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!