After a fitful sleep in what felt like the furnaces of hell with the soundtrack of quarter hourly church bells, I woke around 6 ( also to a text from animal management re my dog. Well my nasty neighbour obviously hasn't realised I'm on hols and the dog has been at the kennels for the last 10 days...go pick on someone else you odious twat. And a non text from someone else, just to improve my mood !!! ) ....So... got up and into running gear, found coffee downstairs ( score) then ready to run at 7 for our eliminator competition.
we ran a ~ 2 /3km is h warm up then it was elimination by 500m, handicap and I was off on zero.
I was eliminated by second 500 as had nothing in the tank this morning and hadn't wanted to eat anything as was a bit sick of food anyway. We still had to make it up to 10 km so I enjoyed a pleasant trot along the river trail listening to music and enjoying the slightly cooler morning.
Brekky was pretty good here in Sort, I felt terrible this morning ( grumpy AF) and yes, I know that's to be expected but I felt weak as if I hadn't had enough salt yesterday as was craving some salty chips.
Anyhoo, off to the pool for next eliminator round, me knocked out after first 1000m ( SURPRISE!!!!!) then on to tack on some extra swimming; lets just say the lane ropes ( all 2 of 'em) were a bit useless and a few locals complained about us ( apparently ) so we had to keep to one half of the pool ( outdoor 25m). The water gets super choppy and its not too much fun to swim as well as the fatigue from riding makes you feel like a sinking stone......
Banged out 2300 then got out, into bike kit and wolfed down half a tub of salty pringles..... ride for the day was to take us to Andorra, starting with a 19km climb out of Sort.
Think 36 degrees, bright sun, no shade ( not even any overhanging trees) anywhere. I took it really easy to start but I couldn't put down any more power even if wanted to...... who climbs at 120 W when you are 60 kg ?!!! I was going so slowly I realised it was going to take me all day which didnt bother me as much as I just wanted to get OUT OF THE FRIKKIN SUN. I found a wee shady spot in a drainage gutter and sat there for a bit, Ian came past in the van soon after so I decided to hop in.
Got driven to the top, lay in the shade and had some fruit then thought right, give it go get down long descent and hopefully come right. I could barely turn the pedals over, bike weaving all over the road so found a tree to sit underhand cool off a bit. Ian came past around 5 mins later so I decided to just quit for the day.
Not in the spirit of Epic camp and I questioned myself that I was being soft, loathing myself for being a quitter but on the other hand I have had slight heatstroke before as well as sun stroke and I didnt want a repeat of that.... it felt more like I couldn't handle the sun, I had been hydrating quite well... I guess I hadn't really unloaded the heat stress from yesterday's ride as we went straight to the pool after riding ( out in the sun!), hot hotel room, out in the sun at the pool before riding... BUT. ( sorry boys am gonna talk periods here....) I noticed on my Garmin connect app that I am on day 26 of my cycle which, according to Stacy Sims is the worst time of month for training due to high hormone levels and also less ability to deal with hard efforts and the stress of heat. Lets not mention the big mood swings today...!!!!
So maybe that has added to it too ( not forgetting 30 hours of training in the last 5 days.....)
I'm not looking for sympathy though, I choose to do these things and hey, am in Europe with a bunch of great people in the middle of summer. ....could be waaaayyyy worse.
On a brighter note, we are in Andorra for 2 nights.....in some plush 4 start hotel called the Princesa parc. White bathrobes, kettle in the room, slippers and a huge big 3 person sized shower.
They just need to turn the air con up a bit tho as its a teeny bit warm....
Tomorrow is a big swim day and a trail run, fingers crossed I have my act together and then I'll be ready to smash out the rest of camp and exonerate myself. Oh and hopefully the heatwave will have abated a little too.....
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