Today was a “broken handicapped triathlon”…I know that sounds like sounds like a sporting event to be held at a home for the elderly. In reality it was a series of “events” where we set off at staggered starts based on our threshold paces for the 3 disciplines. After a 20min run to warm up we started with a 10x500m session where the person with the slowest 10k time went first and then each person sequentially set off at a time after that. In theory we would all cross the finish at about the same time, and the last person across the line was eliminated. I had a 16sec handicap and it was a bit of an exercise in strategy as I didn’t want to be eliminated but also didn’t want to nuke myself from the beginning. I was able to hold on for 9x500m and then David Lock smoked me on the last 500m effort to be the last man standing. This little event shows the power of the group. Despite carrying lots of fatigue, I was running the 500m efforts at ~6:30/mi pace which is about 1minute per mile faster than my current 10k pace. Best of all is the fact that my foot pain is not getting worse. I actually feel no pain at all when running fast and things seem to be aggravating by a slower plodding pace…the solution seems obvious!
Next we headed to the pool for a similar handicapped swim session which involves 12x100m where my handicap was setting off 24s after the first swimmer.
I only lasted 5 rounds on the swim which ultimately was taken out by Glenn Olsen followed closely by Thierry, whose effort is apparent below.
Next was the bike event, which was the highlight of the camp so far for me. Oli marked out a 10x1km course on the first climb out of Sort.
The frowning emoji on the asphalt indicated 50m to the next finish line, ie. time to sprint if anyone was near you.
The event became a tactical game of trying to conserve energy while staying ahead of the last rider left. With six of us left Phil Paterson put in a massive attack from the back which caught out George Grey. Ben got dropped on the next round and it was down to Thierry, Phil, John and myself. Phil was dropped on the next round and I ended up in third as Thierry out sprinted me and then put in a nice attack in final round to take out the event and to win the broken triathlon.
We then had an awesome descent back into the heat of the valley. My bike computer read 38C today. We luckily had a nice tailwind blowing and John Newsom pushing big watts at the front, so we made very good time across another border and into Andorra. The final climb was ~20km at an average of 5%. In order to reach 90km (3points)I had to descend back down 3.5km and then climb back up to the hotel we are staying at in Arinsal.
Totals for the day Run 10k (with 10x500m efforts) Swim 3km (with 8x100m sprints)Bike 90km with 9x1km efforts (6 of them being very very strong efforts)
Total training time 6hrs.
Tomorrow will be a big day in the pool with 100x100m repeats!!
Epic Camp France 2019 