Race preparation

Half Ironman California is approaching fast. The bike is ready. I did a 45 minute ride this morning with the race wheels. Everything is fine. Thanks to the taper my legs feel great on the bike. I don’t know about the run, as... I don’t run. I decided to save my legs until Saturday. I’ll see if my injury is healed during the race. I saw a PT and an ART specialist. It seems to help but the area is still very sensible.

I bought a Giro aero helmet. Free speed they say… Now I’ll definitely look like a dork but every second counts!

I am curious about my swim Saturday. I feel very good in the pool and spent much more time swimming than the previous years. Volume is decreasing in the pool also, on Monday I did a 4700m session, 3500 on Tuesday and 2500 today with some fast intervals.

X-Ray...

I went to an orthopedic clinic on Friday but don't know much more about my injury. It does not seem to be a stress fracture as my X-rays came out clean. The doctor wants to check with an MRI to be totally sure. It seems that sometimes stress fractures are not visible on X-rays. In the meantime I can't run. I also got a prescription to see a Physical Therapist. Let's see what will be his version of my injury story... The race is is less than 7 days... Not good at all.

To improve my morale here are somes highlights of the Las Cruces Camp:

1/ The Sofa, also called the "PS Triathlon International Training Center recovery machine". Only one rule, implemented forcefully by Paulo: "no seating on the sofa if not showered". Below, the recovery machine being used by Jonnyo and Sergio.

2/ Hydratation: because of the altitude and the desert dry air I was constantly dehydrated. I needed a bottle by me even to watch TV! On my last day, we went for a two hour ride and Khai realized Sergio had no bottle: "He Sergio, you forgot your bottles!", "I don't need bottles, it is just a two hour ride...". Sergio is a camel.

3/ Nutrition: as Jonnyo said "we are athletes, we can eat a lot", and we did, Italian, Mexican... The skinny rapper in the middle is Paulo, in between Sergio and Danny.
4/ The Purse: Lyndsey now knows that showing up at the pool for the morning workout with a "red-crocodile" purse is a good way to get a new nickname, Miss Purse (here with, from righ to left, Khai, Jonnyo and me).

5/ Zone 3: riding Zone 3 with Sergio and Jonnyo with a tailwind, flying at 50kph, definitely a highlight for me. The way back was less glorious...

Water, water...

Paulo and Jodi before the torture session in the NMSU long course pool

Not being a swimmer (at all) the numbers are very impressive for me, I swam approximately 22km in 5 days in Las Cruces. On top of that Paulo prepared a 4700m session for today (in LA for me) so it is about 27km now! I really suffered from the altitude during the camp, especially in the pool where I had the impression to be out of breath all the time, being surrounded by fast swimmers did not help.

But as Sergio's swimsuit says, HTFU...

Back from HTFU Camp

I am back home after 4.5 days in Las Cruces for the HTFU training camp with Paulo's posse. It was a lot of fun and hard work. The bad news is that I injured myself before the camp (right lower leg) and cannot run. I am going to see a Physical Therapist tomorrow. I hope it is nothing too serious and I'll be able to race in Oceanside as expected...

I'll post more later about the Camp but for me it was 22 hours of training packed in 4 days and a half! If you want to know how it is to ride behind Jonnyo (2nd at Ironman Canada 07) and Sergio (2nd at Ironman Florida 07) check this video (a bit long)...

Las Cruces

The bike is packed. Plane tickets are ready. I fly tomorrow to Las Cruces (New Mexico) to spend 4 days with the HTFU crew for a short training camp. Some pros, some age-groupers and of course coach Paulo should make things interesting!

Need motivation?

If you need motivation to get out on your bike that should do the trick! Simon Whitfield behind the camera...

Winter?

Great week and great week-end. I rode 2h25 this morning with few steep climbs. It was foggy at 6am but ended up a perfect morning. After our usual Sunday morning walk to the farmer market to buy our vegetables and fruits for the week, we all went to the beach (Point Dume beach). We had lunch there and the boys played in the waves for a while. I went for a 20 minute open water swim to get used to the wetsuit again and test the water before the race in Oceanside. It is cold! My hands and feet went numb for a while but after few minutes everything was fine and I had a good swim.

It was a good week as far as training goes: more than 20 hours in total, 15000 meters of swimming, 9+ hours of biking and 6+ hours of running.