Quite possibly the longest I have gone without blogging, especially after 6 posts in 12 days at the beginning of the month!
The first week here was great as I was easing into training and getting back into the swing of things after May/June racing. The altitude and 35 degree temps didn't help too much either. So it was easy therefore to take my camera along with me and snap away or stop mid training session for a quick video. But once things got going and the business end of training kicked in, everything becomes a little more focussed.
During the 3rd week of camp I had Mr Murchie out training with me, current Scottish Junior Champion (a title he took off of me in 2009 and has held since). We had a blast and worked hard as well, some very tough rides and all the rest. We also took some really cool videos but unfortunately I've been unable to get them up online! I'll keep trying.
This weekend I had 2 races, on Saturday a 10km hill climb bike race and Sunday a 5km French cup open water swim race.
The hill climb was tough, 10km and 750m of incline, 7.5% average with 9% sections. I went off hard and lasted 4km with the leaders, before I pulled back to get my pulse down under 180, I managed after 2km of my own pace and I started to push it on again. Crossed the line out of the saddle at pulse 189, so was going full tilt! Definitely enjoy the bike only events though, fun fun.
Sunday was the the open water race. INTENSE. I guess as it was a French cup race I should have known it was going to be aggressive and of course Triathlon's can be a little pushy at times as well. So I was prepared for the start, lots of pushing, kicking and pulling on shoulders, as well as having to go pretty much full out to keep up, max kicking over the first 500m.
The buoys were VERY far apart across the 2.5km lap, with there being about 600m between each. This was tough when considering the waves which were ripping up in the wind. Annnnyway, enough for excuses! More on the fighting. So the first lap was tough, with lots of infighting within the group, lots of surges and plenty of kicking (I thought we'd stop kicking and start "pull-only" after about 500m...but no!). So I was secretly hoping the second lap would be nice and tame...no chance of that.
The second we hit the beginning of the 2nd lap everyone started surging again, enter another 2.5km of pulling on shoulders, tugging on feet, kicking in the face and of course, swimming at full out. Ahh. Was quite an intense hour in the water. Felt like I'd been in a fight by the time I was out and on dry land again.
31st place, pretty pleased with that :)
Well it's now my last week in Chamonix, which has become one of my favourite places in the world, definitely my kind of town.
Hope everyone is training well and enjoying the summer,
Mike
ps. GREAT job to Ali Brownlee at the London ITU WCS race yesterday, that man is a machine. Serious respect.
