Ana Dennier
It is all about the right coach¡K (and not about the bike!)
I met Nigel at the NRGPT training camp in Riccione, Italy in April 2006. The camp was so impressive, so much fun, and everything was so well organized that as we returned to Toronto, my husband and I were already making plans to join NRGPT in their April 2007 training camp!
During the summer of 2006 I saw NRGPT in most races that I did. The coaches were always so friendly, happy and motivating, even enthusiastically cheering for me at races though I wasn¡¦t part of the NRGPT team at the time. I honestly felt like I was an honorary member. Fast forward to September 2006 when I contacted Nigel, after a very disappointing Ironman, and asked him if he would be available to coach me for the upcoming 2007 season, as I had already signed up for Ironman Lake Placid. At the time, I was still recovering from an injury and Nigel just kept checking up on me, until I was injury-free again, and could train. Once cleared from injury, we started building my fitness again.
Nigel¡¦s training program makes sense, it is intuitive, and it is fun to do, thanks to his vast years of experience in training for his own triathlons. He also understands what it takes to train while holding a full time job and what it takes to motivate people while training in the winter (and trust me, I need a lot of motivation, coming from Brazil and all). This last year of training was fabulous. I was consistently tested for my lactate thresholds on the bike and the run to ensure a progression in my fitness. Nigel also shared his enthusiasm for triathlons, and also provided me, with what I call ¡§the full package¡¨: not only a training plan, but what the workouts mean, what they do for you, regular feedback on the workouts, regular checking to make sure everything was going well, key nutritional information that is essential for executing an Ironman, proper pacing (and lots of practice of proper pacing!), and last, but not least, equipment selection. Even though I had 5 Ironman seasons under my belt, I had always done them on a road bike with clip-on aerobars and no race wheels. This year, I got a super-aero Cervelo P3C which Nigel fitted me on (beware: there will be no spacers left under your stem if Nigel ever gets a hold of your bike!). He even helped me by suggesting specific gearing ratios to have installed on the bike! I am so aero now that my training buddies that used to drop me in all our rides now have to use their aero bars to keep up! ƒº
My husband and I returned to the Italy training camp in 2007 (we couldn¡¦t wait!) and it was a blast. Nigel was always motivating and was always there to help me out with a ¡§little¡¨ (sometimes a lot!) push up the big hills of Italy, as I (often) fell back behind his super fast team of mountain goats. Now that is support!!!
As the weather finally cleared up in Toronto, we started meeting the NRGPT group at Lake Wilcox on Saturdays and Sundays for our own training. It was fun to meet other members of the group and hook up with people of similar abilities. I also attended the NRGPT Lake Placid Training Camp in June, which was extremely well organized and fully supported by all four coaches (Nigel, Fiona, Sylvie and Deb). The training camp also included critical seminars, which provided us with essential tools for performing well at Ironman. Everything you needed to do with respect to pacing and nutrition. Oh, how I wish I had that information during the last 5 years of Ironman and long course races I had completed!
NRGPT had 20 athletes competing at Ironman USA Lake Placid this past July. As Lake Placid is close enough to Toronto, it allows the coaches to come out and watch us. We had a brief athlete meeting a few days before the race to go over the basics of the race, and calm down some nerves. On the morning of the race, at 5 a.m., Nigel, Sylvie and Deb were there even before some athletes showed up!!! They immediately followed me to my bike and pumped up my tires, and gave me lots of last minute encouragement. It was so great to see them!!! Even during the race, they were there cheering everyone and ensuring that all was going well, as well as yelling out important cues such as ¡§Stay on top of your nutrition¡¨, which is very important during the haze of an Ironman marathon¡K The most incredible thing about the NRGPT coaches is that no matter if you are finishing your Ironman in 9:30 hours or 17 hours, they are there to cheer for you and provide you the same level of attention and support!!! And they are there as you finish your race to congratulate you and help you out with anything you need.
And to top it all off, after the Ironman, thanks to the super training plan that Nigel put together for me for the last year, I feel great! I am not burned out, I am not injured, and I am ready to train and enjoy many more months of training under the super motivating and expertise of Coach Nigel.
