Go Camping with 3X XTERRA World Champ, Melanie McQuaid
by Pamela Hunt
Close your eyes and imagine your ideal coach. Tough, kind, incredibly knowledgeable, totally trustworthy, and maybe a bit of a badass.
If you just imagined three-time XTERRA World Champ Melanie McQuaid, you are in luck. This year, McQuaid will be leading the Tri the Dirt off-road triathlon camp from April 27th-29th at Bear Mountain Resort in Victoria, British Columbia. She and former pro mountain biker, Adam Walker will offer intense mountain bike coaching for both beginners and expert off-road athletes.
“For XTERRA and mountain bike racing, fundamental technical skills are always going to be a limiter if they are not in place,” said McQuaid of her decision to offer a camp. “So I figure the most important coaching I could offer are the technical aspects of XTERRA and off-road triathlon. I partnered with Adam, an experienced skills coach, so together we can offer a camp of technical coaching that will blow people away.”
The camp is a natural progression of McQuaid’s coaching and skills clinics. Last December, she offered a swim and run camp that was highly successful.
Tri the Dirt Camp will kick off Friday evening with a hill running session and dinner. Saturday will begin with a mountain bike skills workshop, a session on bike set-up, and continue with a lesson on skills, including angulation, rotation, cornering, and pumping. The day will conclude with an open water swim practice. Sunday will be equally awesome and will include another mountain bike skills session and a duathlon to practice transitions.
McQuaid added that her camp is neither a train-cation nor a mad, overtraining opportunity. “We are going to make you better technically. You will see immediate results and take away knowledge that will continue to improve and break through to new levels in your sport.”
But this is also camp, meaning that the weekend is pretty much guaranteed to be a blast.
“In general, mountain biking demands a laid back attitude,” said McQuaid. “It’s part of the culture. So as soon as a mountain bike is involved, people relax, have fun, and enjoy the connection to nature and other athletes. You are coming to Canada. We pride ourselves on friendliness, politeness, and kicking serious ass on mountain bikes. We would love to demonstrate all of the above at Tri The Dirt Camp.”
For more information on Melanie McQuaid’s Tri the Dirt Camp, visit http://melrad.com/
