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You’re happy with your racing, but you know you have more potential, and you are ready to take it to the next level. What are the secrets to unlocking that potential and reaching your racing goals? How can you meld your racing and training schedule with career, family, and other obligations, while still maintaining balance? We can help. Hermosa Tours is extremely proud to launch the Travis Brown Training Tour this June in Durango, CO.
1999 NORBA Champion, 2005 & 2006 NORBA Marathon Champion, 2000 Olympian in Sydney and 2006 Mountain Bike Hall of Fame Inductee….he’s got quite a list. But talking with Travis for just a few minutes you’ll find him to be down to earth, articulate and overall a great guy. Travis will share his holistic approach to racing, training and life with the goal of tailoring his philosophy to your personal athletic pursuits and life balance. This will not be a generic training plan template. We’ve kept the group size small because Travis wants to get to know YOU, understand what YOUR goals are and what YOUR life is about. You’ll come in with your own talents and abilities, and a vision for where you’re headed with your racing, and you’ll leave with new perspectives and a road map on how to get there.
The tour is designed to be highly personal and customized to your specific needs and goals. Our client to staff ratio will be 3 to 1 or better. You’ll complete a pre-trip survey that is designed to help us better understand your racing background and individual goals, allowing us to tailor the tour to you before you even arrive.
Once in Durango, there will be lots of time set aside for you to work one-on-one with Travis and the rest of our staff. No question will go unanswered, and nothing is too specific for us to address with you.
You’ll receive a full skills and fitness assessment over the course of the trip, which will be used to create a personalized “road map” that will carry you toward your goals throughout the rest of the 2008 racing season.
Even after the conclusion of the training tour, you will continue to benefit from your experience and Travis’ guidance. All athletes will be added to a private monthly email newsletter that will contain ongoing advice and tips throughout the race season, and will answer the top 3 questions submitted from the group on a monthly basis.
If you are interested in a deeper ongoing private coaching relationship, our certified staff can create a custom program that will build on the foundations built in Durango, all for very reasonable rates. It is our hope that this event will become an annual tradition for our athletes, and serve as the foundation for a year-round program toward fulfillment on the bike, and in life.
Our staff will greet you at your gate at the Durango/La Plata County Airport, relieve you of your luggage, and bring you into town where your room at a downtown Durango hotel is waiting. You are free to explore on your own this afternoon, as the staff make final preparations and take care of your fellow guests arriving throughout the day. Grab a sandwich and a beer on the patio at one of several local brewpubs, walk historic Main Street, or pick up some last minute supplies at our partner local bike shop.
Tonight we’ll get together for dinner with Travis and go over the daily training plan. We’ll take this time to get to know one another and this will also be a valuable time for you to share your personal goals both for the training tour and your racing.
Over the four days, we will alternate ride lengths and paces to address different training objectives, and keep us fresh throughout the entire tour. The efforts will be hard, but with proper rest and recovery, including quality meals, hot-tub access, and a mid-tour sports massage, you will be able to build fitness and improve day to day.
On day one we will set out into the Telegraph Trail System – an IMBA Epic designated area. This trail is an all-day epic exploration of some of Durango’s high desert singletrack. Travis and our staff will spend time riding one-on-one with each athlete, assessing skills and goals. We’ll be out for a long period of time today, riding at a quick, but controlled “base training” pace. At the end of the day, we’ll be tired, but our legs and lungs won’t be fried. There are three more days of riding ahead.
We’ll increase the intensity and specificity of our effort on day two, introducing several structured efforts from Travis’ arsenal of favorites. The Colorado Trail near town offers a sustained set of climbs where we will combine some brief anaerobic intervals, with sections of extremely technical climbing, and some sustained threshold and out-of-the-saddle efforts. This first half of the ride will feel similar to a training race, with output at 80% - 90% of race effort. And at the end, you’ll be rewarded with long, sweeping singletrack descents, heading down into the Junction Creek drainage and back into town.
Technical skills and smooth pro-level descending will be our focus on day three. After yesterday’s efforts, our legs need a day of partial rest. So, we’ll head up in the Hermosa Tours vans to the northern trailhead of Hermosa Creek Trail. We know it’s a rare day that XC racers don’t elect to climb and work for the descents, but you’ve earned it. Starting out at around 9000 feet elevation, today’s ride has a net descent of about 2000 feet over 20 miles. Travis will lead us down ribbon singletrack through aspen groves, showing us techniques to pick up critical seconds through the corners. We’ll take our sweet time, soaking in the nature, stopping for snacks and lunch, and re-riding the best lines. We will run repeats on some of the most technical rock and root-strewn sections of trail, with Travis giving instruction on line selection, trail vision, and maintaining flow. Descending is a far-too-often neglected skill for many racers, and at the higher levels, can be the difference between a mid-pack finish, and a spot on the podium.
Over the tour thus far, we’ve isolated and examined all the key facets of successful racing. Today is the day we put it all together. Travis has designed a course that includes his secret training grounds. We’ll treat the entire day like a live race, waking early to eat a proper light pre-race meal, warming up before the gun, and then giving it our all. Depending on your personal speed and fitness, we may pull in a few top local racers to match you and give you an extra push. At the end of the day, Travis and the coaching staff will review your feelings about your performance one-on-one with you. If you’re using a heart rate monitor or power meter, we’ll upload and analyze your files. And we’ll discuss a road map for you for the remainder of your season. It’s a good thing it’s the last day, because if all goes according to plan, you’ll be spent. But you’ll leave with some new perspectives and a renewed energy to push yourself on to new heights.
After a great four days of riding, we love to celebrate the end of the trip with a group dinner in town. After the close of our race simulation, we’ll take a few hours to relax and clean up at your rooms, and then we’ll stroll over to our closing dinner celebration. This is a great time for everyone to reflect on their experiences and tell war stories accumulated from the many great miles of singletrack. Hermosa Tours and Travis thank our guests tonight with some unique gift bags. Cheers!
If you are leaving the next day Hermosa Tours will shuttle you to the airport for your flight home.
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