A scenic road to trail to beach run at the first day of Camp
When you’ve been so used to the fit lifestyle, you get to find new ways to have fun. Fun is when you do a battery of core workouts and do running drills in between. Fun is also when you go for a very long 150 km ride appreciating the historical churches and natural attractions. Fun is also when you go extreme on a tough 1.5 kilometers swim. That’s truly an epic weekend for Camp Alpha and that’s just a day in the office for Camp Alpha. #iamspecialized #iamsuunto #GoPro #CampAlpha #EpicBohol #UnilabActiveHealth #Gatorade #NewtonRunning #Bellevue
Epic Bohol
Hello Bellevue!!!Hello Bellevue!!! That’s our official place of resident as we joined the GoPro Camp Alpha Epic Bohol from September 25-27, 2015. Bellevue and Bohol is just the perfect location for the camp as we got to enjoy the beauty of the facilities in Bellevue as well as enjoyed the roads of Bohol. I joined mostly the run clinics but it was awesome seeing your fellow athletes conquer 150 kilometers of bike and about 1.5 kilometer of extreme open water swim. It was a test of will and endurance as they got to do all of these in one epic weekend.
Day 1 – September 25, 2015
Core and Drill Workouts at the Beach – Photo from Bellevue
The first day started with a lecture on the importance of core and some of the key workouts to can do to strengthen our core muscles. Having a strong core is really important when you swim, you bike, you run or you do several fitness activities. It gives you balance and helps you maintain proper form when you race. It goes a long way especially in the longer workouts as fatigue sets in, it’s your core and your form that will carry you through the finish line. It would also prevent several injuries as you get to balance the load among your muscle groups.
Doing a short 3K Road to Trail to Beach Run – Photo from Andy Leuterio
After the brief lecture and demonstration, it was time to work on our core strength. We had to do several sets of push ups, burpees, cannonballs, sprawl, donkey kicks and v-ups and had drills like jog, backward run. strides, high kness, duck kicks, lunges in between sets. It was a total body workout that really challenged our core and energy reserves. It really helps doing the drills and the core workout as it improves our upper body strength as well as increase our stride length and improve our running form. We also did the workout barefoot to have a better feel of the surface. The uneven terrain of the beach added to the challenge but the softer surface gave less strain on the legs.
The view also made the tough workouts refreshing.
After the drills and core workout, we went on a refreshing run. It was a short run but the run had us transitioning from the road in front of Bellevue to the soft trails and to the beach front heading back to Bellevue. It was a really scenic run as we had the ocean as our backdrop. The white sands of the beach were run-friendly as it was soft on the knees and stable enough to come up with decent strides. We did the run at a very fast pace but we did stop midway into the run to appreciate the views. It was a visual treat that gave us a better appreciation of the beauty of the area.
Coach Andy gives a lecture on Training & Racing with Pace, Power, and Heart Rate
The night was reserved for a lecture on training and racing with Pace, Power and Heart Rate. This is one thing we can really focus on especially with more powerful GPS watches like Suunto that can give us the key metrics we can monitor to improve performance. It’s also good to invest in a power meter so you can see on how much you can improve on the bike. There’s always a room for improvement as even at your best, there will always be someone better than you. It’s important to keep improving on your weak points and understanding your strengths. You’ll also need to have the proper nutrition as learning how to fuel yourself within a race to get your optimal performance.
Day 2 – September 26, 2015
The Alphas at a Coffee Stop towards the end of their Epic Ride.
Day 2 was reserved for an Epic 150 kilometers bike ride for most of the participants. That’s a ride around Bohol starting from Bellevue with stops at Baclayon and Loboc Church on the way to the halfway point at chocolate hills View Deck at 75 kilometers. From chocolate hills, they headed to the Loboc River area, Dauis church and had a final stop at a coffee shop before heading back to Bellevue for 150 kilometers worth of riding. That’s a ride through the heritage sites of Bohol in the historical churches. It’s an appreciation of nature with the man made forest and the chocolate hills. That translate to about 1000 meters of elevation gain spread out over the 150 kilometers ride. The impressive part about this is that 100% of the participants went on to finish the distance strong.
It was really amazing to see them conquer the distance considering that they had also did the drills and core workout the day before and will be doing an open water swim the day after. You gotta make the most of the weekend as most of the participants are also preparing for Ironman distance races. I’m sure they would be ready come race day on November.
150 Km Bike Route
It’s a Run Workout for Me
Running 10K in Panglao Area
Whilethe awesome ones were away, I went on a run. It was so refreshing running in Panglao as I had a 10K out and back loop that had me reaching the other side of Panglao. The roads were smooth. The scenes were fresh. The sun was up too. It started as a cool run in the rain but ended up to be a hot one towards the end. The initial plan was to do 10K out and back refill water at Bellevue and do another 6K on the road. Since it was hot already, I opted to just do the remaining 6K in the gym. That’s good enough for 2 hours worth of running for me.
Day 3 – September 27, 2015
Before the Open Water Race early Sunday Morning.
Sunday was reserved for an extreme 2-4 km Swim Our Island open water swim. This is my first time to witness an open water race and this is different from the usual out and back races. The participants had to be transported in the middle of the sea then had to swim back to the shore. Since it was an extreme open water swim, there were a lot of things that didn’t go as expected. The 3-4 kilometer area was really too wild that the organizers opted to go for a shorter 1.5 to 2 distance for safety reasons. Despite the shorter distance, it remained a challenging swim as the waves were really high and it took a lot of effort to swim. It was also great that there were kayaks watching over the swimmers in extreme conditions like this as everybody came to shore safe and sound.
Alphas Gryf and August finishing their Swim Distance
Hat’s off to the swimmers who joined as this was really a difficult one. Some even went home on top of their age group and that’s coming from two days of exhausting workouts. Great Job Guys!!! Open Water Swim is starting to gain more mileage as a separate endurance event. It’s a very young sport and at times unpredictable with the wave conditions but seeing the sport grow through events like this is a good way to appreciate the oceans and be fit.
Congrats to all participants and finishers.
The GoPro Camp Alpha: Bohol triathlon training session was presented by Specialized and the Bellevue Resorts Bohol. It was supported by RUNNR, Newton, Unilab Active Health and SUUNTo. Gatorade is the official drink of Camp Alpha while Toyota Tagbilaran provided the official Support and Gear Vehicles for Epic Bohol.
That concludes the GoPro Camp Alpha Epic Bohol Adventure. Well, the fun is just getting started as there will be more camps in the future. Stay tuned and be a part of it. I promise you every muscle ache would be worth it.
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