Epic Camp France Day 11

Today was a day filled with internal turmoil.  John said that he would not be tacking on today, and I was just over two points away from yellow.  If I tacked on, then it would come down to whoever won the triathlon race today.  Tacking on after the race is a little unsportsmanlike, but it’s technically within the rules.

I decided to tack on in the morning before the race.  I wanted to do an easy 30k ride just to close the points gap a little.  Closing the gap a little would give me a wider buffer for the triathlon race.  I’ve been getting up really early this entire camp, so getting up early to ride at 6:30am was no big deal.  I just headed towards Thonos again since it’s a reasonably easy downhill on the way out and an easy spin on the way back.

I was back by 7:45 for breakfast and had a lot of time to mentally prepare for the race.  We rolled out at 9am and spun up the hill to the lake.  We set up our transitions and got a ride to the far end of the lake to do the swim.

The swim was a long “drag race” from one end to the other.  I FINALLY was able to swim in my wetsuit, and it felt fantastic.  The freezing cold water didn’t seem so bad.  Actually, it was quite nice and refreshing.  I stayed within sight of John for most of the swim, but towards the end he got away from me.  I wasn’t sure just how far, but I imagine he had three or four minutes on me.

I got out on my bike quickly, but as soon as the climb started, I dropped my chain.  It got jammed between the crank and the frame, so I had to muscle it out and sliced my thumb in the process.  It was bleeding a lot, but with the adrenaline, I couldn’t feel a thing.  Given that I didn’t know how far ahead John and Shannon were, I dug super deep and biked as hard as I could.  I knew there was a big descent that I could recover on, so I wouldn’t give up much going hard.  About halfway up, I caught Shannon, and I could see John with 1km to go to the summit.

I am a pretty good descender, so I figured I could probably catch John on the way down.  I wasn’t suicidal on the descent, but I was definitely a bit reckless.  It paid off though; I caught John just before the bottom of the descent before town.  We still had a short 2km climb back to the lake, so there was still a bit of riding left to do.

John got to T2 just as I was leaving, so I stepped on the gas.  I didn’t feel like I was running all that fast, but it was enough to hold John off.  At each turn around the lake, I looked back and saw him slowly fading.  I was still expecting him to surge, so I kept the pace as high as I could for all three laps.  I crossed first and heard that John had fallen back quite a bit.  I finished right at 38min 10k pace for 9km.  Given that this was the last day of camp, I’m pretty blown away by that.  We all hung around until everyone finished.  It was the activity of the camp for most, so it was pretty emotional.  Some smiled, some laughed, and some cried.

Now this is where the internal turmoil starts for me.  Given that I won the race, I was less than a point behind yellow.  I could tack on and take yellow, or I could let John have it.  He said he wouldn’t tack on, so it was essentiall my call.

I decided to do it.  I tacked on a 30k bike for that last point that I needed.  A lot of people are going to make me feel bad about this, but I don’t feel bad for a second.  There are a lot of reasons why I did it too.  I was handicapped this entire camp.  In case you didn’t know, I got my bike and wetsuit at night on day 9 which meant for nine days I was fighting and uphill battle.  On day one, I missed a competition that would have netted me three points which meant I would have had a solid lead for yellow for the entire camp.  For that reason, I needed to make up points whenever I had the opportunity, and it just so happened that that opportunity was on the very last day.

And that’s a wrap.  Another Epic Camp in the books.  I look forward to enjoying future camps and not chasing any jerseys.  I’m done with the points competition.  Future camps will be all about drinking beer, eating ice cream, and enjoying being on my bike with cool people.

Epic Camp France Day 10

For anyone reading this, I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures over the past few days.  I will add them as soon as I get back home, but right now I need to prioritize sleep for the last day.

Going into camp, I was legitimately scared of day 10.  This was one of the few days that I legitimately didn’t think I could finish.  Day 10 is 100x100m in the pool in Morzine.  I’ve never swam that before, and swimming definitely isn’t my strength.  Due to the route, this was also the day that John and I needed to do our fast 10k run, so that happened too.

The day started early.  John wanted to drive up to the lake at 6:30am to do the fast 10k while it was cool out.  We started with an easy warmup, but I started first since John had to find the bathroom.  I ran the path before, and it was a really shitty run.  The trail is very rocky, and every step is an opportunity to roll your ankle.  This would make it very challenging to run quickly.

I started off pretty quickly, but I felt like it was a sustainable pace.  I didn’t knew ahead of time that I needed to run 3:48/km pace, but I made a point to not look at my average pace at all during the run.  The first time I looked at my watch was after one lap: 3km in 10:45.  I had no idea what the pace was, but if I maintained, I could do 9km in just under 33min.  Knowing that, I just focused on placing every step perfectly and maintaining the current pace.  I finally had my fast running shoes, and running in them felt great.  Laps two and three passed reasonably quickly, but the final 1km was tough.  I ended up finishing in 36:40.  I was VERY pleased with that.  It was 10 seconds faster than Newsom, and it was nearly a PR for me.  And on day 10 of Epic Camp!

The next few hours were relaxing as I mentally prepared for the big 100x100’s.  Newsom went for an easy ride, but given that I was already scared, I took it easy.

Going to the pool was nerve-wracking.  I think everyone was nervous.  It helped that we were all doingo this swim set together, but it was still tough.  I went out very, very conservatively at 2:00/100m pace.  It turns out this was way too easy.  I was consistently coming in on 1:26, so I had over 30sec rest.  I was also starting to get really cold.  Eventually I started going on 1:45, and I was able to maintain it relatively easily.  Every 20th 100 we were allowed to take it easy and rest.  I skipped the first two, but at 6000m, I started eating food.  I didn’t need it, but I know my body could use it.

Eventually the swim set ended, and high fives were had all around.  There were still some people swimming though, so we had to wait quite a while for everyone to finish.  This was a bit of a mistake on my part.  I should have immediately ordered food at the pool.  Instead I decided to wait.

We didn’t end up eating lunch until 3pm - a good two hours after finishing the swim.  This was bad for recovery, but it was also bad because I kind of wanted to get some riding done.  Missed opportunity.  We rushed back to start a long run by 4pm.  If I wasn’t going to ride, I definitely couldn’t miss doing my last two hour run.

The lunch mistake came back to bite me hard.  I felt like complete shit for the first hour of the run.  Both my stomach was a mess, and I had to pee every five minutes.  On top of that, my body was aching like you wouldn’t believe.  I was barely moving.  This was probably the slowest two hour run of my life.  I ran up the river trail to the waterfall and back down the other side until the trail ended.  I made it 21k in just over two hours.

The end of that run marked the end of the training window too.  We had a nice dinner, and after John’s monster day, he finished two points ahead and back into yellow.  Waiting for people for lunch and missing the opportunity to bike and feeling like shit on the run were unfortunate mistakes.  Oh well, there’s still one last day.  I don’t want to be an asshole and tack on after the triathlon race, but I might.  It depends how badly I want yellow...

Epic Camp France Day 9

Day 9 was by far my lowest point in this camp.  It was the most mentally challenging day that I’ve had in a long time.

The day started off pretty well.  We had a relatively late breakfast and started rolling at 8:30.  It was an easy 5k descent into town before hitting the first KOM of the day.  I started off pretty strong, but Newsom, Shannon, and JB were on my wheel.  We were all pushing fairly hard, but halfway up the climb the three of them took off.  It was very disheartening to see them all slowly pull away.  With about 5k to go, I saw JB struggling a little bit.  He was falling off of Shannon’s wheel, and I felt like I could catch him.  This gave me a second wind, and I caught him with two km’s to go.  With 500m to go, I looked back, and he was too far behind to sprint which meant I could soft pedal to the top.  I later found out that Shannon out  sprinted Newsom.  This was BIG news because it meant that I was solidly in the lead.  I was already ahead, but only losing one place to Newsom meant that the KOM jersey was safe.  We quickly descended and regrouped at the right turn at the bottom to make sure everyone made it.

The next climb was not a KOM, so we took it slowly together.  And then disaster struck.  The road was entirely gravel, and a pebble jumped up into my rear derailleur.  As a result, my derailleur ripped off and got stuck in my wheel.  DAMMIT.  Not again!  This is exactly what happened in Canada.  Everyone else went on, and I waited for Ian to save the day.  Only he couldn’t.  He had three spare derailleur hangers, but none of them fit my bike.  I was destined to finish the ride in the van.

The ride in the van was demoralizing.  I saw my fellow campers out there crushing themselves, and all I could do is sit and watch.  Even though it was totally out of my control, I felt disgraceful wearing the yellow jersey.  Oli and I supported everyone for a bit, but we eventually drove on to the accommodation in Montriond.

Once we got here, I immediately grabbed my run and swim stuff and headed to the lake.  It was a 2.5km run uphill to the lake which I was not happy about.  I ran slowly, and once I got to the lake, I ran even slower around it until I hit 8km.  The trail around the lake is total crap.  The rocks are way too big, and I felt like I was going to roll my anlke with every step.

Once I hit 8km, I put on my sleeveless wetsuit and got into the water.  Holy shit was it cold!  I swam as long as I could, but I could barely manage 1700m before my body was ready to shut down.  I got out and shivered for about 10 minutes before I could even think about taking off the wetsuit.

The one saving grace as that my bike was scheduled to arrive in Morzine today.  We hired a taxi to drive my bike from La Grave to Morzine.  We agreed to pay 400 euros, but when the guy got closer, he told us that the price went up to 450.  And when he finally got here, he demanded 512!!  This was insane, and both Ian and I were fuming.  There was a minor confontation, but the guy eventually let me have my bike.  The three of us were shaking as we walked back to the chalet.

I was reinvigorated as I put together my bike.  It went together smoothly, and as soon as it was ready, I headed out towards Lake Geneva.  I rode an extra 66km to make up the distance that I missed earlier.  This meant that I wouldn’t miss out on any points from the day.

When I got back, everyone was just finishing up dinner.  John rolled the KOM points into the yellow jersey points, and I was about three points ahead in yellow.  This felt fantastic.  I beasted through dinner and showered and went straight to bed.  Tomorrow would be a huge day, and it starts with a fast 10k at 6:30am.  I need to be ready for that.

Thanks to Brigitte and Sam for keeping my spirits high despite my incredible low today.

Epic Camp France Day 8

Day 8 of Epic Camp is in the books.  It wasn’t a particularly challenging day, but I’m bushed nonetheless.  I managed to work my way back into yellow by a narrow margin.

The plan for today was to have a friendly triathlon race.  The warmup was biking 30km DOWN to Lake Annecy.  I say down because it was literally 1700 feet down which meant we had to bike back up that during the race.

The swim was wonderful though.  It was pretty close to a 1km swim.  John B let me borrow his extra wetsuit, so I was actually able to swim this time.  I came out of the water 3rd after towing a few people behind me.  It felt like Ben was tapping my feet quite a bit during the swim, but apparently he only tapped 3-4 times according to him.  Sighting was a bit of a challenge at times.  A bunch of red sailboats were chilling at the last buoy, and I don’t think they realized it, but triathletes don’t have x-ray vision.

I got out on the bike pretty quickly.  Shannon was just barely ahead of me and John was long gone.  There’s a traffic light for construction a few KM’s into the ride, and I ended up getting stuck for three and a half minutes.  Thankfully John said we can deduct that from our time, so I wasn’t worried that he was miles up the road.

Once we were able to go again, we got a pretty nice pelaton going.  The traffic light bunched everyone up, so me, JB, Phil, and Shannon were all trading off at the front.  A few people took wrong turns, and eventually JB and I were alone for probably half of the ride.  I felt like I was pushing, but I couldn’t drop him on the climbs.  JB and I rolled into T2 together.

The run was pretty uneventful.  John was over a kilometer up the road, and I had enough of a lead where no one was going to pass.  My biggest concern was how big John’s lead was.  I was praying for less than three and a half minutes, but he ended up winning by almost seven minutes.  He crushed it.  Post-race, we found a cool stream and chilled out (literally) for about ten minutes in ice cold water.  That felt incredible.

After lunch and a solid nap, I decided to do a few tack-ons for points.  I did a 10k run into town, swam 3k, got ice cream, got a haircut, and ran 10k back home.  Only the runs and swim were for extra points though, but damn it felt good to get a haircut.

John took it easy this afternoon, so I nabbed yellow by a little bit.  It’s pretty clear that I can’t beat him at a race, so I’ll have to do a ton of tack-ons if I want yellow.  Luckly I want it pretty badly, so these next three days might be tough.

Epic Camp France: Day 7

I’m starting to show some cracks.  Today was pretty damn brutal.  We did three big climbs; the first and the third were for KOM points, and I got second on both of them.  It’s not the end of the world since I’m miles ahead on KOM points, but what hurt the most was that Newsom beat me on the last climb.  I was hoping to get a bit of a lead once the KOM points roll into the yellow jersey, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get as many as I thought.

We had a bit of a later start this morning rolling out around 8:15.  It’s weird; I’m starting to miss getting something out of the way at 6am.  Getting our daily run or swim over with before breakfast seems pretty nice.  However, when we have a huge day on the bike, it’s also nice to be a little fresher for that.  An easy 10k run puts a little fatigue in your legs that can be nice to have on a KOM climb.  Breakfast was amazing again.  We had our personal chef make us scrambled eggs with all of the other usual stuff.  Scrambled eggs have been rare enough this trip to still be considered pretty special.

Rolling out was also pretty casual.  We started with a 20k descent, so a lot of people started off early since they are slow descenders.  I always thouht climbs separated people, but on this camp, there seems to be a huge differential in descending speed as well.

The first climb was for KOM points, so we regrouped at the bottom.  As soon as we started, something was off.  Turns out my back tire was nearly flat, so I bouncing around a lot and hitting my rim on the cracks in the road.  Not good.  I contemplated just riding it the entire way since it wasn’t completely flat, but luckily Julie was right behind us with the van.  My tire was pretty bald, so we just swapped the wheel.  Unfortunately we swapped it to an 11 speed cassette (my bike was 10 speed.)  It worked, but the gears were jumping all over the place.  I was expecting to take this KOM pretty chill, but this flat set me back 7-8 minutes.  John stopped and waited for me up ahead, but everyone else took off.  I had to push harder than I have all camp in order to catch people.  I got everyone but Walter.  I was a little disappointed since I wanted to get every KOM, but this one was out of my control.

Descending the Cormet Du Roseline was absolutely frigid.  In hindsight, I should have put on another jacket.  It was beautiful though, but we were in the shadow of the mountain, and I turned to ice.  Once we got to the bottom, we regrouped at Ian’s van, fixed my bike, and warmed up.  The climb up Saisies wasn’t for KOM points, so we mostly climbed together and took it easy.  There was a really nice aid station at the top of Saisies, and most of the group was there.  Rarely does that happen.  We descended and regrouped at the bottom in anticipation for the last KOM.

The last KOM was probably my least favorite climb of the camp.  It was short, but the first part of the climb was a descent.  I couldn’t get away from Newsom, and as soon as the road pitched up again, he took off.  I think the main part of the climb was only about 8km long, but it was a mentally tough 8k.  Newsom was about 200m up the road, and Peter was about 150m behind me.  Newsom got neutralized by a stoplight with 2k to go, but I didn’t have to stop.  As soon as that happened, he had the win.  I wasn’t going to pass him, but I did sprint a few times to make him push.  The top of Aravis was pretty underwhelming, so we descended pretty quickly and made our way to the accommodation.

We still had to do our swim and run for the day.  We had the option of running into town to the pool or running back.  Newsom decided he was going to do his 7x1k reps after the swim, so we drove to the pool.  It was a relatively uneventful swim other than grabbing some low hanging fruit in terms of swim points.  I did the 200m butterfly that I missed the other day and the 12x(100m IM + 150m free) set.

I was dreading the 1k run reps after the swim.  My quads are trashed right now, so I was hoping to use exclusively my hamstrings on this run.  We found the flattest section of road that we could which happened to be about 1k from our chalet.  Before I knew it, we were done with the reps.  The first one was tough, but once I warmed up, they got a lot easier.  I was pretty happy about that.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful.  Dinner, internet, and blogging.  The wifi is good here.  For once.

Epic Camp France: Day 6

I lost yellow today.  I lost it because I couldn’t swim a 200m butterfly, but I’ll get it back.  This was just a minor setback.

Today started out really nicely though.  We met at 6:30am for an easy trail run.  Well, it was more of a trail walk since it was so damn steep, but at least I ran the way back.  I went past our turnaround point in Le Monal and headed towards the top of the mountain.  I followed the trails to Col Du Rocher Blanc.  I almost made it to the top, but I got to a trail intersection that said Rocher Blanc was two hours ahead, so I felt like that was a good point to turn around.  When I got back to the chalet, I was just short of 20k, so I did a little extra to get that point.

Breakfast today was amazing.  Since we’re all staying in the same place, the support crew was able to make a ton of great food.  We had oatmeal, scrambled eggs, cereal, yogurt, a nutella and jelly sandwich, and delicious coffee.  I obviously indulged in everything and ate as much food as I could fit in my belly.

The main workout today was a pool swim, and in order to get there, we biked 20km down the hill to get there.  It was just an easy downhill stroll, but we did get rained on again.

The pool swim today was pretty intense.  We had an hour, so the plan was to grab as many points as I could.  I decided to go with 10x200m@3:20/100m, 1km bands-only, and 200m butterfly.  I didn’t get the 200m butterfly.  My arms just didn’t want to work.  Newsom ended up doing 10x200m at 3min and did the 200 fly, so he got two points that I didn’t get.

Afterward, everyone was on their own to spin back up the mountain.  Lunch was at the top, so I went pretty quickly.  My stomach was screaming at me after that swim, so I was motivated.

This afternoon is open.  Some people are riding up the Col Du Sainte Bernard which takes you into Italy.  If I had my bike, I totall would have joined.  I feel bad because I would have loved to bike to Italy.  Oh well, instead I’ll rest up, get a massage, and relax in the hot tub in preparation for the KOM’s tomorrow (there are two.)

Epic Camp France: Day 5

I’m currently writing this in a foggy haze.  Today was huge.  No, the other days were huge.  Today was off the charts.  It was set up to be our biggest day on the bike, so we got our run out of the way super early and very easy.  Our 10k minimum ended up taking almost an hour.

Back at the hotel, we did our usual morning shuffle.  Since we moved to a new place today, we packed our bags and stuffed down as much food as we could at breakfast.  At dinner tonight, I was asked what I had for breakfast, so I’ll recount it here as well:

2x bowls of cereal with dried apricots

3x cups of coffee

2x coirssants (sp?)

2x packages of yogurt

1x hardboiled egg

1x dollup of peanut butter

I don’t know how many calories that is, but it’s probably a lot.  And I burned every last one and much, much more on the ride today.

We left La Grave and headed towards the Galibier.  It was about 10k to the turn and another 7-8k to the top.  There was no KOM on the Galibier, so the group took it really, really slowly.  I was very happy about this, but eventually I settled into my casual pace which was a bit harder than the group wanted to go.  As a result, I had a great chat with Peter all the way until 1-2k from the top.  Then I got a little itchy and went for it.  I didn’t pick up the pace too much, but I wanted this for myself.  I took a ton of pictures on the way up, and I even got a little teary-eyed towards the top.  The views were so good that they were emotional.  I’ve been dreaming about these views forever.

After a short break at the top for warm gear, we headed off on the chilly descent.  It was long and fast and absolutely incredible.  There’s nothing I love more than a fast descent after a hard climb, and the Galibier definitely delivered.  There was some kind of event going on though because there were a million cyclists coming up while we were descending.

After a long descent and a few towns, the group caught back up with me, and we worked together for about 10k.  People must have been pretty shattered though because I ended up breaking away and riding solo for the majority of the rest of the ride.  There was a deccent amount of climbing on the way to Iseran, but there was nothing too crazy.

The leadup to Iseran was very pretty.  We were down in the valley, and you could see it looming in the distance.  The town just before the climb was extremely pretty.  They all had the same stone masonry and same stone roofing.  It was all so very French.  I loved it!

Iseran was a bit of a low point for me.  It was a 14k climb, and I had enough of a lead where I could take it at a pretty slow pace which meant that it was going to take a while.  I wanted to grab some chamois cream and my headphones at the last aid station, but I was too focused on a quick stop that I completely forgot.

The first few switchbacks of Iseran were extremely beautiful.  You could see the valley and the mountains off in the distance.  It honestly looked much like the other big climbs we’ve done, but that doesn’t mean you get sick of it!

The middle section got a little dark for me though.  You make a turn away from the valley, and you don’t really know where you’re going.  I could see trails or roads off in the distance that looked like it could be the way, but everything around was just so high that I wasn’t sure.  Mentally that’s tough.  If you can see the top, then you have something to look forward to, but if you can’t, then climbing seems endless.

The final section is where the wheels started coming off for me.  Even with 4km to go, I still wasn’t sure where the top was.  There was a section with one-way traffic, and I had to stop for over five minutes.  In a way, I was pretty happy about that.  It gave me some time to rest my legs, eat the only bar I had on me (an extremely melted snickers bar,) and drink the last bit of water in my only water bottle.  Starting back up after that stop was tough.  The legs were heavy, I was totally bushed, and it was starting to get cold.  We were almost at 9000 feet!

The summit was also a little underwhelming.  There isn’t much at the top.  No cool cafe or swag shop like the other cols.  Instead, I just put on two jackets, drank some coffee, ate three cookies, and was on my way.

The descent was prettty legendary.  Thank god we didn’t go up that side because it was absolutely endless.  It felt like I was descending forever.  There were a few cool tunnels along the way, but they were a little sketchy without lights.  However, in one tunnel, we got stopped at a light, and a Lamborghini pulls up next to me.  When he took off in the tunnel, the sound spoke to me.  It was SO loud.  I loved it!

I hit the intersection where we were supposed to turn towards our chalet, but I made the decision to tack on more.  Yes, I was aiming for 200k on our biggest day on the bike.  Yes, I am insane.  I didn’t think we’d have any more opportunities to hit 200k again for big points, so I went for it.  I had an hour and a half, and I figured I could make it pretty easy.

However, when I went past the turn to tack on, I just kept descending and descending and descending.  I kept going for over 10k before hitting the valley floor where it was reasonably flat.  I thought I was good on time, but with a 15k climb up to the chalet, things were looking tight.  I downed my last energy bar, my last sip of water, and went for it.

I ended up hitting 200k with an extra 1300 feet of climbing five minutes past the cutoff.  Newsom was a good sport about it, and he let the points count.  He said that if I wanted the points, I could have them.  And let me tell you, I worked damn hard for those points.  I could have tacked on during the flat section before Iseran or I could have turned around at any point and descended the remaining kilometer at any point to hit the cutoff, but I didn’t.  I decided to push harder than anyone on our biggest day to make it happen.  That definitely deserves yellow in my book.

The chalet we’re staying at is beautiful as well.  It’s big enough to fit everyone, and the dining area can sit everyone too.  We had a private chef cook us rice and curry, and afterward I sat in the hot tub with one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen.  How am I so lucky to be here??

Epic Camp France: Day 4

Today was the first day that we didn’t have to move our overnight bags.  At Epic Camp, it’s always a nice little gift to stay in a place for more than one night because it’s a hassle to pack everything up all the time.  La Grave was an amazing place to spend two nights too.  That view at dinner…

Today was a special day.  We were going to bike up the famous Aple D’Huez climb.  It’s an 8.5 mile climb with an average grade of about 7.9%.  The plan was a super easy ride down the mountain to the base of the climb.  Most people took off at their own pace since everyone descends at different speeds, but once I got down to the bottom, I accidentally started the climb.  It’s weird to accidentally start something like this, but there was no one waiting at the vans, and Charles started the climb ahead of the group.  I followed not giving it much thought, but once I noticed that the climb wasn’t ending, I quickly realized that I wasn’t where I should have been and turned around.  Thankfully I made it just in time as to not get disqualified for our group time trial.  We all started the climb together, and I made it to the top in a time of 56 minutes.  Shannon was on my wheel for the first 10 or 11 switchbacks, and I was worried that she was going to take it.  But once it started pouring rain on us, I felt right at home and Shannon dropped back a little.  The climb itself was insanely beautiful.  The switchbacks were legendary, and the views were beyond epic.  Our KOM ended at the start of the village, but I continued through town to the official Tour de France finish.

Once everyone got to the top, we went over to the pool to do our timed 1.5k swim.  The swim itself was uneventful.  I did it in 22:57 (1:32/100m) which I think was good enough for third.  The real entertainment came from the pool nazi that was yelling at everyone.  Apparently ONLY speedos were allowed (not even jammers,) and there were no socks or shoes on the “beach” (the deck surrounding the pool.)  You also MUST shower before getting in the water and couldn’t wear pants outside of the pool.  You also couldn’t leave anything out to dry (such as wet jerseys or shorts) out to dry unless they were in the designated area.  It was absurd.  Apparently the French are huge assholes when it comes to this kind of stuff, and today definitely highlighted that.

Next up was our timed 10k run.  We started at the edge of town, ran out on some trail that met up with a road behind the airport, did an out and back, and then made our way home.  Two 5k loops.  I went out pretty hard on the first lap, but once we got to the downhill to finish up the lap, I took it pretty easy.  Rob (SoCal dude) caught and passed me on the downhill.  I wasn’t worried though since he didn’t have a spectacular climb up ADH, so rather than burying myself to catch him, I just took it easy and enjoyed the run.  At one point (actually two points,) Rob went off course, and despite him being in the lead, I yelled to make sure he didn’t lose any time.  I got scolded for poor sportsmanship in the past, so hopefully this makes up for it.

The combined totals for the three disciplines put me in the lead for our major competition, so I was pretty happy about that.  The part that I wasn’t happy about was that Newsom was second which means I only gained 0.3 points on him.

After the run, we sat down for a quick lunch before heading home.  Some people decided to go down the back side of ADH, and I joined them.  The views were absolutely unreal.  100% worth the tiny  bit of extra climbing.  Just before the bottom of the descent, it started raining cats and dogs.  Or rather, sheep and marmots.  It was pouring buckets down on us, but if there’s one thing I learned from Epic Camp Canda, it’s that a proper rain jacket is worth 100x it’s weight in gold.  I put mine on, and I was nice and toasty.  This was easily my best purchase leading up to camp.

Besides the rain, the rest of the ride back to La Grave was pretty uneventful.  I rode solo the entire way and did a short tackon to make it 90k of biking for the day.  There was a little time to chill before dinner which I took advantage of, and dinner was delicious as always.  Tonight I had duck.  It was awesome.  Tomorrow is a gigantic day on the bike, so we have a pretty early wakeup.  Good night.

Epic Camp France: Day 3

I was pretty excited about day 3 at Epic Camp, but mostly because on paper, it seemed like a shorter today.  And while still incredibly epic, it was much shorter than previous days.  We started off with a little bit of an aquathon down by the lake in Embrun.  The distances would be a little modified which didn’t quite suit my strengths, but it wasn’t a significant change.  The plan was: 1.5mi warmup run around the lake, 1300m swim + 3mi run (two laps around the lake.)

I still don’t have my wetsuit or bike, so I had to do the aquathon in a speedo.  Thankfully the water wasn’t too bad again, even at 7am.  The swim portion of the race wasn’t too bad.  I am not a fast swimmer, but I found some feet that I could hang with.  Walter and Murray are definitely good feet to follow.  They did a great job of going straight (not my strength,) so it worked out well for me.  I got out of the water with the chase group about three minutes down from the leaders.  Up the road was Lou, Newsom, Rob, and Shannon.

Immediately out on the run, I caught Rob.  Lou took most of the first lap to catch, and Newsom and Shannon were completely out of sight.  I was running pretty strongly at 6min pace, and I think if I had more time, I probably could have caught them.  Instead I had to settle for third.  Another year, another loss to Newsom in the aquathon.

Breakfast was a lot more chill this morning.  The ride today wasn’t suppose to be super long, so we took things slightly more chill.  There was another KOM today up the Col Du Izoard at 55km, and the race started as soon as we got out of town.  Thankfully the group was sensible and took things slowly for the first 40k.  However, out on this narrow road besides the river, the group got a little split.  Peter and I got separated ahead of the group, and we chose to just go ahead.  It might have been poor sportsmanship to not wait, but Phil was already up the road, so Peter and I decided to take things a little slowly and hope the group caught back up.

However, they never did.  We made it to the aid station at 40km and decided to just go on anyway.  Sadly, there wasn’t much competition for this one, so I mostly just stayed relaxed for the entire climb up Izoard.  I was soaking in the spectacular view every time there was a break in the trees.  It was AMAZING.  This was the highest peak we’ll do at the camp, and it was right around 7500ft.  It was so satisfying to make it to the top.  The descent was equally as amazing.  20km of beautifully winding turns down the other side of the mountain was pure joy.

Next we made our way through Briancon and started up the Col Du Lauteret.  This climb was much more gradual, but the views were equally as stunning as Izoard.  I was starting to get pretty tired and pretty sick of climbing though, and I was a little worried about water.  With only one bottle and the temperature heating up, I wasn’t sure if I would make it.  Thankfully there are life-saving fountains in many of the small towns here in France.  The support crew had their hands full with the group being so spread out, but after that fountain, everything was good.

Summiting the Laurteret was felt so good.  The view at the very top wasn’t so great (unless you count the view of the glacier,) but the last few kilometers was unreal.  The Alps are my heaven.

Epic Camp France: Day 2

Day 2 of Epic Camp France started off pretty chill.  Everyone was pretty smashed after climbing Mont Ventoux yesterday, so considering breakfast wouldn’t be ready until “later” (7am vs 6:15,) John decided to change things up a bit and do a pre-breakfast easy group run.  People mostly stayed together and ran at a very chill pace.  This ended up being really nice since the weather at Vaison was reatively warm.  And in typical Epic Camp fashion, we rushed through breakfast and were out on our bikes asap.

The bike ride today was planned to be 171k with no KOM which meant that my plan was to sandbag as much as possible.  I did a little bit of work at the front, but for the most part, I didn’t do much pulling.  We made our way along through many small French villages, and there was an absolutely beautiful section along a river that blew me away.  It was everything you image when you think about French cycling: Tunnels, a steep mountain gorge, and cutout in the mountain to make way for the road.  SO beautiful.  As far as river valleys go, I think this was the best one.  The rest of the ride was beautiful as well.  We could slowly see the big mountains in the Alps getting closer and closer.  Around 140k, there was a turnoff onto a country road that brought us up a lot higher.  From there we could see the lakes near Embrun, and the view was absolutely stunning.  The lakes were a deep tourquiose that reminded me of tha lakes in Canada.

Since the ride was already 171k, I convinced Murray, who is currently in the red jersey, to push a little farther to make it to 200k for extra points.  Initially John, who is currently in the yellow jersey, wasn’t interested, so we set off on our own.  Once we got to the turnaround point, Murray turned back, but I went a little farther to push to 210k for one extra point (on top of the two bonus points for 200k.)  But on the way back, I saw Phil, Newsom, and Rob heading out.  VERY sneaky!  That was probably a good call by Newsom though, because if he didn’t match, then he would have lost yellow.  I respect that, but it’s also going to make it tough to beat him.  Clearly he’s motivated.

After the ride we still needed to do our daily swim.  I headed down to the lake with the intention of swimming with everyone else despite not having a wetsuit.  If the water was too cold, I was prepared to run.  Luckily the water was great, and I was able to swim.  This was probably a good call since I feel like running another 10k would have eaten into my legs quite a bit.  I like double runs, but when I need to be ready for KOM’s, I don’t really want to be running 12 miles per day.

Post swim was good.  I took the first shuttle back and was ready for dinner well before 7:30.  We had a fancy four course meal consisting of things I’ve never seen before and wouldn’t dream of pronouncing.  The best part was that quite a few people left before dessert, so I had exactly 2.5 desserts.  That was a win for sure.

And today I was lucky enough to get a massage after dinner.  Last camp I don’t think I hit my three massage cap, so this time around I wanted to make sure I got it done early.  We had two pretty monster days, so I think I was ready.

Epic Camp France: Day 1

Today got off to a bit of rocky start.  Traveling is always a nightmare, and this time was no different.  Somehow my bike never made it to Paris, so I had to ride a rental today.  The rental is actually quite nice though.  It’s a Rose bike, and I’ve always liked German engineering.

Due to traveling issues, I didn’t get to Marseille until midnight last night, and with a 5am wakeup, things were going to be a little challenging.  I think I got about 20 minutes of sleep last night, and since I was already awake before the alarm, getting up wasn’t too difficult.

We started the day with a bit of a swim competition.  Sadly, since I packed my wetsuit with my bike, I had to try and swim in just a speedo today.  I took three strokes in the Medditerranean and said there’s no way.  The water was way too cold.  Instead I went for an easy run and took some nice pictures.

The bike ride for today was promised to be huge.  And it delivered. :)  After riding for 70 miles, we found ourselves at the base of Mont Vonteux.  This is an absolutely gigantic mountain: The route we would take to the top would cover 13 miles and ascend 5000+ feet.  That is massive!

About 25 minutes into the climb, John Newsom passed me for the lead.  This sucked.  Physically I couldn’t push much harder with the last of climbing gears, and mentally I didn’t think I could catch up with Newsom.

And then a miracle happened.  Somewhere before the 6k to go mark, Newsom exploded and left a massive crater on the ground.  There was support stationed at 6k to go, and Newsom pulled off to drink some coke.  When I saw that, I was almost furious.  How could he do this now?  He was winning by  a considerable margin, and then he stops?  What the heck??  Apparently later I found out that he could barely push 200w, so it sounds like he was not in good shape.  I pushed for the summit and made it in 1:38.  I missed my goal by eight minutes, but it doesn’t matter that much.  I gave it my all (which arguably wasn’t much,) and ended with the King of the Mountains jersey.

Due to missing the swim this morning, I’m a little behind on yellow.  Three points exactly.  That can be made up pretty quickly.

Epic Camp Canada 2014: Epilogue

Today is the first day post-Epic Camp Canada 2014, so it's time to reflect on the past twelve days.  It's hard to believe it's all over.  I'm sure you won't find it hard to believe, but it was  kind of nice to wake up this morning and not have to swim 3k, run 10k, and bike 200k.  I thought I might join a few others for a light jog this morning, but my legs are still in a state of extreme shock.  It hurts to squat down, and I don't think that feeling will go away for at least a few more days.

As I fly home, I have a mixture of emotions right now, but most of all, I'm feeling relief.  Going into this camp, I had a ton of anxiety.  I think that's pretty normal though.  I haven't done a lot of international travel.  I was going to spend two weeks with people I've never met before.  I didn't even know if my body was going to be able to handle the extreme amount of punishment it was going to endure.  There was also the added stress to perform in the jersey competitions.  For all of these reasons, I don't think I had a single "good" night's sleep the entire trip.  I joked near the end of the camp that I'm going to go to sleep tonight (Sunday) and wake up for work on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday,) but given my current sleep debt, I don't know if that's a joke...

I still need to add up the numbers, but I did somewhere close to 80 hours of workouts in 12 days.  This included swimming over 3km per day, running over 6.2 miles per day, and biking over 1000 miles through the mountains (ie tons of climbing.)  At my peak, that amount of training took me over a month.  Squeezing that down to two weeks with the added intensity of races and other competitions meant that my body went through the beating of a lifetime. (To be updated with exact numbers.)

Coming into the camp, John Newsom said I would be one of the slower guys as well as one of the younger campers (Leah was the youngest at 28.)  For these reasons, I took things pretty slow at first.  I relied quite a bit on the group and on the veteran campers to help guide me in my approach.  Initially I was a bit trigger happy on the pulls and on the climbs.  I trained and tapered well, so the first few days I felt much better than expected.  I also knew my strengths (climbing and running,) so I strategically used those to my advantage.

The first week was great.  I was doing the camp minimums, and my perception was that I was handling things as well or better than most.  I was pretty lucky to only get one flat on the road, so for the most part, I was always keeping up with the lead pack.  The pace never felt unmanageable either.  My swimming was a solid 7th, but this was a pretty minor part of the camp.

Around the beginning of the second week, the fatigue started to set in.  I think it coincided with my first two hour run.  Due to my foot injury coming into camp, my run wasn't where it should have been, so the longer runs definitely had a major impact on performance.  There was also the incident with my bike towards the middle of the camp.  This killed me both mentally and physically.  Wildflower (my bike) and I were like one.  That bike was basically an extension of my body, so to lose something like that was difficult.  At the time, I was in a mild state of shock because I didn't know if I would be able to complete the camp, and I knew it was a multi-thousand dollar incident.  A tough pill to swallow for sure.  The new bike is nice though.  Dandelion (thanks Sam!) and I got to know each other pretty well, and by the end of the camp, we are on pretty solid terms.

The last half of the second week was very dark for me.  Right around day 9 is when things took a turn for the worst.  I was still able to move, but getting out of bed in the morning was difficult.  Biking became tougher and tougher, and I kept missing the main pack.  Occasionally there would be someone I could ride with, but pulling (riding in front) was out of the question.  My most sincere apologies to everyone for doing almost no work towards the end.  Physically, I just couldn't.  I hope you understand and don't hold too much of a grudge.

The KOM competition was something I was looking forward to, but Zach crushed that hard.  He went five for five on the KOMs which was untouchable.  Before the fatigue set in, I was close, but once I lost my bike and my legs, there was no coming back.  Well done Zach.  I hope I at least made you work for it.

The yellow jersey competition was something I had in the back of my mind for a while.  Realistically I never thought I had a chance especially with my foot and lack of running coming into camp.  After the KOM was lost, I noticed I was doing well in GC (yellow jersey) points purely based on performance in the races.  With just a little more effort to pick up a few "easy" points, I could be a contender.  So that's what I did.  By the last two days, I had a severe case of yellow fever.  I didn't quite realize what I was up against with Adam B, but I tried hard.  It took a bit of ingenuity to grab some points (convincing Scott to let me violate the 12-hour rule, downhill 7x1k, etc.) but for two days, I went for it.  The best I did was tie Adam B for one day, but after reading Molina's blog about the integrity of the yellow jersey and considering the shape that my legs were in, I decided to call it quits.  Adam B tacked on way more than I did, and he got up at 4:30am on the last day to put in some monster training.  Kudos dude.  You are a badass and earned the yellow.  But all things considered, I'm happy to have been a contender and to have had the opportunity to go for it.  I made you work for it, and likewise, you made me do work as well.

To John and the support crew, thanks for an amazing experience.  Logistically, everything was incredible.  Michelle made the most amazing food and gave a killer massage, Dave went out of his way for me so many times (almond milk smoothies) and had an incredible personality, and Mark saved me so many times with bike stuff.  You guys were like wizards with logistics.

Here are a few things that I learned that might make for a better experience next time:
- Bring a laptop.  Managing pictures and garmin issues would have been a lot better with a real computer.  There was a ton of extra room, so size wouldn't have been an issue.
- Bring warmer clothes.  Again, size and space weren't really issues, so there was room for bigger bags with more of the uncommon but greatly appreciated things like cold/wet weather gloves and full cycling booties.  Those two things alone would have been a game-changer during that one miserable day from Sunwapta to Lake Louise.
- Better run fitness would have helped a ton.  Going into camp, I was lacking some long run training.  You're never forced to run long, but that extra durability in my legs would have helped a lot.
- Pick your battles.  Halfway through the camp I flipped from going for the KOM to the yellow jersey.  In the future, if the yellow jersey is a realistic goal, go for it on day one.  Likewise, if you're going for the KOM, take it easy on the rest of the stuff.  Zach wasn't going for camp completion, so trying to split my effort in both competitions was difficult.
- Do the fast stuff EARLY, at sea level, and on FLAT ground.  Trying to do hard run sets when you're super tired, at 5000 feet, and in the mountains is a nightmare.
- Declare your tack-ons.  Being secret about your bonus points is not a good way to make friends.  It all gets revealed at the end anyway.
- Be a tourist every once in a while.  I missed out on a few opportunities to have some fun like the river adventure and the Lake Louise gondola because I was too busy training.  At the end of the day, the experience is a lot more valuable than a little more training.

I had a great time here at Epic Camp Canada.  I feel like I accomplished something huge and am a better person for it.  I also met some great people along the way and shared many epic moments with them.  I will almost certainly be back for the next one!

Epic Camp Day 12: Lake Louise to Calgary - The Final Day

I conceded the yellow jersey this morning.  Actually, I conceded it sometime last night.  My legs hurt so much that I couldn't bend them to curl up into a ball, so I decided that enough was enough.  It wasn't worth risking my chances of doing well in Tahoe in three weeks.  I feel bad because Adam B got up at 4:30am to do the 7x1k run reps, another 10k run, and a 60k bike to pull ahead all before the official 200k bike.  That's HUGE.  I seriously can't touch that.  Adam B: You are a hardcore badass well-deserving of the yellow jersey.  Congrats.

So instead I got up at 6:15 to make the 6:45 van ride up to Lake Louise.  We stopped at the lake to take pictures just as we headed out on our tea house run.  It's hard to describe how beautiful it was.  I've been waiting FOREVER to take a picture standing in front of the lake.  You see pictures of it all over the internet, but today was my day.  I was happy that it was pretty calm and clear too, and it was definitely worth it.

After some solid photography, we headed up the trail towards the tea house.  The trail was much like the one yesterday with nice dirt and straight uphill.  And of course ridiculously beautiful.  Just like yesterday, it twas a mixture of running and walking (mostly walking) that is, unless your name is Lou.  I don't know how, but Lou somehow managed to run the entire way up.  It might not have been blazingly fast, but he did it.  The view from the tea house was worth it too.  Definitely one I will not forget for a while.  On the way down, I had some solid man-to-man-to-man time with Lou and Scott.  They gave me a ton of life and racing advice that I won't soon forget.  The rest of the descent was spent chasing after Zach and Petro.  We took the scenic route and ended up getting back way later than expected.

Breakfast was a bit rushed, but we go out on the bikes by 9:30.  My legs were thoroughly crushed into oblivion, so almost immediately the pace seemed difficult.  Newsom said the pace was going to be on from the start, and he wasn't kidding.  We took a side road which paralleled the main highway.  It was nice, but it wasn't as scenic as I was hoping.  The views I saw yesterday from the main highway were definitely better.  The first aid station was just outside Banff, and it was a welcome break.  But as soon as that was over, John promised that the pace would be even higher for the 30k out on the highway.  He wasn't kidding either.  As soon as we got out there, the front pack took off.  I tried to hang with them, but I didn't last long.  As soon as the main group got up to me, they flew past too!  Crap, I missed both groups!  Thankfully Molina was smart enough not to hammer, and he fell off too.  I got on his wheel and hung there until the turn.

I also hung onto his wheel until the aid station at 100k too.  We took another side road, and the shoulder was a death trap for tires.  Another day with plenty of punctures!  After the aid station, we were noticeably exiting the mountains.  The terrain was changing more and more to gently rolling hills, and the weather was getting sunnier and warmer.  Molina and I just kept on motoring along (he obviously leading) all the way to lunch at 150k.  I swear, Molina must be sick of towing me around the past two weeks.  He might as well of had a rope attached from his bike to mine pulling me along.  I spent more time with him than anyone else this entire camp.

Lunch was our typical road lunch, and naturally I tried to eat everything in sight.  The plan was to wait up for everyone and roll into Calgary together.  This worked well for a while, but we got split on the climb just before town.  Eventually we regrouped and made our way to the hotel.  I think we stopped at a thousand stoplights on the way, but we made it.  Once we got to the hotel, things were a little crazy.  People were packing bikes, showering, etc. all the way until dinner.

The Epic Camp closing dinner was great.  The food was good, and many good laughs were shared.  Epic support crew Dave Dwan had an excellent speech, and John Newsom handed out some fancy Epic Camp swag.  Slowly people started trickling out, but it was hard to leave all of the good stories from Molina.  I think the story of Gary's snickers bars will be told for many Epic Camps to come.

My flight is at 11:20 tomorrow, but I'll head down to the lobby much earlier to hang out with people.  Tomorrow I will type up my epilogue too, so stay tuned!

Epilogue

Epic Camp Day 11: In Lake Louise

Once again, I'll cut right to the chase: The race for yellow is on.  Adam Bardsley has the lead over me by a single point.  As it stands, I have not done my second 200k ride, so if/when I make it to Calgary tomorrow (assuming by bike,) I will get those two points.  So in virtual standings, I'm ahead by one point.  I know this; Adam knows this; everyone knows this.  I told Adam B exactly what my plan is for tomorrow, so if he can somehow beat that, then he deserves yellow.

And now the recap of the day.  We rolled out this morning at 9am.  The plan was to ride 15k uphill to Lake Moraine, run up Sentinel Pass, and bike down.  The ride up was super mellow.  It wasn't a race of any kind, and we knew the run was going to be a doozy.  Once we got to the top, we tossed our bikes in the truck and headed to the trail.

The run was 5.8k long and 2400 feet up to Sentinel Pass.  The way up was brutal.  We tried to run at first, but eventually we resorted to power walking.  When the trail leveled out a bit, we'd try to run, but it always pitched up too steep to climb.  At first we were running through a cloud, so the views were crappy.  But once we got above the cloud, the vistas were spectacular.  In fact, they were better than anything I've ever seen before.  Once the internet is good again, I'll post pictures, but for now, you'll have to take my word for it.  The run back down was nice.  Zach and I were running quickly, but I was trying to be cautious to avoid the ankle traps everywhere.  Once we got down to Lake Moraine, we took a quick dip to ice our legs.  Damn that felt good.

After we biked down, lunch was served.  I have to hand it to Michelle, she can make anything taste good with whatever materials she has.  Today we had a Mexican rice dish and pasta with sausage.  Both were amazing.  Sadly, I went light on lunch because I had other plans...

After lunch, I went for a 20k run.  The plan was to run out 10k as a warmup and then do the 7x1k under 3:50 with one minute rest on the way back.  This was a really difficult run, but if I made it under 3:50, it would be worth mega points.  I got it done, so that 20k run alone was worth five points - huge.

Next up was a 90k ride.  I originally planned on riding 120k, but it was getting a little late.  I didn't get out there until 4pm.  My plan was to go out super easy since my legs were a little sore from the 20k run.  I had a nice tailwind, and it was downhill.  I was mentally preparing myself for a grind on the way back.  After the 45k mark, I had some good luck.  The winds had somehow magically changed, and I had a tailwind going back too!  Booyah (or so I thought.)  Around the 65k mark, my luck went to shit.  I saw the clouds off in the distance, and at 65k I finally reached them.  The rain started to come down pretty heavy, and it was back to a stiff headwind.  It wasn't too cold, so I was actually pretty happy about the rain.  If you know me at all, the biggest thing I miss about Chicago is the thunderstorms.  If it's not cold, rain is such a joy for me.  Today though, the rain was ok for about 20 minutes, but the temperature dropped just past my comfort level for the last 20.  When I got back, I was shaking quite a bit, but I did indeed make it back.  This 90k ride netted me another three points.

I met up with the group just a bit late for dinner, but I still had my delicious pulled pork sandwich, all of my fries, the communal salad, and most of Mark's fries as well.  I think I'm starting to get a reputation around here.  I don't know how these guys don't eat more!

When it was all said and done, I was one point behind Adam B.  My eight points didn't quite close the gap.  His early morning 10k run and 150k on the bike was big (I only anticipated him doing 120k.)  But as I said, he knows what I'm going to do tomorrow, so the ball is in his court.  Good luck.

Day 12

Epic Camp Day 10: Sunwapta to Lake Louise

I won't sugar coat it: Today was absolutely miserable.  I knew the weather here in Canada was too good to be true, and today made up for it.  It was cold and rainy from the time we woke up to about five minutes before the end of our ride.

The day started with a short 4k run to Honeymoon Lake.  Given that we were at 4500 feet, Newsom was going to make the call as to how long we'd have to swim due to cold water.  His conclusion: Swim as long as you can, but if you're getting hypothermic, get out.  Yep, that about sums it up.  The water was f'ing frigid!  As usual, I got in the water and started following my favorite swim buddy Shannon.  About five minutes in, my hands and feet were numb.  I checked my watch thinking we'd been in the water for 20+ minutes.  Nope.  5.  This was torture, but since it was our last official swim, I wanted to beast mode the full 3k.  I got it done, but I definitely paid for it.  After getting out, I could barely get dressed because I saw shaking so much.  It definitely reminded me of my 19min T1 at Tahoe last year.  The 4k jog back to the cabin helped warm me up a bit, but it wasn't nearly enough.

Before the big ride of the day, I could tell it was going to be a shitty day.  The rain was coming down, and the temperature was dropping.  I put just about every piece of warm clothing I had in my day bag on top of what I was already wearing.  The details for the ride were: 178k with two KOMs at 54k and 134k.  Translation: LONG with two HUGE climbs in the worst possible weather.  I think I was completely soaked less than 10k into the ride.  It wasn't raining too hard, but the spray from wheels including my own was wrecking my gloves and shoes.  Around 25k, the front group took off.  I hung back with the more logical crew.  The theme from yesterday continued: No energy.  I just didn't have it.

The first KOM was a grinder.  There's a steep part in the beginning followed by a downhill and finishing up with a long slog at a steady grade.  The steep part was tough.  I caught up to Gary and just chilled on his wheel for a while.  He didn't know that the steep part wasn't the KOM, so he dropped back a bit.  For the steady part, Gareth and I just slogged up that.  Brutal, brutal grind.  Eventually we saw the top, and he busted out a solid sprint to take it...for like 10th place (the front group was long gone.)  At the top, they had the greatest soup of my life.  In reality, it probably wasn't that great, but given the situation, it was everything I could have hoped for at the top of a climb.  At the aid station at the top, I also made the decision to put on my long sleeve thermal shirt (layer number 4) and put garbage bags on my completely drenched feet.

From there, we had a long descent down to the next aid station at 100k.  Normally I love descents, but given the weather, this was the last thing I wanted.  Freezing.  Cold.  The other guys here are also much faster at descents due to gearing, so I missed the group which meant 45k solo.  Actually, Douglas came by, so he want I cruising along together for a while.

After what seemed like forever, Douglas and I got to the aid station.  Actually, we missed it, but thanks to a really awesome car, they let us know and we doubled back a bit.  Initially the garbage bags that I put on my feet were a good idea, but somehow water got in and never drained.  The pools in my shoes were quite annoying, so I ditched them at 100k.  Feet were still freezing though.  I downed two Snickers bars, and since the main group was rolling out, I decided to head out too.

The next KOM was at 134k.  Almost immediately I was dropped by the pack.  Molina didn't have much either, so it was me and him grinding away up this mountain.  Near the top, I hit my low.  According to Molina, I didn't hit rock bottom because I was still pedaling, but I will tell you now that I was as close to getting off my bike as I have ever been.  I was questioning how I ever got into this mess, why I even decided to buy a bike, and probably even the meaning of life.  I was dropping F-bombs left and right and yelling, "Where the hell is the top!?!?!"  It was bad.  Cold, wet, and absolutely miserable.

After a quick lunch at the top, we had a decent descent down to Lake Louise.  It wasn't pleasant, but at least I knew the end was near.  A Red Bull gave me some wings for the final stretch, and after almost seven long, treacherous, uncomfortable, grueling, and stressful hours, that bitch of a ride was done.  Molina and I celebrated with a quick dip in the hot tub which was amazing after a day full of numb hands and feet.  The circulation returned.

I didn't take many pictures today partly because I couldn't get my camera out, and if I did, I couldn't squeeze my fingers hard enough to turn it on.  It's also a day I would rather forget.  I'm sure in some weird way it made me tougher, but it was also the worst training day of my life.  Today was supposed to be one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the world, and it was ruined by cold, wet fog.  What a disappointment.  If there's one thing that I want to take away from today, it's a quote from Molina which he told me while I was hating life up the second KOM: "Even if you have the perfect race, it always fucking hurts."

Day 11

Epic Camp Day 9: Jasper to Sunwapta Falls

The day started off a little later than usual (thankfully - sleeping in is always nice!)  The pre-ride plan was to bike up to Pyramid Lake and get our daily minimum of 3k in.  It wasn't a particularly eventful morning.  We headed up to the lake around 7:30.  It was a 7k ride, but it was not an easy 7k.  It was straight up into the hills north of Jasper.  The swim wasn't too eventful either.  Other than being absolutely frigid, Shannon and I did easy loops and hopped out.  Biking back to the hotel was pretty sweet though since it was entirely downhill.

We headed out towards Sunwapta Falls just after 10:30.  It's a short ride there, so we did a climb up to Marmot Basin for the KOM competition.  Technically we had two KOMs scheduled for the day, but the other one was closed due to a mud slide (some people did it anyway, and with it being closed to cars, I hear it was pretty amazing.)  Marmot Basin was a 13k climb which we reached just a few miles out from Jasper.  An eight mile climb is no joke, and let me tell you, it felt like it went on forever.  I'm still getting used to the new bike, and so far it isn't great.  Losing my R5 (named Wildflower) was soul crushing.  I felt like that bike was an extension of my body, and this new bike just feels...foreign.  Anyway, I made it up the climb in 5th place.  Zach was first as usual, and Adam Bardsley (current yellow jersey holder) was second.

The rest of the ride was a grind to Sunwapta Falls.  I felt completely drained - no energy whatsoever.  I tried to do a pull at the front, but that lasted about 15 seconds.  From there on out, I mostly just hung on to the back and drafted whoever or whatever I could.  I was in a dark place.  This is the first time during the camp where I've felt a significant lack of energy.  It's almost certainly physical, but with everything going on, there's definitely a mental component as well.

Eventually I made it to the destination.  We had to do a 10k run, and most people went out on the trail out by the falls.  My plan was different: Fast 10k for points.  Since I was low on energy, I ate and drank as much sugar as I could and let everything digest for a bit.  My stretch goal was sub-38min which would net me three huge points.  My primary goal was sub-40 which only nets two.  After a short warmup, I headed out.  Initially the pace was good, but as soon as I headed out on Ice Fields Parkway, my pace dropped to around 6:40.  Crap.  This is no where the 6:07/mile pace needed for 38min and way off the 6:27/mile pace I needed for sub-40.  Sub-40 was supposed to be EASY!  I grinded it out for almost 5k.  As soon as I turned around, I started flying at way under 6min/mile pace.  AH HA!  Turns out I had been climbing the entire way out and didn't even realize it (severe case of poo-brain.)  Almost the entire way back was downhill, and I was crushing it.  By the end, I just barely missed the 38min mark.  I was maybe 20 seconds off.  The initial climb, 4500 foot elevation, and the fact that I did a swim and ride beforehand put me in the hole.

So given the points situation from yesterday, I knew I was close to yellow.  How close was tough to say.  Regardless, I waited a while and decided to head out for 10k run #2.  This was worth one bonus point, and all I had to do was grind it out.  Pace was irrelevant.  And that's what I did.  It was slow and painful, but I got it done.

After adding in all tack-ons for the day, I'm tied for yellow.  Mission accomplished.  Secretly all I wanted to do was wear the jersey for one day, and I'm happy to say that I'll get to do that.  Given the bike situation, I'm going to drop down a lot in the KOM competition, and once that rolls into the overall points, I won't stand a chance.

Tomorrow is going to  be a tough day.  There are two KOMs, and the weather is going to be bad.  There's a lot of rain in the forecast, and it'll be cold since we're going up high (~6500 feet.)

Day 10

Epic Camp Day 8: In Jasper

I'll skip ahead to the good news: I got a bike today!  After our swim, I went down to the bike shop and had them build up a Specialized Roubaix SL4 for me.  I was pretty lucky that they had one in my size, and fortunately they had a pretty nice sale going on too which means I got a sweet deal.  It took a bit longer than expected to get it ready which meant I missed the group for the 60k daily minimum, but I got it done.

Anyway, back to the start of the day.  We got to use the pool here in Jasper which we specially booked ahead of time.  We had to get things done early which meant getting there at 6am.  With the time change coming into Alberta, this was a particularly brutal early morning wake up.  The pool was only a quarter mile away, so the walk was short.  We all did an easy warmup, and then got on with the special events that were planned: The races.  First up was the 400m IM race.  We split into waves based on projected finish time.  I was in the faster wave, and it was fun to watch some of the earlier waves race.  When my wave was up, Petro and Molina were trash talking like they were going to win, and rightfully so since they are both very good swimmers.  But little do they know that I'm a strong pool swimmer and that IM is my jam. :)  I ended up going out strong and took the lead immediately during the butterfly.  I don't have a lot of endurance with fly, but I can swim a solid 100 if needed.  I was pretty bushed after the fly, but backstroke is my strongest stroke so I increased my lead a bit.  From there on out, I just hung on to my lead and ended up winning.  No points were on the line, only prestige.

The next event was the 200m kick.  Zach was the closest competitor here, but I won this too.  The last race was the 50m free.  Gary was officiating this, and he said I left early.  I argue that everyone else just left late!  It's not my fault they didn't anticipate the start! :)  I ended up winning by more than a second though, so it was a moot point anyway.

After the races, we just had a little more to do, so I followed Newsom's lead doing a 20x100m on 1:35 pace.  I got a bonus point for that set, and I got a bonus point for the 200m butterfly afterward that nearly killed me.  Some people stayed and did more, but I had to go to the bike shop to search for a bike (more on that later.)

Breakfast was awesome as usual.  We had a bread, bacon, ham, and cheese casserole as well as leftover pancakes.  It was amazing.  Thanks Michelle!

Next up was our "2 hour" trail run.  We decided to go to the Valley of the Five Lakes.  It was recommended by many people (including my friend Dave,) and it was worth it.  The trail was definitely some of the best trail running I have ever done, but the colors in the lakes were amazing.  I've never seen so many shades of green!  The run ended up being quite a bit longer than we planned, but the views of Jasper were incredible.  My expert navigation skills ended up taking us to all of the right places, and we didn't get lost once!  My quads were pretty crushed after this, but as usual, it was worth it.

Our bike minimum for the day was 60k.  I wanted to head out with the group, but my bike wasn't ready until after everyone was gone.  I kept it pretty simple.  I headed east on the main highway.  I stopped quickly at the Japser Lodge just to check it out.  The first half of the riding going out was great.  It was downhill is a nice tailwind, but I didn't realize this until the way back.  The headwind was soul-crushing.  Thankfully I only had to put up with it for about 12 miles.

And now things get interesting.  It was a little past 6pm which is usually our cutoff for workouts.  We have a "12 hour rule" to prevent people from training into the evening (mostly for safety reasons.)  Since I had to get out of the pool early this morning to buy a bike, I asked for special permission to go back to the pool to do the 3k IM set (12x (100 IM, 150 freestyle.))  Molina was the final ruler on this, and he said it was OK.  And with that, I hustled down to the pool for a quick hour to get that done.  It was an easy set, but the people in my lane were quite frustrating at times.

Afterward I hurried down to the main strip to meet everyone for dinner at the Jasper Pizzeria.  I'm a bit of a pizza snob, but it was acceptably OK.  And afterward, we had some delicious ice cream at Scoops and Loops.  We never did figure out what the loops were...

Day 9

Epic Camp Day 7: Blue River to Jasper and the death of my bike

Today was scheduled to be one of our biggest days on the bike, so we had a pretty early start.  We headed down to the lake and were in the water right at 6am.  The daily minimums were shortened today because of the long bike ride: 2k swim + 7k run.  The swim took place at the little lake by the chalets.  It was super laid back, and all I did was follow Shannon's pink cap.  It wasn't a race, so I had no trouble keeping up with her.  Shannon and I were the first two done with the swim, so we headed out on the run together as well.  We cruised the run at an easy 8min/mi pace, and we were done in no time.

Breakfast was something special today.  Michelle (one of the support crew members) cooked AMAZING pancakes.  And as usual, I doused that thing in delicious, Canadian maple syrup.  God was it good!  Thanks Michelle!

After that, we were out on the road by 8:30 for our 200k ride to Jasper.  The big thing for today was another KOM competition.  The plan was to stop and gather at the first aid station at 55k, and then it was a free-for-all until the top of the KOM at 132k where we would have lunch on the road.  Things were super mellow headed out at first.  Everyone knew what was coming, so everyone was ok with doing minimal work.  Somewhere around 30k, I hit something and got my first flat.  I have been super lucky up to this point, but it finally happened on day 7.  Thankfully the entire group stopped, and Mark (support crew mechanic) pulled up seconds after I flatted and helped me out.

After the first aid station, things got noticeably more aggressive.  We were still pulling as a big group, but the pace was just a touch higher.  It wasn't until about 100k that things got crazy.  There was a short climb before the bigger mountain, and people were getting jumpy.  Either Phil or Newsom made the first attack, but as soon as it happened, a few people started to respond.  Zach held back either because he knew the people attacking were non-threats, or because he knew we still had a long way to go.  My plan was to stick on Zach's wheel at all costs, and I was right where I wanted to be.  Zach eventually bit, and I went with him.  We were the first to the top of the shorter climb, but it was sadly neutralized when a train of five or six came flying by on the descent on their triathlon bikes.

At 110k, we passed up the second aid station.  Since the KOM started after the first, no one wanted to lose time by stopping.  I was bummed about that since I had to pee starting around 80k.  But the train just kept on rolling.  There was about 15k of flats between that passed aid station and the bottom of the bigger climb, and as soon as the road pitched up, I went for it.  We only had 7k to go which is easily in my "toolbox."  From what I could see, Zach, Petro, and Shannon hopped on.  Zach put in a little bit of an effort and got about 50m on me.  For the first few kilometers, I was pushing about 380 watts.  About halfway up, Petro fell off a bit, but Shannon and I caught up with Zach.  Zach and I were trading off the lead while Shannon was chilling out in back.  My power dropped a bit trading of pulls with Zach, but with just over 1k to go, I was in front and going as hard as I could.  After a bend in the road, we saw the vans.  We both got out of our saddles for the sprint, but Zach had just a little bit more.  He took the KOM, and I'd have to settle for second, again.  I'm two points back now, so it'll be almost impossible to come back from that.  Shannon had the most impressive performance of the day coming in third only a few seconds behind me.  I was pretty messed up after that, so lunch was quite refreshing.

About 6k after we started rolling again, things took a turn for the worst.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but somehow my rear derailleur ended up getting stuck in my wheel.  And not only that, but it ripped off a piece of the frame as well.  The frame is beyond repair.  Luckily Michelle was close, so I didn't have to wait long.  I would like to thank Moline, Petro, and Rob for waiting with me though.  I was in some weird state of shock, so it was nice to have company.

I rode with Michelle all the way to Jasper.  Initially I thought my day was over, but Andrew Charles let me borrow his bike to get the remainder of my ride in.  I needed 62k to hit that magical 200k mark, and I'm happy to say that I was able to get that in.  Thanks Andrew.  It was a little challenging to ride 62k by myself after already doing 138k earlier, but I got it done.  The road into Jasper is so ridiculously beautiful that time passed pretty quickly.

As far as options for a bike, I have some thinking to do.  Luckily we're staying in Jasper for two nights, so tomorrow I can figure that out.  My current thinking is that I might buy a cheap road bike with the intention of selling it when I get back home.  Renting a bike and shipping it back would be a logistical nightmare, so I don't know if I want to do that.  I guess you'll have to find out what I do tomorrow!

I took some awesome pictures, but it's too late to go through them now.  We lost an hour crossing time zones into Alberta, and our swim tomorrow starts at 6am.  Good night!

Day 8

Epic Camp Day 6: Clearwater to Blue River

Today was a self-imposed huge day.  The lake that we were staying at was so beautiful that I had to do another big swim.  6k.  12k (7.2 miles) in 14 hours.  If you know nothing about swimming, that's huge.  My elbows and shoulders were a little sore after that.  We're allowed to do two 6k swims for mega points, so I'm glad to get those out of the way.  It was so convenient to have the lake steps from my door, so getting up early and getting out there was pretty easy.

Breakfast was pretty mellow, and we were out on the road on our bikes reasonably quickly.  The ride today was 68 miles, and I'll be honest, I was pretty smashed for this.  Some deep hurt is settling into my legs for sure as these miles add up.  And even worse, my under-carriage (ass) is taking a beating.  These roads are getting less and less smooth, and it's taking its toll.  I'm starting to look forward to the aid stations more for the chamois cream than for the water, cookies, gummy things, and sun screen combined.

A few people were doing ironman bike simulations, so our group today was pretty small.  It consisted of me, Molina, Douglas, and Glen.  Thank god for Glen.  The dude is a raging locomotive, and I'm quite thankful for his ten mile pulls.  I've been doing ten minute pulls at about 220-240 watts.  Molina is the most sensible, and Douglas is a crazy person (in a good way.)  We motored along at a pretty decent clip today, so we got ride done in about three and a half hours.  I think that's about all my butt could handle.

Once we got to Blue River, we were scheduled to do a 10k run off the bike, but since I want to make sure I'm in a good position for the yellow, I opted to do a two hour run.  It was crazy hot out, so the run was pretty tough.  Since I was going for time, I ran pretty slowly.  I did manage to get 15 miles in, but my legs were pretty shot after that.  Luckily Michelle had some openings for massages, so I went in for that ASAP.  I told her to go as hard as possible, and let me tell you, it was quite painful.

Other than that, the rest of the afternoon was pretty chill.  I moved into third for overall points, but Adam B is still six points ahead.  There are still two solid running sets that I can do to close the gap: 38min 10k (6:07/mi pace,) and 7x1k at 3:50.  With any bit of freshness, I should be able to pull those off pretty easily.  The 38min 10k might be challenging, so I'll need to do that one early.

There's also a KOM on the way to Jasper.  The full ride is 125 miles, but the KOM tops out at mile 82.5.  The KOM race starts after the first aid station around mile 31, so it'll be 50 miles of hard riding.  My strategy is going to be simple: Hang on to Zach's wheel at all costs.  Realistically I'm not sure if I can beat him since he's not going for camp completion which means his legs are infinitely fresher than mine, but I need to be second since points go towards the yellow at the end.

No pictures today since my gopro was messed up.  I have some on my phone, but those won't upload for some reason.

Day 7