8mins = 1 Euro

That's how much internet time i get for a euro and I only had one... taken 4 mins to login so I'd better type fast!



SO update on tri camp day 1...



well let's go back to yesterday up at 02:30!! YIKES drove to airport where disaster struck - yes pulled my back getting stuff out of the car! AGGGHHHHHH


Made it into the airport and got some drugs as soon as I got through check-in etc... wasn't looking or feeling great! By the time I got to the resort moving was challenging so booked up an hour with the physio - nothing serious just some locked up extensor muscles... take it easy for 2 days he said... like yeah right, I'm on a warm weather TRIATHLON camp... .take it easy!???


So today I gingerly got up and decided I'd see how it went - stop if anything caused too much pain... then I'd just have to stop..

agh - time is up ... will continue when I have sourced some more Euro's!

The next day - it's now Saturday I've got (a) a training break and (b) a couple more euro's!! Where was I......

OK so I got up yesterday and staggered down to the swim with my roomie Jules.... who was also a bit crock from a skiing injury the previous week... we looked like a right pair of cripples shuffling to the pool (and on day 1 too!),... still got in and actually had a good session, nothing too crippling come out of the back. We managed about an hour and half for about 2k we reckon. Quite a bit of time just spent getting used to the 50m pool - hardly anyone was used to swimming in that length of pool.... Most challenging reps were 3*200m, the 200 split 50 easy, 50 build, 50 build down, 50 hard! Yikes! I was blowing a bit at the end of that! We then did some swim golf (nearly wrote pub golf then which is a whole different thing involving drinking vaste quantities of alchol!)... anyhow yes, swim golf.... time your 100m (in seconds) and count your strokes.. add the two and that's your score. We did this twice and I came out about the same both times.. 1'46 for the swim (=106) + 96 strokes = score 202... the idea being we'll compare to the score at the end of the camp. So that will be interesting. We also got filmed swimming head on to the camera.. I'm sure that will show a lot of room for improvement too! Back survived only stiffened up a little while after and pain on every movement was easing... the brufen must be working!

Next part of the programme was a 1.5hr bike session "set up and ride"... so in my innocence I thought this would be an easy 20k... Again I thought I'd just see how things went... Well it was't pretty to begin with. My back did not want to curl over to the handle bars and didn't really want to extend my leg to pedal... but I figured I's see what happened once I warmed up and hey it was only 20k right... WRONG... 40k and 2hrs later we got back! Nothing like putting in our second longest ride of the year with a sore back... but finished with no pain... until it stiffened up again but even then it wasn't as bad as the day before. I decided though to skip the run session altough I did go down to listen in.

Essentially what coach Joe was getting the chaps to do was to run 4 laps of the track only breathing in through the nose! Interestin! This marks approx you 80% HR zone (I think) and top end of easy run! So that then gives you your easy run pace in miles per hour (4 laps approx is just over the mile). Next thing was to have little jog down and back up the 100m accelerating to the point where you were "mouth breathing" .. this should have required approx 5% more effort, approx 10bbm more (I think, I'm going to have to check back with the coach).... This pace is your next zone but not quite race pace which should be slightly more. I'll have to have a chat with the coach and make sure I got all these factoids right as it all was very interesting at the time!

Having done that we then had a sports nutrition from the marketing guy from Science in Sports (who make a great range of gels, powders etc here in the UK). Quite interesting, although I had the same talk last year on the camp it sort of reminds you of all the good things we should be doing (eg having a rego protein drink after the run, possibly better then the large G&T which Jules and I opted for!?).... Humm. Dinner then bed by 10 last night - a bit pooped but happy that old backy was feeling a little looser!

This morning (Sat) was an hour easy run at 0900... lucky for me that meant a lie in (as I'm still not up to running!)... 1100 we were back in the pool. This time some hints and tips (how to swim in a straight line and kicking) followed by some more camera work, this time being filmed from the side.... I think we did about 1k in the hour which doesn's seem like much, but given I only woke up 20mins beforehand was plenty! ;0)

Next up is another 2+hour bike plus run (brick)... If I'm not too stiff after the ride I may venture on a little jog, won't do the programme's 3 or 5k run but just do some light stuff on the grass...

Tomorrow will be a real challenge with a 5 hour (YES FIVE) ride up the mountains... in case you didn't realise the only way out of the resort is up (and that's before you get to the big volcanoes) and the wind here is a real killer! Should be fun (in a warped sort of way!)

OK enough for now I've only got 3 mins of time left so better hit that publish button - apologies now for bad english, mistyped and misspelt words (I blame the fact I'm in a hurry rather then the fact I've just got a crap handle on my mother language!...LOL)