After years of highly rated and successful summer camps in the Madison area, we moved our Camp to downtown Madison to the host hotel for Ironman Wisconsin. The Hilton Madison Monona Terrace, Madison’s #1 rated hotel property, sits right next to the Ironman transition area and Lake Monona, the site of the Ironman swim course. With our Camp base at the Hilton, we swam, biked and ran on the IM course without any car shuttling or parking issues. This meant more workout time and less time wasted driving around while we are at Camp! It was fantastic!

ET’s Founder and Head Coach, Joe LoPresto and ET’s Camp Director and Triathlon Coach, Suzy Cerra, designed a first class training Camp experience with the perfect mix of workouts and social time. ET Summer Camp helped move our training to the next level and accommodated athletes of all ability levels, from first year sprint distance triathletes to those training for the Ironman.

Workouts opportunities included three open water swims, two bike rides and three runs! We even had a mental skills training clinic provided by ET Mental Skills Coach, Erin McCombs.

Camp opened Friday night with Coach Suzy’s overview of the weekend. Some campers had already jumped in the lake for the optional pre-camp swim workout hosted by Coach Joe. After Suzy’s overview, we did a 30 minute chatty group run along Lake Monona. You could just see the excitement building for the upcoming weekend. From the run, we headed over to The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company for recovery food and beverages.

We started each morning with Coach Suzy’s famous sunrise lakeside breakfast. Campers really appreciated the flexibility to eat before or after their swim workout. The food was perfect and the sunrise swimming along the Ironman Wisconsin swim course was priceless.

After Saturday’s swim we split into three ride groups with planned distances from 45-112 miles on the Ironman bike course. Weather was ideal and all campers had a fantastic day on the bike. Many did a brick run just for some extra fun! 😉

One of the signature components of summer camp is the Saturday night team dinner. It offers a chance to “clean up” and have a great meal with good friends. We dined at Francesca’s al Lago, only two blocks from the Hilton.  We all ate well and shared training stories and some experiences of our day.

Sunday started with the third swim opportunity and another great Suzy Sunrise Breakfast, followed by a long run around Lake Monona. The views were breathtaking as we enjoyed the last workout of our incredible camp experience.

We closed camp at Starbucks on the Capitol Square. It was one final chance for some social time and a little caffeine for the long car ride back home. A few campers did one more recovery bike around the lake and some of us went for BBQ at Smoky Jon’s #1 BBQ. Did you know that Jon and Coach Joe were roommates many years ago?

Our goal for 2014 was to create a whole new experience in Madison. By the camper comments and survey ratings, it certainly looks like we hit the target! Thanks for joining us, thanks to all the coaches for helping out, and thanks for all the memories!!

Enjoy all the pictures from our breakthrough Camp weekend on the ET Photo Gallery!