I had a marginal lead in the yellow jersey competition over Phil Paterson, George Grey and John Newsom. There were several “fun events” on the schedule for today but they were all lumped together as one event for points purposes and the real points were awarded in the triathlon. There was a first across the line event as well as a handicapped event.

With the amount of physical, psychological and emotional fatigue I have on board it was difficult to get into race mode. We headed to the pool to do two special events before the triathlon.

The 400im put me into the most anaerobic state of the entire camp, but I pushed through and finished in a blazing time of 8:14! The next event was 200m kick in which I somehow finished second to John Newsom.

Then it was time for the race: 1000m in the pool went by relatively quickly. I stayed focused on form and pushed as hard as I could. The time doesn’t reflect it, but 18:09 was my best effort today. The bike course was mostly uphill for ~7km then there was a turn around and we followed the same route back before doing the entire route a second time for 28km. I had exited the pool in 6th place with Thierry and Phil hot on my heels. I was wearing a pair of tri-shorts with a minimal chamois and it made me feel like my saddle was WAY too low. Despite it being tough to stay in an aero position I slowly reeled in Glen Osmond and then saw George Grey up ahead. I was able to pass George and saw that both Glenn Olsen and Ben were riding very well. My brain was telling me to ease up but I kept pushing as hard as I could because Thierry, George, Phil and Glen were likely going to run faster than I was going to. I entered T2 and had an abysmal transition fumbling socks trying to get them onto my wet feet. Phil rolled into T2 after a very solid bike, just as I headed out onto the run.

The first kilometre out of T2 was straight up a steady hill. I focused on a strong quick stride but Phil caught me as we crested the long climb. I started to feel my legs come back to me and I was surprised that I was able to run as well as I did on smashed legs. Just after the turn around Glen Osmond caught me and we ran together for about a minute before he put in a little surge and I couldn’t go with him. Knowing that George and Thierry were coming I pushed as hard as hard as I could and managed to stay ahead of them to finish up in 6th place.

Despite being passed by Phil and Glen I was still pleased to be able to lay down splits of 5:05, 4:50, 4:42, 4:32, 4:30 and 3:55 (downhill) on completely shattered legs.

The final physical events of the camp were strength events. The plank to failure saw John Newsom, Thierry, and I battling it out for an over 5min plank Newsom cracked first and I held on until Thierry failed.

The fatigue of the camp became apparent during the pushups. Normally I can do 80-100 push-ups but today I failed at 42. Ironically this article appeared in my inbox shortly after the event.

The final strength events was a wall sit, which I have never tried before, I managed to outlast everyone except for Thierry who took out the wall sit championship.

We had a 25 question triathlon trivia quiz won by Chrissie McKinlay with 14 correct answers. Phil and I tied for second with 13 correct responses.

We then went to a pub in the town square and shared a few war stories over beers.

When all the numbers were crunched, Chrissie won the polka dot jersey for holding the highest %FTP on the designated KOM climbs. Ben won the red jersey for having the most points during the races we held while on the camp, and I narrowly held off George to get the yellow jersey for the most overall points.

Totals for the camp:

71hrs29min of training broken down as

Swim 23100m in 7hr17min

Bike 1285.3km in 53hr42min

Run 99km in 10hr30min

A big thank you goes out to my wife Gabrielle Campbell and two daughters Isla and Soleil for supporting me it my desire to take on this crazy adventure.

Reflections

The biggest take aways for me were the mental triumphs of knowing that I can run “relatively fast” on completely smashed legs. The predict your time 10km, 5km in the aquathon, the 7km in the triathlon and especially the 7x1km repeats all will be powerful deposits to have in my training bank to draw upon during race days.

Doing 1285km through the Pyrénées on a borrowed bike without a power meter also forced me to focus more on my internal metrics to gauge intensity rather than numbers on a screen.

The fun of doing crazy long rides through the Pyrénées with like minded folks was special. The ride over the Tourmalet and Peyresourde was particularly memorable despite the 40C+ temperatures. Pushing through thunder and lightening, pouring rain and freezing temperatures, a broken derailleur and dysfunctional electronics on the ride from Andorra to Prades and then running off the bike was a true mental battle. The last big day of climbing over the col de Jau and le col de Pailheres in perfect conditions was phenomenal.

A big thanks to John Newsom for organizing the camp Ian & Julie for providing excellent support and route choices. Thanks to Julie & Cathleen Lock for always having smiles and encouraging words even when I was going through some dark moments of fatigue. A very special thanks to Oli Jenner: photographer extraordinaire, stellar support guy, awesome physio and massage therapist, and all around nice guy. To all my fellow Epic Campers “Thanks for sharing the experience!”

What is next?

I am racing Ironman Mont Tremblant in 18 days. Hopefully all this training will have time to marinate and I will be able to have a stellar performance on August 18.

After having a very rough day yesterday, I was a bit apprehensive about how to approach the last K.O.M. of the camp. This was a two for one climb in which there were points awarded for whoever could predict what %FTP they would complete the climb at and also the standard K.O.M. points. Considering how dead my legs were yesterday I predicted 82% FTP for the climb which would be the last 13km of the Col de Jau (avg gradient ~5%).

We had 13km of gentle low gradient rolling climbs to warm up on before the K.O.M. started. George, Glenn Olsen, Ben, Thierry, John, Phil, and I rolled out together. I had no idea how my legs were going to respond to a full gas effort. About 3 km before the KOM start I realized I needed to take a nature break so pulled over as the guys rolled on ahead. I had almost caught back up to them when the climb started in earnest. I was very surprised to realize that my legs felt pretty good and they were responding nicely as I caught up and then went by each memeber of our groupetto until only George and John Newsom were ahead of me. The 5-6% gradient was perfect for strong seated climbing. There were a few lower gradient sections early on where I caught up to George Grey. I sat on his wheel for the lower gradient section at the bottom and after about 3km decided to go by him. George has been climbing exceptionally well all camp and I suspect this was a less than ideal day for him. Then I saw I was gaining on John so I just focused on keep him in my sights and pedalling as efficiently as possible.

Usually I’m a data geek, who focuses a lot on power numbers when training and racing, but with Air France still having no idea of the whereabouts of my bike, I have been on a borrowed bike from Pyrénées Multisport. Without a power meter I have been relying solely on my perceived exertion to judge my efforts.

I could tell I was riding right at threshold because anytime I would try to lift the pace my breathing would get very laboured and my pedal stroke would fall apart. So I focused on smooth pedalling and being as efficient as possible. With about 4km to go I caught John and surged to go past him. I tried to settle back into a smooth rhythm but after about forty seconds John passed me back. I don’t know if he had been holding something in reserve or if I was faltering, but I simply couldn’t match his pace and finished off the climb about 100m behind. I had done the climb at about 95% of FTP which was much higher than the 82% I had predicted.

After a great technical descent we started the col de Pailheres, which was the most enjoyable climb of the entire trip so far. Being on small quiet roads there was almost no traffic. It was blue skies and 28C.

My legs felt good, so I just rode steady for the entire 18km climb which has a great variety of tight switchbacks, long straight sections, shallow 3-4% grades and steeper 11-12% pitches. Essentially this climb had it all and I had a smile on my face the entire climb.

I was famished at the top and wolfed down a chicken salad which the support crew had for us and a full water bottle of coke as well as an Em’s bar.

I was planning on adding another 60km to the scheduled ride and Ian had suggested riding up the valley towards Andorra, which was “a slight upward gradient, never more than ~2%. All I had to do was ride 30km out and then enjoy the 30km downhill back to the hotel before my run.

Lunch was not sitting well in my stomach as I had consumed about 1000calories in 5minutes and my stomach was revolting. I did my best to keep a positive outlook, thinking that an upset stomach is often and issue during Ironman racing. Right now, I had two hours to settle my stomach before attempting to run.

The “slight” uphill grade was becoming steeper and steeper complete with switchbacks. When I saw a sign that read 8% I decided to turn around. As I was flying downhill at 60kph I realized that I had been climbing at a gradient way above 2% 🙂

I stopped at a little roadside restaurant to refill my bottles with water hoping that plain water would settle the acid sloshing around in my stomach.

Once back in Ax-les-Thermes I still had 20km to go in order to reach my 150km target. I had to ride another 10km uphill before coasting back to the hotel.

I quickly changed into my run gear. I had been thinking about attempting the specified 7x1km mainset on the run which was a huge mental battle for me as my legs felt like bricks. There was a running path next to the river which was on a slight downhill grade. After 1km easy I decided to go for the 7x1km efforts at threshold +25s which meant 2 bonus points.

The first effort was right on pace and I was very surprised that my legs were responding. I started to get worried about being able to hold this pace on the return trip uphill. The second effort felt smooth and I had to back off a little as I was well under goal pace, which made me think the downhill gradient was steeper than it felt. I new the path was only ~4km long so I was searching for a flat section of path to do the remaking repeats on. Number 3 was also very smooth and on a slight downhill gradient. Then the path ended on a paved road with some traffic. I did repeat #4 along the road out and #5 back along the same section of toad both 20s faster than goal pace. Now I had a dilemma. Do I attempt the last two efforts on the uphill path back toward the hotel or do I finish the efforts on the flat paved road which meant having to run 4km back to the hotel once I finished the efforts. I wanted to be certain I could maintain a fast enough pace for the 2 bonus points so I elected to complete the last two efforts on the paved section getting both done under 4:35.

After doubting I could get a quality run done, this was a major mental victory for me and the 4km on the slight uphill trail back to the hotel actually felt very good. Best of all the pain I have been feeling in my left foot was barely noticeable.

A 2k swim was the last session of the day. I was anticipating an attempt on the 10x200m affords on threshold pace +25s. Glenn Olsen said he was keen to do them as well so after a short 100m warm up we got to work and did the entire set coming in on 3:25-3:28 and leaving on the 3:45, good for two points. Having a focused mainset and someone to work with in the pool made the time zoom by.

Totals for the day:

Bike 150km

Run 12.5km including 7x1km at threshold

Swim 2200 with 10x200m@3:45

Total training time~9hrs

Tomorrow is the final day of the camp which will include a triathlon 1km-28km-7k as well as a few “fun” events like 400im and an obstacle course.

After a very poor night of sleep, we were up at 6am to do an Aquathon. We headed to a lake on the outskirts of Prades. The plan was to do a 1500m swim and 5km run. In my half asleep state I heard four laps of the swim and three laps of the run course. I knew I was swimming slowly but felt relatively strong considering the fatigue on board. I focused on sighting and swam as hard as I could. I was a bit confused when I got out of the water and everyone else was already running.

Oh well, I guess I swam slower than I thought so I started running. It took me a 1.3km loop to get my legs under me. When I looked at my watch it read 2.5km and some of the other folks were finishing their 5km run! I was able to pick up the pace a bit in the second half of the run, but I was 5-10minutes slower than everyone else??

It took me a while to realize that I had swum an extra lap of the swim which meant I had swum close to 1900m instead of the planned 1500m. I was pretty demoralized but at least I wasn’t swimming quite as slowly as I initially thought.

I felt much better after a solid snooze.

Ian was able to figure out that the rear derailleur cable had snapped inside the shifter and that simply changing the cable fixed my bike issues from yesterday!

The first 13km of the 56km ride to the Mediterranean was a Time Trial. It was mentally very difficult to dig deep but I’m happy to say I gave it everything I had in those 13km today. We finished the ride to the Mediterranean to complete the trans Pyrénées traverse, swam 1km in the Sea, then most of us rode 56km back to Prades. I added an extra 30 km for a nice round 150km today.

Totals for the day:

Swim 2900m

Bike 150km

Run 5km

Training time ~7hrs

“It takes all day to train all day” Gordo Byrn circa 2004

While it wasn’t exactly what Gordo was referring to in the quote above, today was definitely an epic day on many fronts. With the last several days temperatures running in the mid to high 30s C, it was a bit of a shock to the system to awake to rain and 11C. Heading out of Andorra when I failed to warm up after a 10km climb I added winter gloves and a heavy rain jacket.

I was frozen by the time we started the 16.5km climb to the high point of our camp route d’Envalira. It was pouring rain and 8C at the top according to my bike computer.

With my “bad weather gear” in my bike bag which, along with my bike, is still MIA after 8 days (thank you Air France!) I only had true winter riding gear. In retrospect this actually turned out to be lucky as O bundled up with a winter jersey, winter jacket and a thick rain jacket on top and lobster claw winter gloves. Despite all the gear I still froze and couldn’t feel my brake levers on the long descent from d’Envalira into France. There were multiple shorter climbs varying from 4-8km which got some blood flowing and eventually I warmed up as the rain slowed. We were give the option of following the original 180km over several more climbs or taking the valley road to Ptades which would shorter things to 140. George, Phil, John and myself chose to follow the planned route.

The climbs were awesome small untracked roads but to combination of lots of climbing and very technical descents slowed the average pace considerably. I was hoping to add 30km of riding once in Prades to get the 2 bonus pints for going over 200km and also the additional pint for going over 210km. I was wondering if this was going to be possible considering how slow the progress was today.

Then my Garmin Edge 830 started to be very sluggish to respond and it was taking 30-60s to switch between screens. This meant I was having to pause at intersections to figure out which direction to turn, slowing progress even further.

Then I noticed that my rear derailleur was also behaving very sluggish and it wa taking 2-3 shifts of the lever to change one gear up or down, not a good sign. On a long descent about 130km into the ride the derailleur stopped shifting all together and I was stuck in the smallest cog on my cassette. A million things were going through my head…could I fix this…I wasn’t going to make it to Prades before the 8:30pm cut off time…I wasn’t going to be able to run to achieve “camp completion today”…I was going to have to run with the bike just to get over the last few climbs as there was no way I could push a 34-11T gear up a 9% climb!!!

Then I saw Oli Jenner in the support car up ahead. We tried to fix the shifting but it didn’t seem to be a loose or stretched cable. Fortuitously Thierry Bessede’s “spare bike” happened to be in car and we were able to swap over my pedals and adjust the saddle down enough to make the bike rideable. It is a very nice bike, just about two sizes too big for me so I was in a very stretched out position.

The only other issue was the lack of a mount for Garmin bike computer, which I was relying heavily on to navigate the correct route. I was having to pull the Garmin out of my jersey pocket at every intersection, not the best way to keep a rhythm going and not the smartest thing to be descending down tiny twisty roads with a Garmin in one hand. With the Garmin in my jersey pocket somehow it locked up completely and permanently stuck on the elevation screen.

Now I was having to navigate with the paper map and turn by turn directions. The problem was without the Garmin to display distance I was having to guess which turn I was on as they were all based on distance ridden. I got completely turned around and luckily met up with Phil Paterson and with Oli driving in the support car I got back on the correct route. I felt good on the last climb and picked up the pace a bit, but then was on my own again to navigate to the hotel. Then I realized that somehow with all the back and forth of phone and Garmin into and out of my jersey pocket I had lost the ziplock bag with my map, credit card, and fifty euros cash. What else was going to go wrong today??

I found the hotel on my phone and as the skies opened up again and started pouring I arrived at the hotel. It was 5:40pm which meant I had just under 2 hours to obtain extra points by riding further, as there are 2 points bonus for riding 200km I decided to add another 20km. The D35 ended up being a “relatively flattish” tertiary road so I rode until it really started kicking up. I was guessing it was ~5km when I turned so I did that out-and-back twice. When I arrived back at the hotel and hit the stop button my Garmin read 202km. I was about to put my running gear on when a voice in my head said “8 km gains you another point”. Luckily David Lock offered to grab me an Em’s bar and some water and off I went down D35 one more time.

Back at the hotel, I changed and headed off for a 10km run. I was focusing on form, and what it was going to be like to run 42.2km off the bike at Ironman Mt. Tremblant in 3 weeks time. The thought never even crossed my mind to do the run mainset of 7x1km at threshold pace, which is what the wiley veterans Phil Paterson and John Newsom were doing for an additional 2points. Good on ya boys!!

It was 8pm by the time arrived back at the hotel.

Totals for the day:

210.7km riding

10km running

1 broken derailleur, 1 dysfunctional Garmin, lost credit card/map/ 50 euros.

Thanks go out to Oli for being at the right place at the right time with a spare bike to allow me to keep riding today. Thanks to Thierry Bessede for brining his spare bike and allowing me to ride it. A big tip of the hat to Phil Paterson who was alert enough to see my zip-lock bag on the road and he was able to retrieve my credit card, map and 50euros.

Training time: 9hrs57min

A truly EPIC DAY!!

I was more apprehensive about today’s 100x100m swim than any other session at Epic Camp. On top of being a bit nervous last night my stomach was a bit off and I was up every few hours sitting on the toilet. I was very worried about my stomach so had only some black coffee and dry cereal for breakfast. The pool opened at 9am so we were in the water shortly thereafter. 6 campers were attempting the 100x100m mainset. With bonus points awarded for doing the repeats on 1:45 (3 points), 2:00 (2 points), 2:15 (1 points). George Grey and John Newsom were planning on the 3 point option. Which left Ben, Glenn Olsen, Phil and myself attempting the 2 point option. Without any planning, we ended up having each of us lead 5 efforts and then we would take a 2min break after each 20x100m block. It was amazing what a mental exercise this session was. Once we got into this pattern things went by amazingly smoothly. Physically the pace felt very comfortable, partially due to the pool being “fast” and partially due to the drafting affect. I would lift my effort and focus when I was leading, perhaps a bit too much on the first two rounds as we were usually coming in ~1:44-1:47, but on the first few I was unintentionally lifting the pace to 1:38-1:40 on the first few but then focused on just relaxing and staying smooth. The time actually flew by. However, I was so deep inside my own head that anything that disrupted the flow seemed like a massive disaster. The lifeguard telling us we had to put on bathing caps threw me for a bit of a loop…”WAIT…WHAT…bathing cap?…I’m gonna miss the interval”.

Once I had my cap on my head things flew by and we were soon half way through. I would always anticipate my chance to lead for 5x100m, but those 5 actually went by the fastest likely because it required more mental focus. We all completed the 100x100m efforts and we averaged 1:47/100m.

It took us 3hr28min to complete the swim. I wanted to get a ride in before the planned trail run in the afternoon. I thought I could get 30km done in an hour, but because nothing is flat around Andorra I actually got the minimum 800m of climbing done before reaching 30km. It took me 1hr25 minutes so I only had 10minutes to get changed into my run gear and off we went on our trail run.

The trail was very steep and technical in spots so it turned into a mostly hike, some jog.

I lost my footing at least four times and was a bit concerned I was going to actually injure myself. No major injuries but I definitely aggravated my left foot which had been behaving quite well before the trail run.

Swim 10km 3:28

Bike 28.5km 1:25

Run/Hike 2:10

Total training time 7:03

Tomorrow the forecast is for rain as we ride back into France. The planned route is ~180km with ~3600m of climbing but also 4000m of descending

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!!

I realize that I haven’t really explained the various jerseys which are part of the points competition on this camp. Each day points are awarded for completing the camp itinerary, which typically is ~3k or swimming, the bike of the day which varies significantly day to day, and ~10k run. If one achieves camp completion then they are awarded 3 points. Additionally 1 point is given for each 3k swam, 30k biked and 10k run. Special bonus points are given for a 6k swim (2 additional points) and 20k run (2 bonus points. There are also specific challenges such as 3 points for running within 3minutes of your open 10k time or 1 point for swimming 200m of butterfly. The overall points leader gets to where the yellow jersey. Additionally each day there are 1 or 2 designated K.O.M. climbs where K.O.M. points are awarded based on what % of your FTP you achieved on the climb. The K.O.M. leader gets to wear the polka dot jersey.

Some days, like today, also have contests to keep things interesting. We started with a 10km run where the closest to their predicted time got additional points. I wanted to run as quickly as I thought I realistically could so I predicted 47:30 (7:36/mile), which would also get me 2 points for running within 4:30 of my open 10k time. Considering how my legs felt yesterday I was not very optimistic that I could maintain pace for 10k. On the other hand I knew that I would have to run essentially as fast as I could within truly nuking myself to meet my target. We set off at ~6:45 and faster runners (Ben, George, John, Phil) quickly gapped me and Glen Olsen settled in about 100m in front of me. The first 5minutes felt terrible but I settled in to a good rhythm after ~10minutes and the foot pain I have been having when running was barely noticeable. I just focused on form and used Glen as a pacing bunny just up ahead of me. At the far end of the course there were a few hills and I seemed to be catching Glen on the hills and he would pull away again on the downhills. The return route was where I had run off the bike two days ago so it was great to be familiar with the course. I knew where ~2miles to go was, and I tried to lift the pace at that point thinking that increased perceived exertion might translate into maintaining pace at this point in the 10k. I caught up to Glen and then was concerned that if I passed him I would be running under my goal time. My competitive tendencies got the better of me and I went by him just before the finish. I finished in 47:18 which was 12s under goal time and also met the criteria for 2 additional points. I was very happy to be able to run relatively pain free and at a somewhat reasonable pace considering how much fatigue I have on board right now.

John Newsom, Phil and I headed out of Luchon together as everyone alse had departed earlier. We were greeted with a solid ~800m climb right out of the gates, but as no KOM points were designated we rode as easy as one can on a 10-12% gradient. At the top of the climb we crossed into Spain!!

After a fun technical descent and rdiing on the flats for ~30min we started a 21km climb. There was a bit of confusion as the where the KOM start point was so when we finally started the KOM there was only 8km of climbing to go. I absolutely went as hard as I could but only managed to maintain 248 watts, a testament to how much fatigue I have on board right now. A fun 30km descent and then another gradual 21km downhill ride into a headwind and I was in Sort. I decided to tack on an additional 46km to make 150km for the day. Unexpectedly we were then able to find a nice pool to finish the day off with a 2km swim. I added 1000m of band only swimming and 200m of butterfly at John’s suggestion to make it a 3 point swim.

Totals for the day:

10k run, 150k bike, 2km swim

Total training time ~7hr30min

Tomorrow we head for Andorra

Our so called “easy day started with a 6:15 meet in the lobby of the hotel. We drove ~15min unloaded from the vans and started a run with either a 1hour option (1 point) or 2hr option (2points). The first mile was down a significant decline on a paved road and I was left on the wake of the speedier runners. The road flattened and then kicked up for about 3 miles at about 4-5% where the pavement ended and a proper hiking trail started the trail was pretty good to run on for about the first 800m is then the footing got a it technical and the grade really increased such that it became a run/hike towards the top. It was well worth it at 7:30am to reach lac d’Oo

this amazing lake with a waterfall feeding into it. I jogged back down the trail with John N and Phil and I chased after George and the two of them as we retraced our steps on the pavement to complete 2hrs of running. We loaded back in the vans and headed back the hotel to enjoy the most glorious breakfast buffet of the trip so far.

Due to tacking on the extra cycling and running yesterday I moved into the yellow jersey temporarily, a massive 0.25points ahead of John Newsom.

The forecasted high was 42C today and it felt like it as we rode 26km to a lake where we all swam 3km including a competition to see who could get the best estimate of their time for two laps of ~575m. Chrissie was a mere 1 second off her predicted time!!

Instead of riding the 26km straight back to the hotel. I added 30km of riding (worth 1 bonus point)in the valley which felt hot but not too bad. I decided I would try to get another bonus point (awarded for climbing 800m) by climbing up this side of le col de Peyresourde. The 40C plus temp hit me pretty hard with the cooling affect of the wind gone. When I finally had gained 800m of elevation I was only ~2km from the summit so I finished off the climb.

Totals for the day:

Swim 3k (1 point)

Bike 26km x 2. (Lake and back) and an additional 60 km which included the 900m of climbing (5 points)

Run 2hrs (2 points+2 bonus points)

Tomorrow we are riding into Spain!

Le moment de jour “the moment of the day”…it’s amazing how little things can make such a big difference…

After riding over 5 serious climbs (well at least 4 serious climbs and one pseudo climb), gaining 4600m elevation, and then riding an extra 28km at the end to total 180, just to gain an extra point in the “Yellow Jersey competition”, I decided to head out for 10km run. I rationalized the choice to run because I need to build up my run volume in preparation for Ironman Mont Tremblant and it would also give me another bonus point in the Yellow jersey competition.

What I neglected to account for was the fact that I had spent 8hrs24min on the bike and that it was still 32C outside. In retrospect grabbing a water bottle would have been a smart choice. After running for 2 miles my mouth was dry and all I could think about was water. I kept waiting to see a tap or someone with a bottle of water and I was practicing in my head “es que je peut avoir un peut de l’eau si vous plait”. I was now looking into every yard I passed hoping someone would be there or a water tap would be accessible. Then I came around a corner and there was the most glorious water fountain with water gushing out of it. I could already taste the cold water, but as I approached I noticed the massive sign. L’EAU EST NON POTABLE. I thought about ignoring it but didn’t want to get sick for the remainder of the camp. So, instead, I took off my shirt and dunked it and my head in the cold fountain, then put on my ice cold shirt and continued my run. It felt good for about 10minutes and then the dry mouth affect returned. I had turned around and was heading back towards the hotel now. I saw two boys about 10 years old goofing around on their mountain bikes up ahead of me. Maybe they had some water…ironically they stopped at the same fountain I had stopped at and my heart sunk when I saw that they were filling their water bottles in it. Maybe they knew something I didn’t but I still didn’t want to risk drinking “l’eau non potable”.

As I ran towards them one of the boys was staring at me intently. He appeared to be completely engaged in watching me run and he said with complete sincerity, “courage monsieur”. Maybe it was the hypoglycemic & dehydrated state that I was in, but his words were so sincere that it gave me the motivation to push past the lack of water and hypoglycemia and to run a bit harder in the last 2 miles of my run.

Overall the day was a very long day on the bike. I felt pretty sluggish on the first climb with John, George, and Phil over l’Aubisque.

Then I felt slightly better on the short climb of le Soulor. On the Tourmalet there was no way I was going to stay with George and John so I just road my own pace.

The day was really heating up and I had a pretty rough time on the descent of the Tourmalet with my quads and my back cramping pretty significantly. I was crawling up the first half of le col D’Aspin before getting to the designated lunch spot. A few calories helped a lot and I made it up the steep portions better and rode strong up le Peyresourde. It was then that I made the mental choice not to head right to the hotel but rather to tack on the extra kilometres to total 180km and also to do the 10km run.

Totals for the day: 180km cycling and 10km running

9h22min total training time.

Tomorrow is a bit less time on the bike with a 10km or 20km run in the morning and then a bike to lake- swim- bike back from lake.

The time difference caught up with me and I was wide awake at 2am. I did my best to fall back asleep but ended up just tossing and turning until 5am when I finally gave up got ready for the aquathon.

We drove down to the Atlantic Ocean and jogged one lap of the 3×1.25mile run course. Everyone else then put on wetsuits. Unfortunately my wetsuit is in my bike bag with my bike which continues to be MIA. Despite my lack of neoprene the water was actually surprisingly pleasant.

What wasn’t quite so pleasant was the 4-5ft swells on our planned swim course. The original plan was to do two laps around this very unique rock. With significant swell crashing into the rock we altered the course and swam a 1kilometer course parallel to the shore.

While attempting to get into the ocean a massive wave completely undercut my legs and so ended up with sand in ever orifice and I also lost my goggles. Thanks to Christine McKinlay who lend me a pair of goggle to use during the swim.

Once out of the swim we transitioned to a 3lap run which started straight up these stairs

Then we had a loop of the lighthouse over looking the waterfront before running back down to the transition area only to do it all again 2 more times.

After the aquathon we hoped on our bikes

and rode a hilly route from Biarritz to Eaux Bonnes including le col de Marie Blanc which was ~8km at an average of 9.3% which meant the last 4 kilometres were closer to 12-13%. The first 42km of the ride was controlled as John Newsom set a nice warm up pace at the front. From 42km to 84 km the pace built and we road up the first significant climb at a crispy pace. It was fun to have a great group of 6 guys taking turns pulling at the front: George, Theiry, Glen, Phil, John and myself.

Once John had planted the seed that we were going to aim for the two bonus points by hitting 200km we added a few out and back sections to add a bit more mileage before starting le col de Marie Blanc. John and George went off the front and I did my best to go with them but my legs were having none of it and when the gradient consistently kicked up above 11-12% I really started hurting. Today I was glad that the bike that Ian from Pyrénées Multisport had set me up with had a 30T on the rear cassette.

At the top of the climb George and John were eager to get going so I downed a bit of coke and put on a jacket for the descent. We needed an extra 8km to make 200km for the day, so a 4km out and back was added to the route. The last climb to Eaux Bonnes was 4.3km. When I looked at my GPS it read 193.8…I was sweating so hard on le col de Marie Blanc that my sweat droplets had hit the Garmin display and paused it 2km from the top. Even though I knew I had ridden those 2km I really didn’t want some to see my Strava file which read 198km. As you can only do “training that counts” for 12 hours a day I had to hit 200km before 6:13pm. So will my computer reading 198.7km and the time reading 6:09 I turned around to gain the last 1.3km on the downhill, hitting 200km at 6:12:46pm.

Totals for the day

Swim 1km

Bike 204.5km

Run 7miles

Total training time: ~8:45

Tomorrow is another big day on the bike with ~4000m of climbing and likely a run off the bike.