Day 3 begins with the gang assembled in wetsuits at 7:15am. It’s still dark and there are reports of restless night’s sleep and pre-ace anticipation as we make our way to transition….several comments are made about how akin this feels to Ironman morning! We’ll just be racing 1500m + 5(ish)km for our aquathon but with two solid training days in our legs, we’re all feeling at least apprehensive. Not least because in the pre-dawn gloom no one is able to see the big orange rubber ring turn buoy that Steven has tied about 350m from the shore. Luckily, once it’s started to get light it brightened up very rapidly and we’ everyone was reassured and good to go: two out-and-back laps for the swim. Various degrees of straight line were taken to reach the buoy, and Mel’s swim pace was almost as impressive as her utter inability to navigate a direct line between two fixed points. It’d be odd not to make some mention of jellyfish at some point in this blog: some were seen and felt as were several unusual looking rays. Transition included a run up the beach, then a brutal set of steps to our change area, before we ran out on our 2-lap run course along the seafront, which most people noted was not very flat!
It was great fun for me to have swum the second lap with Kevin and Simon and leave transition with them both close behind me. Kevin soon showed me his heels, whilst Simon was contented to look at mine. I was determined to catch Mel, and did manage to make up a little ground, but her 3min15second lead was too substantial in the end. The race was taken by Tim closely followed by Roger – two very impressive performances from two very competitive characters! It was great to see that everyone was giving it a good effort – and from the banter afterwards it seemed enjoyed the race. Marc A swam a 24 min 1500 and then withdrew on grounds of an achilles problem – he will complete the camp having earned a discretionary Wildcard by swimming back out to untie our marker buoy for us!
Here are the results of our aquathlon race which will be used to handicap the rest of the events on the camp – from here on we’re racing for points, and points means prizes!!!
All the racing talk and provisional results made for some jolly breakfast banter before kitting up for our days riding. Today’s route was a ride of the Ocean Lava half-ironman distance course, with a few tag-ons to make up a 110km ride for a “Wildcard”. This gruelling race includes an ascent of Femes’ steep side before going over Fire Mountain. Those who had earned a Wildcard yesterday were able to avoid this, the hardest climb on the island. As per yesterday, we organised two departures – one group rolling 15minutes ahead of a slightly faster group. There were a few pairs of tired legs as we pedalled up the unavoidable climbs out of Puerto d Carmen, and it took a bit of rallying to keep our large group moving! An earlier departure does allow this easier pace, and Emma and I managed the gaps between us. With the stronger riders making roundabout loops or rolling back along the raod rather than roadside regroup stops, and after half an hour or so had a nice continuos flow with everyone riding a pace that was comfortable for them (under the circumstances!) whilst maintaining the feeling of being on a group ride. Steven’s faster group probably has a lesser spread of pace and employs different tactics for keeping the group together – although every time I saw him today , he was on his own at the top of a climb!! At the break point between the standard and long ride option (which was to approach Fermes via Playa Blanca) we said goodbye to Emma, Simon and Ted and also Paul W who was playing his “wildcard” and saving his legs. We gained Kevin from the fast group, which proved useful on the return across the lava fields!
It’s been a tough three days and having ridden with her for 3 days now, I’ve been very impressed with Sarah, who took up ironman only recently having been inspired to do so whilst providing massage for our camp here last year. These are big rides and at a challenging pace for her – especially on top of everything else on the camp. But she’s kept on pedalling (with a little less than gentle encouragement at times) with must less rest than most of us, tucking in and hanging on a wheel for the last hour or so to get the job done and home when necessary – all without so much as a pause in her cheerful patter. We’ve thrown some hard work at her and still not found her “grunt point”!
An early return to base enabled me to get some mechanical works done on my bike and have a massage whilst others sunbathed – or went out to bank a second run. I have to confess that I’d planned to do just that whilst my bike was worked on, but “legs said no!” so I’m most impressed by the oldies who did ;o)
Another Jelly Fish free day ! Checking for them each day is almost certainly going to mean I get most swim KM this camp as I get between 300 and 500m done before everyone else arrives on the beach. The more I swim and don’t see them the more confident I am about none being out there. It being dark doesn’t really help though.
Corrections and apologies: 
After a day of mostly smooth airport pick-ups, hotel check-ins and bike assembly and shake-down rides, our camp of 13 athletes, and 5 staff assembled for the formal welcome and camp introduction on Saturday evening. Having run through details of the week that will follow, including the camp points competition, handcapped races and the concept of “camp completion” …we sent them to bed with two warnings. One, that they would be loosing an hour’s sleep due to the clocks changing form winter to summertime and Two, that we may not be able to swim in the sea due to the sudden appearance of large swarms of jellyfish. There have been jellies in the bay across Peurto del Carmen since Janurary, due to some underwater volcanic activity, and although they’ been keeping themselves very scarce all week, on saturday morning they had returned with large-scale reinforcements. What a bummer! We had been unwilling to enter the water and we could hardly expect the group to do so. 
Until 2008 a “training camp” for Steven and I was nothing more than booking a week’s holiday and heading somewhere inexpensive and warm with our bikes – a precious 6 days dedicated to getting as much swim, biking and running that we could fit into that time, with very little else besides. We’d heard about organised camps – but both self coached at the time and sufficiently motivated it wasn’t until we heard about Epic Camp that the idea had any appeal. E[pic camps were something a bit different form the “norm” – an 8-day camp for athletes of a certain calibre with an emphasis firmly on volume but with a completive element which encouraged some racing and hard rides. Throw enough egos and training junkies into that environment and you get something very special and we were fortunate enough to be invited back after Epic Italy 2008 for two further camps before the Grande Final tour of NZ which marked the end of Epic. Since reinventing myself a a professional athlete, I have been on a few extended camps with a group of friends, also professional triathletes, appreciating that in order to get through some of the hardest work, it’s necessary to create a highly focused environment – easy access to training good facilities, weather and company within a simple routine with few external distractions. 
Whilst Steven was out in Hawaii enjoying his 6th time competing at the Ironman World Championships, I was glued to the IornmanLIVE coverage, which was simply brilliant. What an exciting race this year, in both the women’s and mens race. Of course, I wished I was out there and in the race myself, but for a supporter we sure had quite a show this year. And, this year has been a great year for me as a supporter, since besides Steven we had two EverydayTraining athletes competing in this iconic event for their first time. These girls have shown dedication and commitment to their training all year, despite the various hurdles that life throws in the way: injury, family & relationship commitments bereavement, work stresses, threats of deportation and swimming across the channel. It is this willingness to stick at the had work, adapting when necessary and not lose sight of a goal that Kona qualifiers share. Both found the race tough – the climatic conditions, massive adrenaline buzz and general standard of the competition make this an Ironman like no other – but had good races, finishing in the top 20 in their age groups. 
The graph shows the effect of a single training session over time. Fatigue starts much higher than fitness but after about 15 time periods the residual fitness is higher than the fatigue. The graph uses the typical factors for increase in fitness / fatigue and speed of decay but every athlete is different and though this generalised approach deciding these factors for a specific athlete can optimise the increase in training loads and help develop the ideal taper.
EverydayTraining 