OK so I've been abusing my blogging over the last two weeks.
While out in Europe on the camp we didn't have Internet and though I could have probably searched some out I was generally too tired to wonder around so just kept putting it off. I've been back in Scotland since Monday and will be repacking my bags today before I head off again early Friday morning.
The camp was great, lasted 2 weeks in total from the time we started the block to the time we headed home and it was full of solid consistent work. Nothing that left me in the fetal position on the kitchen floor (enter some sets from last month) but just plenty of super solid work that's left me feeling strong and confident in what my legs are now able to do. All good for the run up to the second half of the season (which starts on Sunday morning at 5am ... in the Hudson).
The guys who came out to Europe consisted of Pete Anderson, Will Johnston, Andy Hood and Cam Milne along with me and Blair made it 6. Pete is a strong swim biker from Laurencekirk (my neck of the woods) and won the British youth series last year, Will and Cam are just in general strong triathletes but are still pretty young so I have a few years on them (Wil's leading the British youth series this year) and then Andy Hood is a nutcase from Fife who is a solid bike/runner and a general bad ass. Blair is my coach and also assistant national coach so he was covering all of our training for the two weeks, did an awesome job if I might say.
We stayed in Luxembourg for a few days while the boys did an ETU junior race (some good results too) while I was chasing my tail getting training done on the winding roads of Luxembourg and Germany. Did some pretty decent rides and found some great smaller (5km) climbs on the super smooth roads that were around Echternacht, where we were staying. Managed to get in a few good runs too that took me across the border into Germany, queue all the normal jokes (we made a few).
After a few days there and once the guys had raced we boarded the train and made for Gerardmer in France. It's up in the hills and in the winter is a pretty big ski resort, the summer is taken up by water sports, mtb, hiking, cycling, Ironman France and the day the tour de France passes through. Luckily we were there for the day the tour passed .... and yes I stood out in the rain for hours to see Lance. To see him in real life is pretty cool, his story sometimes make you thinks he's just a character from a book not a real guy. Good times though.
We were swimming each day in one of the two mountain lakes that surrounded us, both sitting at 20 degrees meant we could get in quite a few non wetsuit swims and plenty of longer sessions. At one point my shoulders were actually hurting from the amount of swimming we were doing ... it's been a few years since I've felt like that.
Biking was awesome there too, everywhere you looked were clicheed hairpin climbs into the mountains with equally as "hollywood" decents on the other sides. On a few of them I half expected to see James Bond sitting on the front of his Aston Martin.
On our last weekend we headed out for a longer ride and got in 3 or 4 climbs, was pretty cool to be out there riding the roads you see on tv and in the movies. Great climbing too, legs were starting to feel the effects by the end but now a few days on I'm feeling fresh and stronger than before. I fly out to NY on Friday but will post on that tomorrow.
I might do a Tour de France post later on too but I don't want to write about Lance too much ...
Mike
ps. lots of pictures from camp but ill post them once my camera is recharged
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