EDT Camp Day 3-4

Tuesday - Day 3


Aquathlon: Swim: 24:23 Transition:1:43 Run: 19:09

Bike: 111k 4hr 50

This morning was the Aquathlon, a 1.2k swim then a 4k run which I was slightly dreading because I was still not feeling great in the water. At least it was a short swim and a short run.

During the race there were 3 or 4 of us swimming around the same pace and we exited the water in a close bunch. I had pushed to keep up with the others in the water and luckily nobody had decided to run through the sand and up the steps to our transition area. We all walked and with 4 of us arriving at the same time I had get through transition quickly to get jump on them. I squirted my feet with water to clear the sand off, whipped off my wetsuit and on went the trainers and I was gone just behind TA.

I passed TA after 400m, only because he stopped to tie his shoe lace. I knew he would be coming past soon, he wouldn’t want to lose a position like that! He did, and kept a 30m gap between us for the rest of the race which I could never get back.

Each day the coaches offered a minimum ride and a long ride. With FG and I having sat down a created our plan for the week, the long ride today was part of that. Which I might come to regret as we had a Time Trial up Tabyasco – 9.7k long with an ascent of 550m. I much prefer going downhill then up, but do that, you have to climb. This wasn’t going to be fun but I would put in all my effort and I did and it seemed never ending up the winding road. On the TT you could turn a corner and a vicious headwind would hit you making you have to work harder.

I came in at 44:46 and the quickest was Steven at 31:23, he flew by me. Then on the way down I flew by him which made me feel better! Each evening would finish with a debriefing for the day. Announcing the winner of the day’s race or races and the plan for following day, these finished at 9pm and I was straight to bed!

Wednesday – Day 4

Swim: 1.9k 39min
Bike: 93k 3hrs 53
Run: 10k 54:39

The day started in its normal way, struggling to get into my wetsuit and swim. This was the half way point of the camp building to the big day on Friday.

As I explained the camp has a minimum and a long version each day of the swim/bike/run. If you do a long version you will receive a ‘Wildcard’, you can then use these the next day either miss a swim/run or do a shorter bike ride. Keeping my eye on the big ride on Friday, FG and I had planned to go long on the Bike and Run today which would let us do a short ride and no run tomorrow and give the legs a little extra time to recover. Having a 10k race this afternoon meant the ride would be quite short anyway, so the long ride was 93k.

The 10k race was handicapped on the results of the aquathlon the day before, we would set off at different times, slowest first and then the first over the line would win. There was also a side competition where you could ‘guess your time’ and whoever was closest won a prize, exciting!!

I went into this race wanting to cross the line first, I planned to take the first of 2 laps steady and push the second. I set off 4th and felt confident I could slowly catch the others whilst keeping the ones behind me at bay. 2k in, I started to get abdominal pains. I tried to run through it but it just got worse. At 5k, I stopped at the toilet and tried to relieve myself as I though this might help. Nope, nothing. Out of the toilet, back to lap 2. I struggled and had to slow, any increase in pace caused more pain. I was not happy, I don’t like being passed and everyone caught me and I crossed the line last.

I spent the next 2 hours farting, nice! But it did seem to solve the problem. I had ‘guessed my time’ at 54mins which is training pace. I came in at 54:39 only beating TA by 7 seconds. So I took the abdominals pains as fate, and won a pair of Vivo Barefoot trainer, awesome!