{"id":614,"date":"2018-02-04T18:14:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T18:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/?p=614"},"modified":"2018-02-04T18:22:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T18:22:51","slug":"no-sight-no-limits-2018-1-16-21-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/04\/no-sight-no-limits-2018-1-16-21-18\/","title":{"rendered":"No Sight No Limits 2018 (1\/16-21\/18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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[Photo courtesy of Amy Dixon \/ Camp No Sight No Limits]<\/p>\n

This was my second year going out to San Diego for Amy Dixon<\/a>\u2019s No Sight No Limits<\/a> Camp. While it was a challenge to disconnect from everything else for the week, the return for doing so has been immense.<\/p>\n

As a blind\/VI athlete, trust is essential. You\u2019re putting your life in someone else\u2019s hands, trusting that they won\u2019t lead you off course, into obsticles or wreck the bike. As I was having problems finding a guide, Amy helped me with that. While I hadn\u2019t met Chris prior to camp, I trusted it would all work out well. And it did \u2013 in so many ways!<\/p>\n

With both United Airlines<\/a> and Southwest Airlines<\/a> generously agreed to waive the bike fees, everything was set. A chance to leave the Chicago cold for a week in the San Diego sun? Absolutely \u2013 stop twisting my arm!<\/p>\n

During the bike builds, we found out that my tandem wouldn\u2019t work for us. I had thought it was a M\/L frame; it\u2019s actually a S\/M frame. So we let a team that fit better to it use it and were on one of the Santana<\/a> had generously loaned for use during camp. Being on a new bike, it sometimes takes a couple of rides to get everything adjusted, so our first group ride was with the seat too low. But it all got worked out.<\/p>\n

Day 2 started with us in the pool, followed by bike skills on the grass\/pavement and then a run session. During both this day and the following, Chris Huxley was doing individual stroke analysis with everyone. I am anxiously waiting the drills so that I can work on all of that with my coach. While this year the grass was much drier, the bike skills were still a challenge. I didn\u2019t realize that the cover on one of my cleats had come off, so I had bent it while walking. Let\u2019s just leave it at clipping in\/out was no fun until Mike helped to switch them out after Day 2. During the run, the entire front piece of both knees started hurting really bad \u2013 icing afterwards helped that. <\/p>\n

Day 3 started out in the pool again, followed by work on the Criterion course \/ drills and transition. Like new shoes, new cleats take some time to get broken in. So for Day 3, while the clipping in\/out was better, it still wasn\u2019t smooth. The Criterion course in a challenging, hilly course, and when you\u2019re confident on it, is a lot of fun. But since I had fallen several times due to clip issues prior, it was a little bit of white knuckle riding. Thankfully we didn\u2019t have to try and do transition practice in the hail agin this year! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Day 4 started out with swimming in Ventura Cove followed by a bike\/run brick and then strength training. I\u2019m very grateful to Xterra<\/a>\u2019s help in having a long sleeve wet suit. Trying to swim in the cove in a short sleeve one would have been a bad idea. It had been about 5 years since I\u2019ve swum in salt water, and the salt taste from my mustache kept making it a little hard to consistently swim. But it was still fun, and I was looking forward to doing it again the next day. Going into the Criterion course fresh (no falls) made it much more enjoyable. Still a challenge, but no white knucles!<\/p>\n

As we headed to strength training, it started to rain. When it rains hard in San Diego, it backs up into the ocean, and you can\u2019t swim in it for 48-72 hours afterwards. A hard rain at Fiesta Island turned our Triathlon for Day 5 into a Duathalon. And post storm, there was a 20mph+ head wind across most of the bike course. But Chris kept us steady and moving forward on the bike. Both (shortened) runs got completed, and we finished strong.<\/p>\n

Throughout camp, there were also lectures on bike maintenance, race prep, sports psychology (presented by Simon and Lesley \u2013 their book is available here<\/a>), recovery (the Normatec<\/a> boots are amazing), technology (including a really nice presentation by Craig from RunGo<\/a>) and nutrition. Oh, and most importantly, post-race massages from Amy\u2019s roommate who is a licensed massage therapist. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

While there were hiccups and challenges during the week, I learned a tremendous amount. I have already been applying things learned there to my practices. And Chris Holley, who is a nutrition coach, has started helping me to tackle what\u2019s been an ongoing hurdle. I am excited to see how the season turns out with putting all of this to use and to being back in San Diego in the near future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Photo courtesy of Amy Dixon \/ Camp No Sight No Limits] This was my second year going out to San Diego for Amy Dixon\u2019s No Sight No Limits Camp. While it was a challenge to disconnect from everything else for the week, the return for doing so has been immense. As a blind\/VI athlete, trust … Continue reading No Sight No Limits 2018 (1\/16-21\/18)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[257,311,7],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james","tag-nosightnolimits","tag-chula-vista","tag-james-gilliard"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}