EverydayTraining

Jo was pleased that so many campers elected to take up the option of a longer swim this morning and join for a 6:45am start to the day. It was “just about” light, and the group enjoyed the spectacle of the sunrise from the water. The rest of the group did a short warm up swim, meeting up with them at the end of their loop. This morning’s scheduled swim session is probably the most intense bit of work on the camp – swim starts and exits – and this morning, with the low tide, the buoy we use was much closer to shore. It made the whole event more fun as there was very little swimming distance involved and it really meant that the quality of your running into the water and negotiating the surf was key. It certainly helped the taller you were! We started with everyone in a very small pen and raced in, around the buoy, and back out. Most were doubled up from this 1- minute sprint effort.  First out was our masseuse Rob, who is an ex-rugby player and that probably helped with this sort of racing. This initial effort meant he was paired with the slowest (last out)  for the relay. By fluke (or rather a result of Jo’s short legs and shocking body surfing skills) Jo and I were paired, and so in the 2 x three lap relay race which followed, we were leading up until the last leg, but were eventually out done by the super-competitive Lance and Matthew combo.

Todays ride was round the beautiful north of the Island on the Ironman route with a detour down to Orzola. This ride enabled the athletes who have signed up for the Ironman here in May, but as yet unfamiliar with the course, to ride a significant portion of the race route: the hilly bit. The weather was perfect with only a light wind, and we also managed the timing well so that our  two groups met up at the top of Mirador del Haria. We offered a shorter ride option ( for thsoe who had earned a “wild card” yesterday) which was declined by all, and in fact every single camper ( with a little peer pressure in one or two cases)  chose the option of riding home via the Tabeyesco climb and thus earning a wildcard for use tomorrow.  This allows them to avoid Femes tomorrow should they chose. Steven’s faster group needed a two-coffee stop at the top to refuel which allowed Jo’s group to pass them and resulted both coming together down the donkey track. It’s great when the timings work that the whole camp finishes the ride more or less together.

With the exception of those who played their wild cards, all todays runs were “off the bike”, but the athlete who most impressed the coaches today was Linda, who was out on the run like a flash. When we saw her on her way back home she explained that she’d had to be quick in order to be back in time for Happy Hour at the hotel bar! Several campers went longer than the minimum 30 minutes but most were done at the end of their 6 or 7 hour day in time for the second half of happy hour, and relaxed with a beer whilst standing thigh-deep in the cold pool discussing the days events.

Emma, of The Kinesis-Morvelo Project, and camp ride leader, pictured here “doing her job”. 4 hours into the ride Greg finally comes to terms with it!! You can follow Emma’s updates from camp via her Kinesis-Morvelo Project blog

Following the 100% successful arrival of athletes, luggage and bikes yesterday, most of the campers had time in the afternoon for a short shake-down ride. John gave a hint of how this camp may pan out when he ordered a beer at the coffee and cake stop after all of 7.5km! . This theme continued when Matthew produced G&Ts for anyone that fancied it on his balcony before dinner.

A very civilised start to this year’s camp!

Our first day started with a 7am dlap of the Ironman swim course. It was nice and calm, with light winds and very little swell, so most swimmers added on a visit to “The Rocks” to look at the fish, which we estimate as a 2km swim in total.

Our ride took us out to El Golfo in order to ride a warm -up loop to ensure that everyone knew the route for the “sporting” 10 mile TT that is a traditional feature of our first day on camp. This year’s results reflect the favourable weather conditions (although Brett’s Record form 2010 still stands) and it was also interesting to see that the middle 5 riders’ times were all within 11 seconds of one another .

Notable mentions to Rob McRitchie who, just like last year, showed himself to be the “King of Sand-Bagging” with all sorts of comments about how unfit he was as we approached the test, and then proceeded to produce the fastest time of the day. His result ranks him in the all time top three with a time of 26:01. Another awesome performance came from Mel, on her third camp this year, who produced a PB of over 2 minutes with the 4th fastest time of the day.

Check out the short movie taken form the finish line

Following a coffee in Yaiza, the majority earned a “wild card” by riding over Fire Mountain rather than the direct route home. This relatively short ride meant that there was time for some lunch before our group run along part of the Ironman course. A few people sensibly metered out there efforts and stuck to the 30 minute minimum whilst a pleasing number of the others opted to run a full hour, thus earning a “wild card” and the option of a day off running tomorrow. Steven thought he was going to impress by running for a full 1hr 40 but as he finished he met Matthew returning and learned that he’d run for the same length of time but managed a mile further. That run was the second longest (in distance) so far recorded on any of our camps.

Emma, The Kinesis-Morvelo Project team rider, joins us again as a ride leader and you can follow her updates from camp via her Kinesis-Morvelo Project blog

We’ve hosted early-season camps out in Lanzarote for the past two years and have been fortunate to have attracted great groups of athletes, with exactly the right attitude- those who turn up ready to get stuck in and duke it out against their bodies, changing their perceptions about what they can achieve in the process. This year we have ten more long distance triathletes, including three “repeat offenders” (gluttons for punishment) who are currently preparing and packing for a massive week of training out on the Little Island, the Kona of the Canaries.

It’s our view that at the right time of year, and in combination with the right pre-camp preparation and post-camp recovery, there is great value in BIG WEEK training for endurance athletes. Not just on a fitness level, but also psychologically. But just try to achieve a genuine big training week at home; very difficult- even for a full time athlete.  Being on a camp not only provides you with the motivation to get up and go each day, but having all training sessions organized, routes planned, nutrition available and the company of others makes it a whole lot easier. That’s not to mention being able to finish your day with a nice stretch and beverage by the pool, rather than rushing back to domestic chores and preparations for work the next day!

So, working on “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle, we are returning to the same great apart-hotel that hosted us last year and we are very fortunate that Emma (Kinesis-Morvelo Project Rider) is returning to lend ride and logistical support and and Ali (Mills Physio) as a guest of the camp will be leading some pilates-based stretching and conditioning workouts to help get us through the camp in one piece.

We are also delighted that  The Tri Touch continues to support our camps, with masseur Rob Beavan providing massage services for the aching athletes each day and are very grateful for the ongoing support of Powerbar Nutrition which enables us to provide each camper with their own selection pack of sports product to keep them going through the camp. Both of these sponsors really help us to make our camps something extra special, not to mention great value for money.

In addition we have some special gifts and prizes from a great portfolio of additional sponsors this year:

Blueseventy

TenPoint Triathlon

Freespeed

Primal Lifestyle

My Tri Club

Nuun

The camp schedule is closely based on the formula that has been so successful in 2011 and 2012 – with a few small tweaks and a new route. We’ll be keeping the camp competitions, the wild card system and the overall aim of “camp completion” with 30+ hours of training in the six days of camp – for some people it’ll be their biggest ever training week, for others it’s an opportunity to do even more – and we will be doing our best to keep up with them!!

Below are some of the training “records” set on previous camps:

As I write this, I’m watching garden furniture flying across the garden and hearing the kinds of howling winds that send a shudder through me, reminisce of night in 2012 spent riding back and forth between Playa Blanca and El Golfo…..but isn’t that just why we love Lanzarote, folks???

BRING IT ON

We’ll be blogging each day whilst on the camp – from the 9th March – so do check in to follow the guys and gals progress!

Finally, I can report some genuine jelly fish news! Fortunately it was only Steven and Simon who had elected to get up early and do an optional swim prior to the long ride this morning. They only swam about a km until they’d had enough stings, and joined the rest of the camp for an early and hasty breakfast. We had three groups departing at 8:20, 8:40 and 8:50am – covering the full Ironman Lanzarote bike course on the last day of a camp in which we had already averaged over 25hours of training per person in 5 days, we were not underestimating how tough this could be for some of us, and wanted to encourage as early starts, working together as a group and most efficient stops during the ride possible.

Today I was riding with the “middle” group – Ted, Marc A, Mel, Simon and Frank, were the unlucky campers who, Steven joked ,were “not likely to get a coffee stop”.  Through the week these guys had been pretty evenly matched in terms of bike strength, and certainly a good pace for me over 6hrs. Today, however, I had reached the end of my reserves and mostly lead the ride form the rear, shamelessly making use of their wheels for most of the ride! Simon, lets call him the “sand-bagger’s apprentice”, was on great form, and having apparently taken things easy all week, was not up for riding at our friendly pace…and we last saw him churning away around the El Golfo loop. No-one saw him all day  -he’d cracked on solo and ridden the route in 6hr50 incl. stops . I felt that the group could have used the benefit of his strength today, as the winds were not only blowing in the non-typical direction, but were blowing hard. However – like everyone, he’s paid to come here and get the most out of himself and we’re here to  support that, so good on him. Lucky for us  (me!) Frank was happy to wait for us and stick with the group, and  “The Train” proved invaluable ride company in the second half of the ride, along the LZ1 and all the way home into a head-wind. He was riding at his own pace, but anyone who could hang on his wheel was welcome to it, seemed to be his attitude. I certainly felt it was worth busting myself to stay there – and lets just say that I was neither in my happy place, or seeing much of the scenery! Mel was riding strong, as she has all week, despite a hacking cough, and Marc and Ted remained as jolly as always. My thanks to Marc who came to the rescue when Mel had a major mechanical in the town of Haria, and my congratulations to both Mel and Frank who managed somehow to get in a sneaky coffee on two occasions!

jo

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Challenging conditions today with winds strong and from an unusual direction meaning for the majority of the day we had cross winds. The early riding was very sensible and sociable nicely ticking it along till we got to over 3 hours which was Tim’s criteria for a stop. We got all the way to Teguise where we stopped at Johnnies Bakes. Everyone loved it and resolved to pop in on the way back too!

The fun had started (i.e. pushing the pace ) on the climb to Teguise and it continued after the top up to Haria. We’d passed the other groups prior to our stop but watched them head by so it was fun to catch them and exchange a few words on the climb. Rain and cloud at the top so we didn’t hang around. In Haria we found Jo’s group with a broken chain which they’d managed to get fixed, so we continued. Emma’s slow group rolled in very shortly afterwards.

Once we hit the LZ1 we had a headwind and I felt it best to just “get it done”. The guys took it in turns to join me on the front and we gradually cranked up the pace before heading up to Teguise for the 5km climb into the wind. Rob made a false move halfway thinking we were nearly there, accelerating past us. I was impressed he was making his move so far from the end of the climb, before I realised he’d made a mistake. At the top everyone looked spent resulting in a lot of chat over our second coffee and cake being about how the work was done and we’d ride easy back. We stayed a little longer as Johnnie had just baked some hot cross buns and treated us to some.

Once back Out on the road Tim set the pace and started cranking it – before we know it most are on the rivet all along to the turn to the donkey track. Then it was plain sailing down with the tail wind before spotting Jo’s group ahead on the bypass road resulting in a chase to try and catch them before the end. It was in vain.

Brilliant ride. Roger, Tim, Rob and Kevin all worked incredibly hard at the end of a very solid week, and it was really fun to be a part of it.

Steven

READ EMMA’S BLOG

We almost had some real jelly fish action today…but ,having managed to persuade everyone to get in the sea anyway, it turned out to be false alarm. This was just as well since we were all hoping to swim a full hour today, earning our swim ‘wildcards’ for tomorrow so that we’d be able to start our long rides promptly.

Given the big day  of riding that lies ahead to mark the end of the camp, we had schedule short routes – a 60km standard and a 90km long option – but with the inclusion of Femes (for the second time in the week for some). Most opted for the 60km route, riding at a very moderate pace and were pleased to get back to   the hotel by 1pm prior to the main event of the day; a 10km handicapped run race.

Having passed the “halfway” mark the spirit on camp is high: our experience is that most people suffer a dip on day 3 or 4  – the freshness and enthusiasm of the first couple of days has worn off, the fatigue of the first few days of hard training really starts to take its toll, and we see some people really struggle through the mid-point .This is where the value of being on camp really become apparent: everyone knows the feeling and encourages each other through it. We all do more that we think we can, or think we want to, because others are. Fortunately everyone’s low-point comes at a slightly different time – otherwise we’d probably have a mutiny!! Then we get to day 5: the end of the week is in sight – and people realise what they have already achieved- and what they will have achieved by the end of it. They realise that, in this circumstance, sitting on a wheel, getting beaten up a climb or a running a slower than usual race is OK and nothing to be ashamed of – because no-one is!!

That’s why we include a “guess your time” element to the 10k run race; asking people for a predicted time and then confiscating or taping over their watch or Garmin.  It would be interesting to get an estimate off everyone at the start of the camp and one just before the race on day 5 – and see how they differ! When asked for their predictions on the start -line (which we did) most people do tend to err massively on the pessimistic side – but once the gun goes and they’re running off handicap for places, exceed their expectations. Everyone knew that this was the final event in the points completion, and effectively 1 person passed was worth 1 point – and so on average ran 2 or more minutes faster than predicted. Steven and I both raced, and ran slower than our predictions! There’s an example of the power of motivation: we’ve both done less total training than the campers but neither of us were racing for the camp rankings. It’s unlikely that anyone ran a 10k PB here today, but we had some decent run times all the same – with Tim and Roger both breaking Jon’s 39:51 course record from last year with 39:49 and 38:52 respectively. Roger’s time was enough to pass Sarah for the handicap win… which earns him a pair of Vibram 5-fingers of his choice from Primal Lifestyle.

The “Guess-Your -Time” prize went to Ted who guessed his time as only 18 seconds slower than he actually ran, and won himself a run assessment and technique coaching session from TenPoint Triathlon.

By crossing the line first Sarah held onto her 3 point lead in the points competition, whilst Roger’s second place finish moved him into second place, nudging Rob down into 3rd spot. As far as racing goes, it’s now all over – the final camp winner will be the highest point scorer who completes the camp – which for these three, just means getting tomorrow’s 180km Ironman Course route ride done.

Jo

READ EMMA’S BLOG HERE

Another day and No Jelly Fish !! So, we brought the swim handicap forward to this morning rather than leave it to chance that we’d be able to hold this, the first of our “points” races, tomorrow.

This was a proper race – it was really very rough and I felt it would really favour the strong swimmers. How wrong was I – Paul and Sarah swam strongly from their handicapped front positions to hold everyone off and take first and second. For his win, Paul received two pairs of Blue Seventy goggles. I managed to come in third and must apologise to Mel for again not giving enough time and for laughing as I passed her on the beach turnaround.  I’ll note it here so I get it right next year – I need to give her four minutes.

Well done to everyone for completing the course in pretty scary conditions. Special mention to Emma our super ride leader who not only acted as waved battered turn buoy, but then accompanied Ted for the second half of the race to ensure that he completed the daily minimum swim requirement having withdrawn himself from the race on grounds of being “a bit scared” (his words!)

Next on the day’s agenda was the Tabeyesco Time Trial. The second points race of the camp, we had everyone starting off at one minute intervals. The conditions were definitely not favourable for this event either, and to give an idea last year I went 31:23 @ 340 watts today I went 31:04 @ 357 watts and about 3KG lighter. Great to see so many people working so hard this far in to the camp as people were clearly tired during the ride to the start-point. It’s good for everyone to appreciate that even when tired they can race hard. That really is what a training camp like this can do for you more than anything you’ll do on your own; chuck in a bit of a competition and even after 3 hard days we saw some full-on efforts and great performances.

We’ve worked out the handicap result for the Tabeyesco TT, and our winner is Rob – he gets a Freespeed Retul bike fitting. He’s been riding so strong on his new bike and I’m sure Richard’s expert eye on his fit will only make him stronger.

After a refreshment break in the Mirador Haria Cafe, about half the camp headed for our scheduled  “long ride” whilst the rest took the standard 97km option most of those, having realised that teh actual distance was 99km at the hotel finished with a lap of the block to make it up to 100km for my Eddington Numbers!! I was chuffed not only that they did it but also that they clearly understand what it’s about. This contributed to the number getting to 96km.

Those that had run wild cards used them. Everyone else ran the minimum, Jo and I both chose to run an hour after our rides to make up for a lost run earlier in the week. Frank headed out for a second swim (and didn’t sight any jelly fish).

With one race to go the camp points are tight. Having crossed the line 2nd on handicapped swim race and ranking 5th on handicap in the Tabyasco TT Sarah is leading on 21 points  (13 for a 1st, reducing to 1 point for last on handicap)  but then it really masses up behind with three tied for second on 18 and several with between 15 and 17. Tomorrows 10km run race will be exciting with every place worth a point and Sarah will be one of the first to start.

Our points standings are:

(note that camp completion is required for winning the points prize)

Steven

READ EMMA’S BLOG HERE