less climbing. Yet again Jonny et al had to
bolt upon returning to get lunch for us (you probably know this
already, but that guy is FAST), we had a bit more instructional stuff
from Fred, completed the written evaluations of the training camp,
and then we cleaned up the rec room and said our goodbyes.

- The written evaluations had many compliments and many helpful
suggestions for how to improve the camp next year. Thanks to those of
you who gave us feedback. On a scale of 1 to 10, the average overall
rating given to the camp was 9.3, with 100% of the responses being an
8, 9, or 10, so that was a good sign.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and to everyone who helped
organize and manage it. We set out to learn some things that would
help us in our racing, to build camaraderie in the team, and to have
fun. We did it!

Best,
Marvin