EverydayTraining

STEVEN’S DAY

The final day of the camp had always been planned as a big day with everyone doing at least the Ironman course. In the planning we hadn’t realised that it would be dark till after 7am so the plan to have everyone swim before the ride wasn’t realistic. Instead most campers swam extra yesterday to earn a wild card so they didn’t have to swim this morning. There were some that did though so I headed out with Simon (no wild card but if there’s training to be done he’ll do it!) Marc, Ted and Matt at 7am. Jo was right, it was dark. As we stood in waist deep water and chatted about sharks, as you do ahead of swimming in the see Marc pipes up to Simon:

“I’m a yacht master back home. See that boat out there?”

“Yes” says Simon

“See those lights ?”

“Yes” says Simon

“Thats a shark fishing boat”

Simon almost leapt out of the sea before he saw us all laughing.

We swam along the edge of the beach in shallow water and enjoyed a relaxed swim staying right next to each other and enjoying the colours change in the sky as the sun came up. Not convinced any of us would have viewed it as training but it’s the principle of getting it done that matters – showing committment to just getting it done.

Everyone came to breakfast ready to ride. So lycra everywhere at 8am as the buffet opened. It was like a whirlwind as food was stuffed down and everyone was ready to ride at not long after 8:30am. The plan was to set the majority off at 8:30am with Emma and Jo who would split it in to two groups as required shortly in to the ride. I was leading the fast guys who rumour had it wanted a hard ride. Now with hindsight I do wonder whether this was a cunning ploy by the other campers as thinking about it I don’t remember one of the “fast guys” specifically saying this to me just other people saying they “heard”. Jo and I wanted to our best for everyone to really push themselves so I was determined to help it be  hard ride.

Good on Kevin for choosing to have a go riding with us again after the second days blistering pace and the talk of the pace we’d achieved the day before. We headed out at 9:10am … 10 minutes after our planned start time but I knew it didn’t really matter as we’d almost certainly still catch the other groups but it would be later which I felt would be better for moral all round. For us, it’s great setting off like this as it, not only, gives a target ahead, but also it means we get so see and chat briefly with everyone else on the camp.

Once out of town and on the bypass road I decided we should start as we mean to go on and I set a decent pace. This was slightly tempered by having to have two stops to sort out my front derailleur. It was slipping due to the bolt not being tight enough. I blame the mechanic (me!). Up the first hill I think Kevin was already realising it could be a solid day ahead. Down to El Golfo John and Brett got on their aero bars and kicked up the pace. I knew that being on a road bike I needed to jump on wheels quick on these fast sections to keep with them. My plan was to get on their wheels when they were TTing on the flat / rolling sections and then put in top efforts on all the climbs.

At the start of El Golfo I dropped back to Kevin who decided he would drop in with one of the other groups when we caught them. At this point we didn’t realise how well everyone was riding so I wondered whether we’d see them at La Santa where we’d planned a stop. Over Fire Mountain be put up a cracking pace, light winds, cloudless skies made for a hot day but also for great riding and fast riding for the day.

Down to La Santa – no one ! We had a pretty quick stop and then back on the pace all the way round Soo and up to Teguise for a quick stop at the garage there. Here we saw Jo’s group but unfortunately for Kevin this was the slow group, the faster group was up the road being lead by Emma. Jo’s group set off pretty much as we arrived so we went by on the climb to Haria. I enjoyed being able to ride past everyone and have a quick word. I was really impressed how they were going and it was clear they were riding strong and keeping it rolling through the stops without faff.

Top of Haria having really ridden hard still no sign of the faster group. Through Haria and up to Mirador Del Rio we continued to push and finally we saw the next group. They’d really been riding well and they all looked very happy. We all whizzed down the descent and had lunch at the garage at the bottom. We’d not been there 10 minutes and Jo’s group arrived so we were able to enjoy lunch the whole camp together which was an added bonus.

Emma’s group were quickest back out on the road so when we passed them I assumed Kevin had just joined up with them as he said. Brett had snapped his front derailleur cable after lunch so was stuck in the small chainring. He did surprisingly well to stick with us. The final climb up to Teguise was hard but I managed to stick with Jon who then really pushed the rest of the way home. My legs were screaming over each rise as he surged over the top having to push 450 watts to stick with him. Finally we reached Conil and the fast stretch home. Ironman course (minus the bit along the front of PdC) in 5:37 and an average wattage of 250 (~10 above Ironman Pace) – a very solid ride indeed and I felt I deserved to just chill out.

Our worry about a long day for everyone didn’t really materialise with most back in time to run off the bike or chill by the pool with a beer (or both). It was nice to have time to relax with everyone and shoot the breeze after a great camp. Stories trickled in of Kevin’s major mechanical – snapped rear hanger, cracked frame, buckled wheel … he had to get a lift home.

Paul Weinreich had asked me earlier in the week about running a half marathon off the bike. I was not one to say no and it was definitely in the spirit of the camp so was keen to encourage it BUT I thought there was no way he would have time. Far from it, the guy cycled really well and had plenty of time to cover 20km in 2 hours for just over 9 hours training. He instantly became a legend on the camp and in my books. Ironman Lanzarote should hold no fear for him now !

JO’S DAY

The Grand Finale of the camp was a ride around the full Ironman course. Of course we’d built this up as a big day – which it is, even if you’re riding fresh – and those on the camp who were feeling the strain by wednesday had mostly made sure to have a lighter day yesterday in preparation for this ride. Having experienced very strong winds yesterday Steven, Emma and I were braced for and planning around a potentially very long day on the roads if people were suffering.

Completion of this ride was critical for ‘completion’ of the camp – and those who’d not earned or managed to obtain any ‘wildcards’ also had to swim and run 30 minutes too. To allow sufficient time for even the most weary paced riders to finish, everyone heeded our advice and were ruthlessly efficient by swimming in the dark, breakfasting in cycle kit with bikes, drinks and nutrition prepared the night before. It did seem rather rushed, but the first group – everyone except the ‘fast boys’ who were hoping to ride the course in as fast a time as possible (like 5 hrs) – rolled out at 8:30. It was a beautiful morning, cloudless and still skies and good spirits. I was really looking forward to the ride and happy with the relaxed pace. Emma and I decided to ride as a single ‘group’ until after the El Golfo loop – allowing a natural split in pace to establish two groups for the remainder of the day. We did make a slight detour off the course for a re-group and stock-up at Yaiza supermarket, at which point people were given the option to ride a bit faster with minimal stops with Emma, or a more leisurely pace with me. In general i may not be the most patient of people but today i was feeling relaxed and happy to cruise round – and thought i was doing Emma a Favour with an eerier job and shorter day. Ted, Roz, Farouk, Paul and I agreed to ride with stops to Teguise and rolled out toward fire-mountain.  I was so impressed with how our group worked together  -each using their own strengths to off set their weaknesses and keep the ride moving. I generally rode near the back where i was able to see if any one had dropped back and help get them to the group, or at least force the front riders to wait for us at the next turn, but aside from the longer hills this didn’t really happen much. I was pretty stunned when we arrived at Teguise garage to meet Emma’s  group still there, and the fast group pulled up just as they were leaving. Steven had been sure he’d have caught us a long time back! Ruthlessly efficient Farouk, being the first to arrive after the climb to the garage, had been in and bought water for everyone’s bottles, and Paul was saving us all time by eating his sandwich and peeing simultaneously! We maintained a great pace and good humour through the day and saw both of the other groups at each refreshment stop – we even had time for a photo stop at the top of Mirador del Rio, whilst Steven and his gang were smashing themselves around the island!

Having worked very neat chain-gang all the way down the Lz1 that stretch of road passed quickly and had given us all a bit of recovery before the terrible drag from Tahiche to Teguise. We all had our heads down and getting on with it when we saw Emma’s pack at the side of the road. They’d found Kevin at the side of the road with a major mechanical, having been dropped by the fast group, and were helping him to convert his broken rear mech to single speed. Mel, Marc, Matt and Sergio transferred to our group briefly – but having ridden the last portion of the course many times through the week felt confident of the route to ride on home ahead of us. I guess that given that they were riding 2-3km/hr faster but hadn’t made any more progress than us in the past 6 hours, they’d had a lot of dead time hanging around in the  sun. We arrived to PdC sufficiently fresh that when I offered to extend the ride a couple of km to show the actual race-day route into town ,everyone accepted.

Most of us were pleased to only have 30 min to run, and mostly chose to run ‘in private’ – certainly no one took me up on my offer of company – but Paul W donned his camel back and set off for 20km!! Relatively new to cycling, Paul had been  doing his very best to stay with the group and not hold us up. He’d worked hard all day and saw this as a rare opportunity to test how he’d feel come race day .Good on him! We were all sitting around the pool enjoying chilled beverages when he returned from his 9hour day. We have no doubts about his ability to get through the ironman now.

Friday is BBQ night at the Arena Dorada and we enjoyed  few bottles of wine to celebrate the end of the camp  – before hitting the town!

 STEVENS DAY

This morning was the final race of the camp which would decide the overall camp winner. We all headed down to the beach for the handicap swim race. We were pretty excited about it as we hoped the handicaps would be pretty accurate since the course length was approximately the same as the handicapping race. It was a beach start, round Emma holding our orange rubber ring, parallel to shore and round our red buoy, back round Emma up the beach and round Jo then the simple matter of swimming straight out to the line of buoys and back to the beach and across the line.

Simples we thought…

The sea was seriously choppy and made sighting difficult. I headed off 7:32 behind the first in last place and worked hard round the first section. Heading out to the line of buoys I appreciated just how high the swell was and focussed on looking for the buoys way off to the right which were in line with the ones we had to hit but I knew generally were more visible. I also had the advantage of having swum tonnes of times to the line of buoys and knew approximately how long it would take and that it was just beyond where you could no longer make out the bottom. I touched those buoys and was pretty certain I was leading. As I cruised back about a minute from shore I saw Roz running up the beach. Turns out she “likes” rough water and had steered one of the best courses. We had a sprint finish for third and then everyone drifted in with varying tails of woe. It was tough.

Jo and I had a brief nervous moment when we couldn’t spot the final three. Turns out they’d missed the line of buoys completely and ended up by a fishing boat. Sergio had asked the fisherman where the buoys were and they looked a little surprised. We credited them with an extra 500m of swimming. Brett was near Sergio so turned round with him and Paul Weinreich seeing them turn turned as well.

Most people chose to swim an extra 30 minutes after the race to get a wild card to avoid tomorrows swim. I lead an adventurous group to find the rocks in this big swell. We managed it but out there the swell was huge – the biggest I’ve seen here. It was great fun.

Rides today were reasonably short to allow people to ease up ready for tomorrow if they want. Many guys needed a regroup day and sensible minimised their training. Others just keep going for it. We like to see both ! Some campers are really starting to look tired but with just one day to go we’re hopeful they’ll all celebrate tomorrow night having learned a little about how much they can do.

I lead the fast guys, now down to Brett, Jon and I round an 83km route. Turned out a very windy day and from an unusual direction resulting in some horrible side winds for most of the day. Out into the teeth of this wind I was on the front doing ~320 watts when this spanish guy, who must have been at least 60, on a full suspension mountain bike with flat pedals stopped on the other side of the road, spun round and dropped into an echelon behind me. He sat there for a while before pulling through and doing his turn on the front. I said “I’m not proud” and just tucked in. Amazing. Jon had a chuckle then came through and we headed off and dropped him like a stone ;o) We hammered round the bike completing it in 2:49 with normalised power of 250 watts. Hopefully we’ve stitched out legs up enough to encourage some others to join our group tomorrow.

In the afternoon I took the chance not to run and catch up on admin and try and get better. I’ve a pretty terrible cold right now and am feeling pretty rotten at night though bizarrely once out swimming or cycling I feel great.

Only one day to go and we can celebrate. Currently the average daily hours per camper is 5:15 which means we’ll almost certainly hit the target of 30 hours per camper for the six days !

JO’S DAY

Based on the aquathon handicap, this morning we ‘made’ our campers do a similar length swim race but on a different course and with very different conditions, for the final of our three camp points competitions. We set the guys off on their handicapped start-times, which gave us 3 quite tightly bunched groups and a smattering in between. This would theoretically have allowed for some tactical racing, with similar strength people able to work together for improved performance relative to their own handicapping, had it nit been for the very rough conditions and some piss-poor navigation. Steven was racing – starting 2 min after Mel and was one of the few people who actually managed to make a reasonable direct course to the far turn-around out at sea and ultimately was second across the line. THE FAR turn around was a continuous string of buoys which runs about 300m out, parallel to the beach to mark out the boat- free zone. It was entertaining to watch most of them guys swimming a diagonal course, and in some cases virtually parallel to the string of buoys. At about the point where i started to become quite concerned about a group who were clearly never going to intersect the line and had managed to swim beyond the end of the line into the fishing zone and would soon be lost from sight around the next bay, they were approached by a fishing boat.  Sergio, our spanish camper, was asking them for directions to ‘the buoys’ !! Despite some pretty shocking navigation during the aquathon on a flat calm day, Roz managed a near perfect line and therefor improved her handicap to be the first out o the water – a second win for her! It goes to show that in the long run, consistency wins over raw speed – Roz may be amongst the slower of the group, but has thrown herself into a huge training week with massive enthusiasm and not faded at all. As a result of her ‘single speed setting’ she measures out here efforts very evenly and relative to  the rest of the camp, appears to be getting stronger through the week.

A fairly relaxed breakfast, we left as 3 groups on different length rides. Today ‘s popular option was the easy-paced 50km reduced ride for those playing ‘wild cards’ in advance of the long run option scheduled for the afternoon and a big final day planned for Friday. I lead a nice compact group of 5 around the ‘extended route’ – into a screaming head /side wind for 3 1/2 hours, whilst Steven took the fast paced riders (basically Jon and Brett with their heads down! ) around the standard route. The strong winds (which somehow were not our back at any point) heaped additional work and tension into even the easy sections of the route, and  what we were all hoping would be a nice steady ride was really very tiring. After a solid week I know that my legs were really feeling it and so I am pretty sure that the guys I was with, who have done more volume than they are accustomed AND raced daily for 5 days, would be feeling it even more.  On our approach to Fire Mountain from Mancha Blancha, we picked up an additional cyclist; a fit looking local who, having sat on the back for a while politely came through to take his turn. Conscious of the suffering in our group i was hesitant about picking up the speed to suit this rider, but in that wind his wheel was just too tempting and three of us jumped on. He towed us to the bottom of the climb where i expected he’d drop us like stones, but he did not react when Kevin made his early surge onto the hill and soon I found myself pushing on a little to pass them both. Caught on a corner by a very sudden strong gust from the side, I heard that dreaded clatter of bike on road and looked back to see that he’s been blown off. He quickly picked himself up and raced Kevin to the top. These conditions somewhat spoiled the lovely long descent off the ‘mountain’ into Yaiza, which i tok very cautiously at the back of the group  (which now included ‘Eric’ who Kevin was chatting to in Spanish). the offer of an additional lap around El Golfo loop was unanimously declined so we rode Eric’s wheel back into  town…finishing they day with a ‘race the locals’ effort up the final climb from Calero. When it transpired that we’d accidentally cut the planned route short,  I had no qualms about the missed km – we’d all had a tough ride, no matter what Marc’s power-meter told us  (his lowest av power of the camp).

The group long run that we’d planned for the afternoon ended up as several different runs in pairs – which was probably for teh best given the inevitable disparity in running pace and preference for terrain. Mel and Matt, having returned from their short ride a lot earlier decided to set off promptly off the bike and covered 20km on the cliff path in two hours – thats a good pace on that trail. Sergio reported that he’d “ran with a horse” meaning John, and Brett and Kevin took the coast path. I got to run with Simon, who I coach and have enjoyed seeing him really getting the absolute max out of this camp and discovering a lot about what he can do when sufficiently motivated. We opted to run along the Ironman route – no hills but the very solid running surface and dull scenery make this a tough run for me, so it was good to have company. We ran at Simon’s comfortable-steady pace on our way out, and agreed to negative split the return. With a slight tailwind, we found that it was quite easy to lift the pace and, with about 5 km left i challenged him to pick a target average pace that we’d run until we’d achieved. We finished with 1km at tempo pace and a final sprint, which Simon took from me.

At the end of the day Steven worked out the overall camp points results  – provisional on the basis that the winner must also achieve camp completion – and it made for some fascinating reading. We had a tied lead. John and Roz were dead equal on points after the 3 handicapped races. In the case of a tie-break, Steven and I had already agreed that the win would go to fastest overall time  (on handicap). There was a mere 40 seconds in it, but John just had it. This guy has really been impressive through the camp – an extremely competitive athlete who just loves to go hard all the time..and does not fade. He’s been looking absolutely wasted every evening but he’s back full-.pelt the next day. His prize ( assuming that he makes it through tomorrow) will be free entry to a TriGrandPrix race of his choice in 2011, and based on what I know of John and his love of racing, he’s a very suitable winner of that prize!

 STEVENS DAY

I had a bit of a regroup day today. Through the night I’d been getting a stinking cold and I was a little worried about how I would be this morning. Jo took the long swim out with several campers taking the opportunity to do two laps which is more or less Ironman Distance. I took a group for one lap. The cold water felt refreshing and I seemed a little better, thoroughly enjoying the swim.

We managed a pretty leisurely breakfast. The fast group was now down to 3: myself, Brett and Jon which was a little worrying given how I felt. Sensibly the other guys that had been with us were regrouping as well and from speaking them this evening I think they’ve proved how well you can recover by just easing off a little bit in the middle of the camp. I’ll be interested to see who they decide to ride with come saturday.

As expected the pace was hot in our little group. We hammered and I must admit I enjoyed it. I think I can’t have spent more than 5 minutes on the front in the just over 2 hour ride. I made a point of sticking on wheels and got pulled a long by the guys for the fastest average speed of the camp covering 66km in a little over 2 hours.

The pacing of our three groups was excellent again with us all coming together on the old road down to Playa Blanca which meant the whole camp was on the climb up Femes together. Thats a serious climb. Great to see so many people get the same buzz I do climbing such a steep hill. It also meant we all had coffee together in the camp.

I was back by 1:30pm and had a couple of hours to publish yesterdays blog and to work on my spreadsheet. I’m getting carried away with the stats but it appears many of the guys really like it when I quote random stats about the camp so far. There’s a close battle for most hours and most KMs … with the most hours batter within 6 minutes of each other after nearly 25 hours training ! The most KMs is within 2km after 490km of training. I finding it fun to see others get motivated by just the sort of things that motivate me. I find myself imagining what I would be doing if I was on this camp ! (If you see what I mean).

The days training ended with the 10k handicap “ no watch” predict your time  10k race. Three races in one – fastest time, first across the line and closest to time. Jon took out the fastest time in 39:51 just 5 seconds ahead of Jo. If you are not impressed with this time I should point out Jon has been training long and hard all week. Every ride he’s hammered (all 355km so far), he’s raced flat out on two bike TTs, and an aquathon. Roz brought home the handicap race holding off every one just to seal the win. The Paul Weinreich looked disappointed to come in last across the line not knowing that he had paced his run to near perfection being only 39s off his prediction. That sort of pace awareness will, hopefully, hold him in good stead for Ironman Lanzarote. Special mention to Matt who was a stunning 5:11 quicker than estimate !

We had great prizes for their efforts. Roz received a fantastic natural running session with Helen at Ten-Point tri and Paul won either a pair of Vivobarefoot’s excellent Evo shoes or their Neos.

The overall camp victory is seriously close. Sergio is still leading but only by one point from Jon and 3 points from Farouk. The swim handicap race in the morning should be interesting.

It was Farouks birthday today so we all went out for a few cocktails and beers. It’s a great group here and it was such fun to hang out with them. It was a close call as to whether we’d all be sensible but I think we managed to get everyone out of the bar on the promise we’d celebrate properly come Friday. The bar is holding 2 shots per person ready for us on Friday night.

JO’S DAY

Another early start for me, but having slept on the sofa to escape the stuffy nosed snoring of Steven it wasn’t hard to get up ;o) 4 days of solid training followed by a couple of hours of collecting data, pictures, collating results and planning the next day’s training is now beginning to take it’s toll on both of us and trying to get enough sleep each night has become pretty important. so has coffee!

So, its another overcast day which made the beach seem darker than usual at 7:15am, nonetheless 5 of us set off for 2-lap swim. there was a fair difference in swim speed, but we managed it well by frequent re-groups and sending Mel and Simon off for a couple of extra sprints along the way.

Steven and i had constructed 3 different ride options – ‘standard’ 70km route a 20km add-on and a reduced ride for anyone wishing to use a ‘wild-card’ to reduce their day’s ride to 50km. all rides would include the steep ascent of Femes. We were impressed that nobody chose that option – not only does it ease logistics but it proves that even after 3 hard days of training, people are still motivated to test their limits and enjoy the riding whilst the winds are slightly lighter. All this knowing full well that they’d be running a 10k race at the end of the day:o)

The run race was off handicap ( from the aquathon) and also included a guess-your- time competition. this meant that no one was to run with a watch .very interesting to see how people predicted their performance, and then reassessed it several times through the day!of course Steven and I could work out a predicted time based on handicap, and judge their level of confidence based on this! Most people’s predictions were pretty pessimistic compared to what their aquathon splits suggested that the should be, with a couple of amusing exceptions. no one was particularly surprised that john ran the fastest time of the day, but he was also a vary close second based on handicap. Roz, who was slowest handicap, and therefor first starter held him off all the way to the line and won herself a running assessment with Ten Point Tri – a prize that , as her coach, I feel will really help her.  My own run was not based on handicap ,so i was seeded purely based on my time prediction, which was based on doing just a bit better than my most recent 10k race. i ran my socks off and crossed the line first with a time of 39:56 and a heart rate of 190bpm! Of course this was just for fun, and did not influence the camp competition. The closest time prediction, and prize of a pair of Vivo Barefoot shoes went to Paul Weinreich  -who is a user of Vibram Five Fingers and so we know will use these shoes.

With only the swim race to go, the camp points competition is getting interesting and the outcome will likely be known after tomorrows swim race – provided that the leaders all complete the camp. Today is Farouk’s birthday and so I’m just off for a celebratory cocktail with him. He really shone today and is one of those people who seem to be getting stronger as the camp goes on. It’s great to see his motivation really increasing as he realises that, even if he’s not as fast as some of the boys (and girls) that are out here, he is now coming into his stride and holding his own as some of them fade off the back!

STEVENS DAY

This morning was the aquathlon. It was a key event for us requiring us to correctly get swim and run splits (and thus transitions) as they were essential for handicapping the remaining races and deciding on prizes. I, however, managed to have no responsibility in the timings as I was the turn marker for the swim. So whilst the others set up transition I swam out in a pretty dark see towing a big orange rubber ring which I was to hold. To keep myself in the same spot I went to one end of a line of buoys. Was I stopped swimming I felt quite warm, I guess because there was no change of water in my suit.

The race starts and Mel, as expected, lead the race. Unfortunately, in completely the wrong direction, I reckon 45 deg off course. No one else was sighting so they all followed. I had a bit of a giggling fit it was so funny, I even resort to a very loud whistle. She eventually realised what had happened and switched direction which prompted everyone else to as well. Then for her second lap she over compensated and was heading off the wrong way the other side ! Next thing I see if a wetsuit clad athlete (turns out it was Roz) dashing about 50m along the beach to the beach turn around (Jo) as she’d managed to go massively off course ! Some straight swimming in the handicap race could be what makes all the difference.

On the run (4km) it was good to see everyone giving it their all. Jon managed to chase down Mel who held on for 2nd. There were some very close fights with Sergio finishing just ahead of Paul Thompson who was then pipped to the post by a very fast finishing (super) Kev.

We managed a relaxed breakfast before departing for the ride to the bottom of Tabeyesco. We had three groups heading off … a relaxed spin group, followed by a steady group followed by a faster group aiming to arrive 37km down the road at the same time. Despite every group not quite leaving at the proposed time it worked out great with us all getting to the start within 5 minutes of each other.

Now Tabeyesco – 9.7km, 550m ascent and today a lot into a pretty solid headwind. 1 minute intervals based on Sundays TT meant that most people had someone up the road to chase. I set off last and had to take 2 minutes to sort out my note book etc…. I absolutely busted a gut on that climb. I averaged 355 watts for about 20 minutes, then it started to drop off finishing with a time of just over 31 minutes for an average of 340 watts. Everyone really worked on that climb which was great. At the top we had lunch and I gave provisional results … I had Jon winning and me second but I was slightly perplexed by my time. Emma was within 30 seconds of me and knowing how hard I’d gone I was gobsmacked – a stunning ride. Cutting to the end of the day … I sorted out the results and realised I’d neglected to take account of my 2 minute gap to Brett so I was a minute faster. Still pretty darn impressed with Emmas’ ride just not quite gobsmacked. More impressive though were all the campers who raced hard that morning at the Aquathon and still managed to give it their all. My cunning plan worked :o) though only just as I was fastest by mere seconds. Jon’s time after racing that hard in the morning was very good and I’m pretty he sure he’d have kicked my arse if he’d been floating in the see this morning rather than racing. On handicap Sergio won the race. Well deserved as he did a fantastic climb of Tabeyesco … for his efforts he wins a Retul bike fit at Freespeed.

For the return we had two options – straight back which some people took giving a chance for a bit of a regroup. The rest tagged on for about 25km but on the whole it was kept pretty steady and social. Coming down the climb Paul Weinreich came thundering by as he does. For a guy thats only been riding for 2 years and only been on a TT bike for 2 weeks he is an amazing descending. Brett was heard to comment “You’ve not had a proper bike crash have you?”

Back here one of two people took the opportunity to run off the bike and earn a wild card. I was pleased to have some company in Simon who I chatted with for our 45 minute run. He’s really testing himself this week and currently leads the total hours with over 18 hours in 3 days.

JO’S DAY

day 3 started with a BANG – an aquathon event. As steven got a head start to hi mark with his rubber ring turn buoy, i had the task of briefing an encouraging a non too enthusiastic looking group of campers into setting out their transition in the play park. the previous two days of big training is taking its toll on a few of the campers now, and small cracks are beginning to show. Sergio, having already been dragged from his room and reprimanded for his lateness, had made it almost as far as the waters edge when he noticed that his wetsuit was on back-to-front!

the race started and 13 triathletes ran and dived into the water ( well practiced the previous day) and followed Mel’s lead towards the turn-buoy, 600m off shore. As sarah and I watched from the beach, it became apparent that Mel’s navigational skills are not on a par with her swimming, and after about 400m the rest of the gang realised this also, and changed tack towards steven, who seemed to be attempting to reposition himself a little closer to their trajectory!  Highly amusing spectating. The swim was 2 laps, out and back with a land buoy, and as they ran around me at the end of the first lap I couldt see that everyone was really racing this. No one knew at this point, but we’ll be using the swim spit as a basis for handicapping the swim race on thursday, so it was pleasing to see an honest effort being made. Despite having swum an extra couple of hundred meters, Mel lead the swim out in 18:55, with John second in 19:32 and Marc just behind him in 19:55.

Once every one was out of the water, I  took up my position on the finish line and watched the action unfold on the run course. We had them doing 2 x 2km laps on the Calle de Playa – and again, there was no slouching this morning. Simon had made a couple of places in transition, it seemed and had improved his 5th out of the water to 3rd on the run course with Mel managing to hold John off as they closed the first lap. It was exciting viewing as positions changed, with Marc’s withdrawal and Sergio suddenly waking up and running his way up through the field. John passed Mel in the end, running a  16:38  to her 17:42 (equivalent to a 5km pb pace)  and catching in the final 500m. Surprise finish of the day was Kevin’s all-out run to the line in 16:45 and Sergio’s 16:47 placing them 6th and 5th respectively – exactly as they had exited   the ocean. Again it was gratifying to see everyone really get into the spirit and give such honest efforts,  as this run split will determine handicap for tomorrow’s 10k. Yes   – another race!!!

After a relatively leisurely breakfast, the ride departed as 3 groups. emma lead a spinning posse, followed 10 min later by a social Jo-paced ride ,Steven and the Men bringing up the rear after another 10 minute gap. The intention for all groups was to  ride friendly and help each other through the 90minute ride, mostly uphill, mostly with a head-wind, to the start of the Tabayesco Time Trial. A classic Lanza-rotten challenge, the road from Tabayesco to the visitor centre and cafe at the top of Mirador de Haria is a 10km long ascent of 550m winding its way up a sheltered valley with views of the ocean behind. Not that we’d be enjoying the views today! I had a 2minute start on Emma  -who caught me at the junction about 2/3rd up the climb. Her ride was 3rd fastest of the day in 32:45.  Steven was quickest (31:23), followed by John (31:39). That Steven did not break 30 min, nor John who has previously ridden 25 or 26 minutes demonstrates that the windy conditions made the ride tougher  than usual. That and the morning’s aquathon race ;o)

The hill climb was a ‘camp competition’ , handicapped off the El Golfo TT, by means of comparing each riders variance from teh average time for each event. This method did slightly favour the stronger hill climbers, but it was the fairest method  that could be used without making the camp go through two similar events. Sergio won the competition on handicap, and receives the FreeSpeed prize of a free retul fitting service  (worth £180), and is currently now leading the overall camp points competition.

Another fun day and good atmosphere at dinner. I enjoyed my first glass of wine of the camp t celebrate having made it halfway through and still hearing happy comments from the campers.

STEVENS DAY

The weather looked a little better as we headed to the swim at 7:15am with clear skies but still a howling wind. Some keen-os had headed out early with Jo to get an extra 15 minutes swimming (in the dark) and an extra 15 after to earn a “Wild Card”. Jo apparently was bullied by Simon, Paul and Kevin to swim in the pretty poor light. The rest of us headed out and bumped in to them in the ocean before heading to the beach to practise beach starts and exits. We had a very small start pen and we all belted in, round a buoy (about 75m out) and back in. Paul T did an amazing dive next to me to try and get on my feet. I busted a gut to be first out and was keeled over catching my breath at the end as did absolutely everyone as they finished. We then paired off and had a relay race which Mel and Simon quite handily won. I just managed to avoid last place which was taken by Roz and Sergio. They came a cropper from Sergio giving the first race his all not knowing that was how the pairings would be decided.

We had a pretty rushed breakfast as there were some quite ambitious ride options today and the wind was strong (even for Lanzarote) so we wanted to allow enough time so that all could do the longer option if they wanted. I had responsibility for the fast group and I recall only one occasion where there was a call to ease up and we did other than that it was a pretty full on ride. Jon hammered every climb and I just hung on as did Brett for part of it. He then wised up and eased off I reckon. Paul T and Kevin wised up from the start of most climbs. To give an idea we rode just over 4 hrs for 116km and my average watts was 250 (I average 242 for a 4:49 bike split at Busselton), I also recorded my best ever CP30. When it came to the decision on whether to ride the longer route I think everyone was wasted and we headed home.

We all headed out on a run together. Brett and Jon crept away and ran together. It’s great to see they are getting on and interesting for us to watch as so far they appear to have swum, biked and run almost shoulder to shoulder. Turns out they were one and two in their age group at UK 70.3 last year and are both trying to qualify at Lanzarote this year. My hope is if they’re shoulder to shoulder like that it’s not for the last Kona slot rather it’s fighting for podium places with both having the Kona slots in the bag. I’d decided to run longer to make up for not riding long. Heading out I knew I’d run 1:30 but kept Kevin and Paul on side by stating an hour. At the turnaround Kevin headed back but Paul was persuaded to continue with me. He recently won the Lanzarote Double Ironman so I was pretty sure it would be a no brainer for him to come with me. I suffered for it on the way back as he put me to the sword with increases in pace. After I was chuffed – ran out 9km at 5 min /K pace and back at 4:45 pace. I felt pretty strong and very pleased.

I was even more pleased when I saw just how much training everyone had done. 5 of the second group did the full ride, most of them getting nearly 6 hours ride time. We had 7 campers with over 7 hours training today including Simon who got up early to run 30 minutes before the swim and then 30 minutes off the bike. Also impressive is that 12 out of 16 managed to run 5 min / k or faster for at least 30 minutes off a very tough bike.

JO’S DAY

My day started with an early swim, as promised to one of the guys that i coach, Simon who is so far living up to my expectations of using this camp as a rare opportunity to put training first and really testing his limits. He was ready dead on time, having just returned form a 30 minute run. Paul T and Kevin were also game for an extended swim and the four of us waded into the inky seas just as the sun was considering rising for the day. had i been alone i’d not have been in there, but for me it was a good opportunity for a solid swim in the draft of four stronger swimmers. We then met the rest of the campers for a half hour of fun and games, practicing beach starts, turns and exits as a really. Phew that was tiring – but great fun. A more relaxed 15 min swim afterwards in the daylight now gave us a round hour before breakfast.

Emma and I lead a large second group around the “top of the island” – a route that takes in the two major climbs on the ironman course (Mirador Haria and del Rio)and a good opportunity to scope out the fast descents off them both. We were also lucky to be treated to some of the strongest winds i’ve ridden out here – almost 40kph according to Brett’s iPhone- making for an absolutely gruelling first couple of hours. The stronger riders in our group did our best to offer shelter to the weaker riders, who I could see were at times, busting a gut to stay on a precious wheel.  I was riding solid at times against the wind with Roz right beside me – so i cant wait to see her ride data!! I reckon she was on the rivet for those first couple of hours. Thanks to Emma and Simon we managed to keep a large group of pretty varied ability together all day. we made several stops  -far more than I’d expect on a 90mile route, but the conditions were hard and it was clearly going to be along day even for those choosing to ride the ‘standard’ 73mile loop.

Having done the top of the island, the group split into a return party lead by Emma and an ‘onwards’ posse, with me. the extension was actually only a further 25miles – but would take us directly into the teeth of the winds down from Teguise to La Famara, and then climbing from there through La Santa to Mancha Blanca. So a real good value 25 training miles! Mel, Ted ,the Atkins Bros and Roz joined me – and 90 seconds into the loop Matt’s chain snapped. Fortunately Roz was well equipped with a chain tool, and Matt knew his way sufficiently around a bike that, in the time it took the rest of us to eat a Powerbar, and for Ted to take 40 winks ( see picture!) it was fixed, and we were on our way. Poor Roz is just that little bit slower than the rest of the group and did a lot of the hard riding on her own off the back, but fair play to her – no complaints at all, her legs were feeling fine and she just motored along at her pace, whilst I saw the boys flagging in the final hour of a 7hr ride. Mel seemed like she could have carried on indefinitely on the front too. Conscious of the late hour and the requirement for a 30 min run off the bike, when Matt punctured just outside Tinajo we decided to split the group, with Roz, Marc and Mel riding on home whilst i waited for the Matt and Ted to fix the flat .Another professionally swift change and we were on our way  -i was fully expecting to catch Roz and Mel before the end of the ride, but not so! they mast have been working really well together.

Back at the digs we all set out for a 30 shuffle together – well that was the story; actually the pace was pretty decent and offered me good 15min warm up for a 25 min block of tempo to round off my own day. It sure is fun to have so many “up for it”s on the camp…and i do hope we can keep the momentum going.

The day started with a surprise: rain! As we peered out of our apartment into the dark, the silhouettes of palm trees shook violently in the winds that had grown in force through the night, and the ground glistened  with a reasonably heavy fall of raindrops. Fortunately by the time our neoprene clad campers, keen as mustard, were assembled for our morning swim the rain had stopped and the wind given the impression of having died down. It was a beautiful morning for a sea swim – calm waters and orange pink sky. Most of the athletes on the camp are strong swimmers ,with one or two apparently able to hang reasonably comfortably on Steven’s feet, and the others providing feet for me to swim on! I had a nice leisurely morning swimming behind the group as we made out way around out ‘standard’ 1.8km loop. Those of us taking our time were able to observe a large sting ray cruising around the ‘reef’ and a rainbow above us as we came out of the water. 

Breakfast buffet at the hotel went down well and, after a camp briefing every one had a half hour to get kitted up for the day’s ride. That’s everyone except for Steven and Simon, who rushed off on a mission to rent a bike for Simon to use until his own makes it’s way from Gatwick! The first day’s scheduled ride was a relatively short one –  with a time trial competition in there. We rode friendly out to El Golfo as one group ( since Steven was otherwise disposed ) various mechanical complaints becoming apparent along the way. I wonder if that has anything to do with the impending half hour of torture that a ‘sporting 10’ time trial promises? by the time we’d completed our ( windy!! ) recon lap of the El Golfo loop, Steven and simon were waiting for us on the start line – Simon on a fairly decent looking hire bike. I set the guys off at 1minute intervals in reverse alphabetical order – and we had some impressive times around that tough course. It was great to see that everyone got stuck right in  -even Roz, who’d lost her gears was stuck in her seldom used small chain-ring. Not much of a surprise that Brett took it out in 25:22, then we had  Kevin in second (25:58) and Jon 3rd (26:27). Mel pipped Emma by 4 seconds with a 29:17 standing her i 6th place overall. For comparison, Steven’s ride was 27:03, producing an average power of 331 Watts, 332 Normalised. I got out of it (clever me!) by timing. We were pleased that most of the camp took up the opportunity to extend the day’s ride by returning via Fire Mountain, not only as a demonstration of enthusiasm, but also a chance to establish pace similarities and variance amongst the group.

The day’s run had been intended as an easy 45min group run on the cliff path to the west of the town, and to be fair, I did start with 9 runners. We wove through the old town at a light pace, and then hit the multiple steps of steps that take us onto the scenic path. By the time we made our turn-around 6 of us remained, with some of the others taking the 30min run minimum literally in order to save the legs for the week ahead. That they’d run through all the toughest sections of the route is admirable ;o) and now they do know the way to the start of that path for their own run training. We found that the majority would have preferred to run immediately off the bike, and since some would have chosen to run a flat smooth path rather than trail with tired legs, and so for the rest of the camp it’s expected that run training will be done in smaller independent groups – although both Steven and  I will offer a ‘lead’ run each day for those who like to run with, or just have a chat to, us!

Our campers that arrived early and have been getting an extra couple of days of swim, bike and run training in prior to the start of the camp, whilst the rest arrive this evening. Last night Jo and I put together fantastic bags full of goodies from our camp sponsors, and the work involved in this relatively small scale task has given me an insight into and respect for the work required to put these bags together for a big race! We had 16 bags to sort out and it was a pretty long and focused task -but great fun in a Christmas eve sort of way. It gave us a great warm feeling of anticipation for the camp and gratitude towards the people who were so quick to send us these bits and pieces that will add extra value to the experience that we are offering.

So, a huge thanks to the sponsors for everything they’ve provided meaning that each athlete will receive the following:

• from Powerbar – a draw-string bag, bento box, water bottle, protein shaker bottle, dry-fit t-shirt, and tonnes of nutrition – a sample of virtually every product, with enough energy bars and gels for the week. Plus a discount on purchases post camp for the rest of the year.
  
• from For Goodness Shakes – a water bottle, recovery shake for every day, a batch of temporary tattoos and discount card for use on purchases after the camp
  
• from Ten-Point Tri – a water bottle, a store discount card and they are also providing us with a fabulous prize to award on the camp (we’re keeping this quite for now – all will be revealed!!)
  
• from Vivobarefoot – a store discount card and they have also put up a very generous (and secret) prize
  
• from Blueseventy – a discount card and another prize camp prize.
  

In addition to this, Freespeed are giving all camp athletes a discount on a retul fitting during April, and providing a camp prize and the overall camp prize has been donated by TriGrandPrix, who are also giving a 20% discount on race entry to our athletes.

Meanwhile, Sarah from The Tri Touch is setting up her table ready to start work – she’s out here to provide at least 16 hours of free massage therapy during the camp, supported by Ali from Mills Physio who will be able to give professional advice and treatments for any minor issues that arise during the camp.  Camper will also be able to visit TriTouch at a reduced rate on their return from the camp

Tri Grand Prix – discount race entry and prize (free entry to one of their races).

They also get a very cool ( I can say this because Jo designed it) EverydayTraining camp t-shirt and some EverydayTraining tattoos. We’ll try and get a photo of everyone in their t-shirts at some point during the week.

With just over a day to go before the camp starts we’ve everything in place (more or less) and Jo & I are really excited, and a little nervous, for the camp to start.

We’ve been in Lanzarote for 4 days now and spent the time checking things out and making final arrangements. Jo is relieved to finally be able to discuss our requirements face-to-face with the hotel staff, who have been most helpful, and ensured all the accommodation is correct and made sure that the hotel is ready for 18 hungry athletes for breakfast and dinner service. She’s also been sorting out a van to collect everyone, a massage table from a local therapist and delivery of nutrition product (which had been held hostage in Gran Canaria for four days!). I certainly feel she’s had the tougher tasks -but I’ve been out riding some of the routes to check distances, timings, supermarket opening hours and that my legs and new Look bike are going to be up to the week ahead. The bike needed a little attention, but the legs seem to be fine!

With mostly everything in place, we’re now just keeping our fingers crossed that none of the campers arriving late Saturday night will have mechanical issues like I’ve had since arriving. Firstly one of the bolts holding the bars to the stem sheered off when I tightened it. I have a torque wrench and it was wasn’t yet at torque. The first day I had a nervy ride over to Pro Bike in La Santa. They kindly loaned me a stem while they fixed that one. When I returned to collect it I had him check my gears as it jumping when under pressure. It looked bent to me but I’d had the hanger checked before leaving. The derailleur was badly bent – this is the one I’d trashed on Epic Camp when my chain jumped. He man handled it as straight as he could and yesterday I tested it my going hard up Tabayesco. I was riding strong (good sign given some of the cyclists attending the camp) but it just kept jumping so I headed back to Pro Bike and got a new one put on. It means I’m all set. Jo also feels she’s riding strong on her new bike  (delivered and assembled  by Bicycle Chain and test ridden literally hours before we departed the UK) so we hope we’re both in a position to really help stretch the campers if thats what they want.

You may wonder what the photo is. Well it’s a rubber ring “Warning – this is not survival aid”. This is Jo’s cunning plan for a turn-buoy. We set alarms for our first morning sea swim, only to find that the timings on our camp schedule are a little optimistic as it’s not getting light till around 7:20am. So for some of the races I’m going to hold the orange do-nut aloft for swimmers to race toward. We did a trial run this morning to see how easy it be to spot in the dawn light, and to tow out. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t slow me too much. In fact, it appeared to slow me just enough for Jon and Paul (two campers who have arrived a couple of days in advance) to follow right behind. It even had me considering using it as a big marker for people to follow on the swim. I pulled it out to the proposed turn point and I tried to get sat in it as Jo had suggested. I was nowhere near… boy, it was buoyant. We met Jo halfway back and she confirmed that it was very visible and then showed how easy it actually is to jump on and sit upon if you happen to be 52kg and adequately coordinated. Even having watched her do it I’m not sure how she managed it.

Paul (the other paul on the camp) and Farouk arrived late morning, looking fit and enthusiastic despite having come straight from a double shift at work in Farouk’s case. They put their bikes together and I accompanied them for a locals lunch and short shake-out ride. As Paul’s coach I was pleased at how far his riding has progressed since our last meeting. I wonder if it’s to do with the P3C, as previously owned by myself ,that he’s riding?

When Jo, Sarah and the other guys returned from a short run through the old town to explore the coastal path and check some distances they intercepted our  long-awaited Powerbar delivery, and we have just been putting together each athlete’s welcome pack.  It feels like the calm before the storm – tomorrow will start with an optional group swim ..and then the rest of the day a frenzy of airport pick-ups, check in and bike building activity, which is unlikely to die down for 6 days!

Bring it ON :o)