Magnolia Masters Pro Camp
How I came upon to hear about and then get invited to the Magnolia Masters Pro Camp is a very interesting story so pull up a chair.
I first met Lizzie Nyitray at the 2019 Outspoken Women in Triathlon Summit and then we both raced Challenge Daytona 2019; Lizzie as a pro and me as an Age Grouper. We chatted after the race about what we were going to do next. Her plans were to go to a swim camp in January with Tim Floyd, the swim coach for the Magnolia Masters team (MM) located in The Woodlands, TX. I was intrigued and asked Lizzie if she could set me up with an introduction. She e-introduced Tim and I which led to a follow-up phone call for him and I to chat. After talking with Tim for almost an hour, he invited me to the camp. Some time after I accepted I realized that it was a very small group of pro triathletes and not a mass swim camp. My first thought was WTF there is no one I can hide behind.
On MM’s website Tim does a great job giving a day by day breakdown of workouts, links, and other athletes’ blogs/experiences about the pro camp there. I am just going to give a brief account of my experience. Swim schedule was double days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with one swim Saturday and no swimming Wednesday or Sunday.
Day one, swim one. I show up more nervous than a new kid on the first day of school. I could not sleep the night before. I was up three hours before Lizzie came by to pick me up and my nerves had me in an out of the bathroom all morning. I was so stressed out about what the other athletes would think of me and my lack of swimming talent. I was honest with Tim when we talked on the phone and told him my half and full distance triathlon times along with saying that I could hold 1:30 per 100s in a yard pool on a 1:50 cycle so there was no secrets about my swimming skills. I was also stressed out that Tim would be some crazy drill sergeant on the side of the pool freaking out because I was holding up a set or something. When we talked on the phone he seemed so nice and chill but sometimes people change when they get in their element. The warm up was supposed to be a warm up. I swam too hard. We were supposed to do a descending set of 4x100. I ascended. The main set was supposed to be easy to moderate. I thought it was bloody hard. After our morning swim I went back to my AirBnB, ate, and reflected on day one, swim one.
After each swim I would update my Training Peaks with what the workout was, three things that went well, and three things that I needed to work on. I would read and re-read these entries before each swim thereafter to help motivate myself and keep myself focused. Even though I had a horrible first swim, I had two key takeaways that helped me through the rest of camp. First, the other athletes did not care how slow, fast, fit, etc. of a swimmer I was or was not. They were there to improve their swimming and work on their own speed. Second, Tim was not a crazy drill sergeant that started throwing kick boards around when I swam too slow. He was a coach, a teacher, and a mentor that wanted to see each and every one of us improve no matter what. After I let those two revelations sink in I was able to relax and look forward to the swim boot camp to come.
The next two weeks are all a blur. I took it one day, one swim, one effort, and one meal at a time. I completely let go of my past times, my past swimming experiences, and tried to swim in the moment. I gained more confidence as I started relaxing and focusing on one skill each day. In between swims I tried to eat right after the workout, drink coffee, and binge on Netflix all the while staying calm before the next swim. The less I fought the water the faster I got and at the end I was hitting some 1:19’s on a 1:40 cycle! Absolutely crazy fast for me. Tim provided an environment to push yourself mentally and physically to the max by positive feedback and USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) training style. I truly feel my improvements came from a combination of coaching, workout structure, and being motivated by so many high caliber athletes getting after it every day. The camp slowly came to an end and it was time for the last Saturday morning swim before I needed to drop Lizzie off at the airport, pick my husband up, then drive to packet pick up for the Huston Marathon the next day. The marathon is a whole crazy story on its own.
I would like to thank the sponsors of the camp:
https://www.aquavolo.com for the drag socks and mitts
https://fikeswim.com for their “Brick” kick board
https://lagunafin.com for the fins
I would also like to thank Trinsik Sports for allowing MM to have access to a Nome an Scott Flathouse for taking some epic photos.