EverydayTraining

Well there are a lot of very tired looking triathletes milling around the hotel pool today. Tired from a night-long party, that is! It’s amazing how much energy is left in this group after the week that they’ve done in training (and the state that some were in at the end of the windy 180km ride earlier in the same day) -it’s remarkable what a few cocktails and the prospect of a day off can do! Two of them have already left for the airport, having bypassed their beds entirely.

In between trips to the airport, Steven and I have been tidying up and checking the camp data, stats and records – Steven’s conclude that soon he’ll need a more robust database to keep all of the data we’ve collected over the past 5 years and 8 camps, and possibly a new lap top too!   Here’s a summary of the final results from all of our camp points competitions, and how mel managed to get just one point ahead of Marc for the win.

Note that John and Brian and Heather and Jon were on equal total points – the higher ranking in both cases is given to the athlete with the fastest aggregate (handicap)  time across all our 3 events, which is shown here:

This year Steven was unable to complete the camp as he was involved in timing the aquathlon and swim races, however this did allow Jo to complete by racing in all events and so an aggregate time for her races is shown for comparison. Greg and Kay both appear to have good standings based on their points and aggregate times – but unfortunately these are not validated by camp completion hence they are ranked lower than all camp completers.

We always keep riding the Ironman route till the final day of camp as it provides a fitting finale. The previous day is set up to encourage the earning of both swim and run wild cards so the whole day can be devoted to completing this big ride. Most campers did this but even so we had a few keen athletes meeting Jo and I for a morning swim. It was nice conditions for the “coaches 30 minutes” to satisfy the final days swim requirements.

With two groups leaving at 8:30 breakfast was the usual rushed affair trying to balance eating enough and not starting with indigestion. Wayne gets the prize for biggest plate of food, though it did mean the fast group had to listen to his complaints about it repeating on him for the first three hours of their ride.

We had a fast and slow group riding the Ironman route and another group attempting our “IronmanPlus” route which is the normal 180km route with additions to take you to Playa Blanca and Orzola providing a big loop of the whole island. We set the groups set off at intervals that hopefully means they will meet on the road at least once if not a few times as they leap frog each other during stops / extensions.

There were 8 riders in the IronmanPlus group and so with a 200k ride ahead it’s important to keep the group together and not go too hard early on. It was a windy day which made this even more important. As they came down off Fire Mountain it was agreed to push on all the way to Teguise in order to earn the treat : food at Johnnies Bakes. This required 4:15hrs of non-stop riding for 104km which was a very solid effort for everyone. As they progressed through La Santa this group passed Emma’s slow group and were able to exchange words of encouragement before heading over to Famara where Jo’s group was spotted in a cafe having a coffee stop. Jo’s break surprise from her reputation for “non stop riding” meant they group nearly crashed in their shock. She had planned to take photographic evidence of the occasion but the fast group were soon followed by Emma’s group who were also able to witness this! 15 minutes is all the time that this stop it took them to fit in a super market stop for water, drink their coffees and use the loo. Stops with this level of efficiency acceptable even on Jo’s schedule  – Mel has been giving lessons , perhaps?

In Johnnies Bakes the IM+ group provided Johnnie with his single biggest order ever, as most tucked in to a two course lunch of toasties, cake, coffee and pop.

On the climb to Mirador Del Rio Steven’s and Emma’s groups came together again. It was fun to see several of the riders in the slower group tag on to the fast guys for the final climb and great to be able to get a group photo together.

From there it’s lovely fast riding home. The IM+ ride had a brief stop in Orzola for ice cream before the final 65k home. This was done in about 1:45 with strong pulls from Jon, Wayne and Matthew along the LZ1 before Mel, the camp winner, pulled the group along the spine road ahead of the fast descent back in to Puerto Del Carmen. It was agreed that Mel should lead the group down the final KMs before they stopped for hand shakes and ice creams.

So, despite the winds, tired legs and “emotional” moments, everyone got round the Ironman route with plenty of time to spare to pack bikes and ready for the end of camp party. Anthony completed his first ever 100+mile ride, and Dan rode over 200km for the first time ever. Linda, cementde her Tough Chick credentials, by heading out for a 1 hour brick run.

It’s fun to take part in our handicapped swim race but even more fun to be the time keeper. We’ve set this up as great sighting practise. We place a small plastic bottle marker just out from the beach for swimmers to swim out and round in order to remove the temptation of exiting early and running along the beach. The first leg is to a small white buoy about 250m along parallel to the shore. Back to our white buoy out and round the time keeper before heading for the line of buoys. To make it a fair comparison to Tuesday’s aquathlon, we placed the orange buoy on the line and everyone had to touch it.

Compared to the aquathlon the sea was very calm making navigation easier. Given the navigational errors made by our best swimmers they had very healthy handicaps and an early start. Yet again finding the white buoy proved tricky for many. Some were pretty much arrow straight but Mel, for example, appeared to be heading for a buoy off the coast of Fuertoventura!!

Pleasingly we had a very close finish yet again with 14 of our athletes finishing in a 2 minute spell and numerous places being decided on the run up the beach. First out the water was Kay but our official winner was John who came out second (Kay was racing on an estimated handicap as she’d not finished the aquathlon). For this he won a BlueSeventy Brick Rucksack.

The ride today is shorter as we have the 10k race later. The slow group had a superb ride keeping all 11 riders in a nice near group all the way to the Femes climb. It split up a little there but the whole camp managed to end up in the cafe together for refreshments.

The day ends with our 10k “no watch” guess your time 10k handicap. We place this near the end of the camp for several reasons:

1. If you’re going to run hard you can do less damage if you’re very tired

2. It can open peoples eyes to how fast they can run tired. Not being able to see a watch giving them pace data prevents them holding themselves back and just race on feel.

As we start on handicap the race compresses with a very close finish. Jo ran through the field with an awesome time of 39:48. Brian ran through from 17th starter to 2nd to take the Primal Lifestyle prize of a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. John, despite a few stomach issues, confirmed his final starting position with the fastest camper time of 41:26. We’re pleased that with Steven’s 40:36 finish meant no camper beat the coaches outright. The “guess your time”element  is always a highlight for Steven and this year was no exception. Last year we had two people managing to  guess within 5 seconds  -but that was beaten this year when Jo’s predicted time of 39:51 was  only 3s off! The prize of Powerbar goodies was awarded to joint second-best guessers  Wayne and Frank who were both only 9s off. For Frank this is his fourth camp and despite running a very consistent 10km each year, his guess has always been several minutes off, so we were quite chuffed for him.

This ends the points competition leaving only completing the Ironman course between Mel and winning the camp overall. Mel is the only person to have attended all our camps and in the first four years had won nothing. This year she won the female aquathlon prize, the fastest camper up Tabeyesco prize and is on course to win the camp outright.

Now that we are past the halfway mark on camp, and have all of the handicapping data logged, the real fun starts – the 3 races that fall on the next two days are serous business – with some great sponsors prizes and more importantly camp points on offer for those who perform best on handicap. For me the Tabaysaco TT is the big one – Emma and I have a running competition up this 10km hill climb…its become a bit of a camp joke, with the right to wear the Wonder Woman pants at stake (there’s a story behind that)  – this year Linda provided superhero knickers for ALL of the girls on camp – a fun touch and cause of much jealousy amongst our male campers!

Conditions were great this year, and with a strong set of riders on camp we had great expectations for some fast times – and were not disappointed

Results here show the handicap times; best camper’s performance of the day (relative to the El Golfo Time Trial from Day 1)  coming from Tony – for which he won a specialist GURU bike fit from our long standing camp sponsor Ten Point

We also awarded a prize of a BlueSeventy Brick Rucksack for the fastest out-right climb which went to Mel.

Steven set a new course record and I was able to set a new female record, thanks to the favourable conditions and a good warm up with the “fast” boys ;o) on the way there.

Following the climb, we gave the option of a trail run up around the observatory – maybe no surprise following those hard efforts and a tough week that only Matthew and Linda took me up on the offer. Quote of the day from Matthew and words that I was secretly pleased to hear: “you’ll have to go easy Jo, I’ve got almost nothing left in my legs”. I was an easy run which included a bit of exploration and fantastic views down over Famara and the beaches from a rocky outcrop that we ran to the top of …and well worth the small additional effort. It turns out that this was the secodn of three runs that Matthew woudl do today – a note on that a little later….

But first – as it’s our 5th year on camp. Steven and I have been looking for small ways to add excitement in celebration! Emma recently showed us a great little road to the castle that overlooks Teguise – I’ve been eyeing it fro years but never ridden up. It just happens to be a 1.5km road with gradient of 10% and more in places – ideal for a hill sprint race…that we could handicap off our Tabeyasco times! We announced this AFTER the Tabeyasco TT and the run ..everyone was delighted – especially as Emma had arranged that there’d be a  Speedfill Hydration System on offer care of http://www.upgradebikes.co.uk

You can see a LITTLE BIT OF FILM from my handlebars 

This was won (on handicap) by Rob – with the fastest climb, after the coaches of course, from Marc.

That’s a lot of hard hill climbing in one ride, and so most people opted the most direct route home. I got to ride a bit longer today with Emma, Matthew, Rob and Frank – my legs were complaining a little by the end. I must admit & I was glad to have got my run out of the way earlier in the day.

Matthew, however – despite having almost nothing left in his legs – put his run shoes back on to clock a few more kilometres i the name of what is developing into a very interesting (and insane) running contest with Tony. They are each running a staggering amount each day with Tony at 86km in 4 days and Matthew now having exceeded 90km  -in addition to always having picked the longer bike routes. The entire camp is following this particular battle with great interest!

Day 3 starts with a bang – our beach based “swimmers aquathlon” race. So named because the proportional distances of the swim and the run are heavily weighted towards stronger swimmers (compared to a more “standard” aquathlon format) at roughly 1400m and 4.5km –  if they are able to sight properly, that is! In reality this event usually comes down to the ability to sight and to swim in a straight line – two essential skills for triathletes. This year was no exception, despite pretty calm sea conditions, as two of the strongest swimmers on camp managed to miss sight the turn buoy (our trusty rubber ring!) completely so both Mel and John Woods came out of the water a lot further back in the field than anticipated. John proceeded to put in the second fastest run split we’ve had in 5 years of this race to finish in the middle of the field and Mel’s solid run did the same for her. Matthew crossed the line first -solid in both swim and run, with the additional ability to sight (or at least to identify and follow Marc, the man that can). Marc’s great form in swimming and sighting had him out of the water and onto the run course first and he held all other chasers off for second place finish. It was a close battle between Brian and Frank  -Brian’s run split of 16:50 enabled him to pass the Frank in the final meters of the run. I managed to “win” the ladies race thanks to Mel’s errors in navigating the second lap of the swim and being able to just put a few seconds per km into Linda on the run. I was super impressed with her swim and race performance overall. These swim and run times (with a few adjustments fro those who swam just one lap or missed the run turn-around – or BOTH – no names being mentioned here!) will now be used to handicap our swim and run races later in the week ,where points and prizes can be earned based on performance on handicap.

Following all of this dashing around, we had given a few ride options to enable the use of wild cards to shorten the route to just 75km with a coffee stop recovery ride…or two different paced standard rides …and as always the option to tack on a few extra bike kms. I lead the recovery ride and introduced them to a new cafe stop in El Golfo … whilst Steven and Emma both went longer with different paced groups .The “fast boys” group had a couple of technical issues, which required a detours to ProBike to resolve and that Steven cut his own ride short – so in the end both of us have had a bit of time to review data and the camp so far and to plan ahead for the next few days.

A number of people wisely opted to do a short run off the bike, earning a run wild card for tomorrow enabled them to avoid having ti run after their Tabeyasco time trial – although I do hope that some will be adventurous and join me on a short off road run up to and around the observatory at the very highest point on the island, above Mirador de Haria!

The second day on camp is one of the few days without any racing on the schedule – just a straight forward swim, long ride and run. The swim session had a little coaching structure with the opportunity to practice our beach starts ,sighting, turns and beach exits – with a group of 21 this does provide some valuable race-situation simulation! We followed the initial mass start race (running start from a pen on the beach, out to and around our 5-year old rubber ring ~50m off shore, then exit through the waves and back into the pen to finish) with a relay race, pairing the slower swimmers with the fastest based on finish order in the previous. This 2-lap each race is usually the most intensity that we see during the whole camp, and there’s always guaranteed to be at least one person collapsed on the sand at the finish. Linda and Marc’s pair proved to be the fastest this morning – a feat for which they were each awarded a Powerbar Goodies pack so they can look the part during the rest of the camp in their Powerbar visors and socks.

We rode a lovely route around the hills in the North of the Island – the standard ride was 110km with most people choosing to take the opportunity of a relaxed day with plenty of coffee stops and calm winds to ride a little longer for 136km..or even longer in some cases clocking 172km ride – that was our Double Ironman World Champ Matthew, who also ran 5km and 14km as well as his 1.8km swim…an 8:49 hour training day.

We’re beginning to see a little fatigue already amongst a couple of our first -time campers, and have an unusually high count of people having arrived carrying some form of sickness or other too, so we have constructed the option for a much shorter ride tomorrow. With the day’s minimum’s swim and run training accounted for in our pre-breakfast aquathlon, that will give the opportunity for  those that need it to “regroup” though the afternoon. I can think of one or two who’ll put that spare time to better use….I’m certain that Rob is going after the camp record for bike mileage in his preps for his unsupported Transcontinental bike race this summer, and  there’s currently a bit of a battle to log the most run distance this week between Tony and Matthew – who are currently equal at 40km each. It’s great fun for everyone else when we get this situation – and has already created a lot of banter around at dinner time when both of those guys are missing from the table in pursuit of their missions!

Day One on camp now complete -a fun day’s training and out first real chance to get to know the athletes’ strengths and characters! As usual, our first day is relatively short – a nice 30 steady minute swim so that everyone can get used to being in open water and their wetsuits for the first time since last summer for most – and for Kristen the first time ever! The chilly salt water and waves will take a little adjusting to for her, but she was totally un-fazed by the experience and I do expect that with this attitude we’ll see her gaining confidence quite rapidly.

Our ride, not long but as always we start with a bang and include our standard10-mile time trail around El Golfo Loop – followed by coffees and then a return route over Fire Mountain for ~100km ride. Conditions for the time trial this year were not exactly great, with moderate winds against us in the last 1/3rd of the course, which is where the bigger hills are too – but not the worst we’ve raced (an average time was 25 seconds slower than the historical average). So no records taken, despite some very impressive performances. We knew that Wayne would smash it – which he did taking the win in a time of 25:54 – and Mel can always be counted on to impress …finishing with the fourth fastest time of 28:18. Seven of the guys all finished within 40 seconds of one another…which will make for some great racing on handicap up Tabeysaco later in the week.

We ran as a few separate groups- most people taking the opportunity to extend beyond the camp minimum 30 minutes, up to 21km in the case of Steven and Matthew egging one another on…whilst Linda ran 1hr45 right off the under her volition!

Steven and I are delighted to be back here in Lanzarote for our 5th year running our EverydayTraining style Endurance Camp! With 19 athletes comprising a roughly half-half mix of returning campers and fresh blood ( including a few for out local tri club in Somerset for the first time)  it’s the ideal balance for us – some experience as well as the opportunity to bring the EDT camp experience t a new audience.  As always we have some of our own coached clients along too – always a great way to get to know the athletes that we work with through the year a bit better.

We’ll be bringing you daily reports of our activivies and highlights of teh camp all week – so do check in each day as the games unfold ….

My day as usual was consumed by trips back an forth to the airport – fortunately no hitches today. Not much to report. Steven had a bit mroe interaction with the campers – and here’s his review of “day 0” on camp:

“The day started with a taster swim for the two campers that have arrived early. The sea was lovely, calm and a little fresh. Jo and I snuck in a run before breakfast and the non stop day ahead. For Jo this meant a 5 hour initial spell of going backwards and forward from the airport doing pickups whilst I greeted athletes, helped with bags and bike building. For those arriving by early afternoon there was a shake down ride out to Puerto Calero. The most relaxed ride there will be on camp with an elapsed time of 2hrs including only 40 minutes of actual riding. All bikes were ok and several coffees, beers (alcohol free) and one large crepe (Jonathan carbo loading) were consumed. On the way out we got a taste of some of the fun ahead when Matthew having arrived, in complete contrast to last year, in great shape tried to entice Jonathan into a sprint by asking how fast his 808s were. Taking his coaches advice he let him go but Wayne couldn’t resist letting rip on his P5. This could be fun to watch unfold especially if we don’t let Wayne know Matthew’s long distance credentials.”