Epic camp Day 1- run only equation ( for me) + Biarritz to Eaux Bonnes

173km
3100m asc inc Col de Marie Blanque
7h30 ride time
8km run in morning


An early start of 5.15 to ensure time for coffee then time to get in the van and down to the seafront. Yes, there were as anticipated large breaking waves and it was pretty rough. Yikes.

John took us on a lap of the run course- up a steep flight of steps along and round the light house, back down to the seafront ( ~ 2km /lap).

I had a slight panic attack/meltdown decided i was not going to swim, Olly kindly said he would swim with me so we got wetsuits on and made it down to the beach, I dipped my toe in the Atlantic anyway but being closer to the shore confirmed my decision. Am not going to get yellow anyway!!
I started the run with the first person out of the water, aargh it was hot and tough but anyway 3 laps done so a nice toasty 8km before brekky.

Back to hotel for brekky, pack up, depart wearing our new Epic France kits.....John said it was going to a steady ride for the first 50 km or so but the pace did seem to creep up a little so I was relieved after the first aid station to ride kinda solo with my music for company. I felt horrendous on the first short col and realised I was bonking and probably hadn't eaten enough.
Gorged myself on 3 nutella crepes which seemed to help, then off on my merry way to lunch.
Did go thru a couple of bad patches ,sore back, sore foot etc etc, deep existential thoughts about why i put myself through all this pain and misery?!!!

Shut up and eat up !!

Made it to the lunch stop, ready for some food and a sit down ~ 120 km in, managed to eat some chips and the contents of my baguette then was dropped 15km up the road to ensure I caught up with the boys, a little weaving through a village fete then onto our KOM of the day for the Col de Marie Blanque. It's only 9 km with average of 7.6% but the first 5km average 4-5 % so you know the last few are going to be hideous. Yup. one averaged 12%, one averaged 13%. Jeeeeeeesus, that was a whole world of hurt, all i could think of it was not as bad as climbing Ventoux with a chest infection. Next panic was my gearing being suitable for tomorrow's mahoosive day....I have a 36x 28 as my smallest gearing. Thought it would be fine as managed to grind my way around the Port Hills ok....

Made it to the top, even a few of the boys were there when I got there..... pleasant descent and was even cheered through a little village by locals...!! Then a 2-3km climb to Eaux Bonnes which is nestled at the foot of the Col d"aubisqueand to our hotel.


Today's first world problem is I can't get anything to upload to Garmin connect but everyone else having the same problem..... cos if its not on Strava it doesn't count, right?!!

I have the green jersey to wear tomorrow, not , sadly for any achievements but for photo of the day taken by Julie this morning. Someone had vandalised the building by the sea front where we were getting changed and it said "No Fucking Way" so i am standing beside it in my wetsuit with best angry face; was very apt for the moment but unlikely I'll publish it on the blog!!

Anyway I must get to bed, my legs are aching.......

Epic Camp Pyrenees- Day T -1.

Bonjour mes amis....

Damaged bikes - 1
Fixed bikes- 1
Croissants eaten- 2
Decent coffee- 0 .... ( lets say the coffee is SHIT in France )
Good red wine- 3
Successful attempts at conversation in French - 3
Nutella consumption - 0
Pain aux chocolats- 0


Its that time again, excited and terrified to get Epic camp underway. Currently in Biarritz, which is a beautiful town on the Atlantic coast in the Pays-Basque region so its a fusion of Spanish and French cultures. And lots of surfers.

Travel was uneventful from NZ; scored 4 seats to myself from Singapore- Paris and managed 7-8 hrs of sleep. Luggage and the Em's bars arrived safely so after trying to navigate the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport, found a place to leave the luggage and then found the Ibis hotel who rent rooms by the hour so was able to get a lie down and a shower, followed by a trip to M+S food ( yayyy), extorted 8Euros for a coffee then pick up luggage and check in for my flight to Biarritz.

Arrived in Biarritz at 5.30 pm, picked up the luggage - weird, everything in the bike bag seems to be moving around, hmmmm..... oh well. Taxi to hotel by airport, short evening walk in the sun then crash out for 12 hours which seemed to have nailed the jet lag.
Aaaaaaargh no kettle in my room.....******. Run gear on and a jog into town to have a look around, find coffee, take photos etc etc. Brekky then back the uphill to the hotel, righto - better get this bike built up.

As soon as I opened the bag and saw that my front forks had been lifted off the skewers of the internal bag frame I knew that what would be in store at the rear would be worse..... yes, derailleur hanger snapped off, chain stays scratched ....FUCK.FUCK. Air France...WTF?!!!!
And guess what I had ordered from the bike shop in Ch Ch but forgot to go pick it up as was too busy....

Slight meltdown later than once together got a taxi to Culture Velo in Anglet and Pete, fellow camper met me there ( thank you so much !! I def needed a bit of moral support ). Amazingly helpful staff, they ordered me 2 new hangers from a website called SOShanger and said bike should be ready by the following day. Phew......

Cut to chase - bike ready Friday afternoon, working perfectly.Morning spent watching bags for John and Peter as they test swam/ran our aquathon course for Day 1. I chose to turn a blind eye to the the large shore break ( my nemesis....see prev posts circa 2012 from Maui...!). Will worry bout that on Sunday morning....
Quick supermarket trip in search of fresh veggies to eat, John set up the maps on my new Garmin 1030 altho I am still not super confident that I won't get lost. Wee spin on the bike and then out for dinner with a few of the campers.

#1 goal for this was to arrive healthy ( compared to 2016) which I have managed, got sick 2 weeks ago instead. #2 goal is always to enjoy it and go through each day with a great attitude.
#3 Get the pink jersey.........which won't be a problem as I'm the only girl competing in the camp which I hadn't been aware of. Rose amongst the thorns eh ?!!


Right, enough waffle....promise these will be more interesting as camp progresses. Time for a pre breakfast spin with a few others.......then try exert some discipline at the breakfast buffet..

A bientôt........

Post Epic adventures: Milan, Morzine and Maseratis.

So, post Epic started with a 4.45am alarm clock and a load of croissants before a 5.15am departure in the van to central Geneva for Di, Z and myself to catch the Ouibus to Milan.

Never, EVER catch a Ouibus ANYWHERE. The bus was scheduled to depart at 7.45am; it was late arriving so we eventually left Genava around 9.15. The trip was supposed to take 4 hours and took SIX GODDAM HOURS due to two elongated border stops ( one with an African woman being deported from said bus) and a traffic jam at the Mont Blanc tunnel. We were sat in the back row next to some Italian youth who was actually in Di's seat but instead it was his then, once we had passed through both borders, proceeded to roll a joint for himself ready to smoke as soon as he alighted the bus in Milan. The fleeting thought passed through my mind of requesting he light up and pass it around alleviate the chronic pain of the bus journey :-)

**** 3 years on I see I never finished this post and blogged about the rest of our European adventure which involved a weeks' stay in Morzine, 8 days in Zurich with an Olympic distance triathlon thrown in followed by spectating IM Switzerland, followed by another arduous train journey involving French trains and bike bags to get us to Lyon Airport to be picked up for our 5 day stay up in Alpe d’Huez , which was concluded with the ADH long course triathlon- and one of my favourite ever races. The bike was HOT and tough, the run is tough and was glad we had had a reece on Epic camp! I managed a decent run and ended up 2nd Vet 1 lady. Highlight the day after was Zarnia and I's trip to the ADH patisserie and finally, after 6 weeks of coveting the goodies in the patissier windows we were able to sample a variety of cream filled delights.
Another long train ride to Paris gare du Nord, a night in Paris then it was on the big bird home to Singapore the next day after a fun filled 6 weeks.
Now Epic camp pyrenees is looming so I have had to resurrect this blog again and I am SO glad that I was resolute with my daily entries last time as I would have never remembered half of the shenanigans :-)

Epic camp epilogue

Sooooo, have had a few days tho gather my thoughts and reflect on Epic camp - now that the brain fog has cleared and we are settled back in our chalet in Morzine for a full week with a little more time....( after an Epic camp style shopping expedition in Milan for the weekend with Di and Z! A fine antidote to wearing lycra for 12 hrs a day!!)

Have just listed my thoughts in bullet points, in no particular order of importance :-

-You can do far more than you think you can when all you have to do is train and the schedule is set.

- Say thank you and please to the support crew, they are working as hard as us and no amount of fatigue excuses bad manners.

- Humility is a wonderful attribute to have as an athlete.

-As I have heard previous campers say, its the mental gains from pushing through that you get mostly from Epic camp.I'll never forget how climbing the Col d'Iseran felt after what we had previously done that day, let alone the previous days. Or riding Mont Ventoux while sick.Or trying to exert myself in a triathlon on day 11 ;-)

-Low carb goes out the window by ~ day3-4. Not just due to the mouth-watering pastries on offer at breakfast time but you need calories- LOTS of them.

-Limit the sports nutrition to the "races" when required, feels a lot better eating real food day to day. Nuts, Snickers bars, salt tabs, peanut butter, crepe with nutella (only2!!), occasional peanut butter + jam sandwich on fresh crusty French bread, water +/- electrolyte tabs, Yum. Coffee.

- Legal PEDs of choice on camp:- 2 large espressos in the morn, occasional espresso and or coke zero mid ride, glass or 2 of the local vin rouge in the evening, extreme endurance, magnesium tabs and paracetamol during the longest rides to ease the undercarriage discomfort and back spasms on the long climbs. Took the odd ibuprofen where required but prefer to avoid NSAIDs unless absolutely necessary :-)

-Tea tree oil on the undercarriage area every night helped prevent and limit any sores, nappy rash cream also works great. I avoided any chamois cream.

-Epic campers are an awesome bunch of people, have made some great new acquaintances and special mention to the other 4 chicks on camp ( Shannon, Jen, Zarnia and Di). We met acclaimed coach Darren Smith at the pool here in Morzine the other day as we had been pointed out by Amelia as Epic campers - he coaches a squad of Olympian/ITU athletes ( all female) - he said to me that although we were the slowest athletes he bet we were the toughest. Ha ha. Everyone on Epic, regardless of sex, is tough but I think females pace a bit better especially early on in endurance events which is key to survival :-)


Finally, before this turns into an over extended ramble Id like to say a personal thanks and a big UPS to the following :-

- Coach John for organising, letting us come and also being my coach for the last few years and ensuring I was in any kind of shape to make it through an Epic camp.

-Oli,Tim, Ian and Julie ( plug for Pyrenees Multipart here too!) for their amazing support and help though the camp; always with a smile.

- Piet and his wife from Chalet 4 in Le Grand Bornand. Highly recommend this place - amazing FOOD and location

-Amelia and Joe from Tri4theAlps in Morzine. Again amazing food, accomm and they have extended their hospitality and help to us during our stay in Morzine.


And thats it. I must try blog more often as its amazing how much you forget. Currently enjoying some fine French saucisson, ham, cheese and veggies while watching the Tour stage up Mont Ventoux- since its Bastille Day here.
Salut.

Day 11. La Grande Finale, triathlon

Awoke a little drowsy after a good sleep, luckily one of the boys had made coffee so enjoyed a coffee or 2 then struggled to eat breakfast this morning. I may have reached saturation point with food by now ;-)

Today's schedule was a triathlon by Lac Mondriond. 1300m approx swim straight down the lake, 28km ride up the Col de joux vert and down into Morzine back to the lake then 3 laps of the lae to make a 9km run.

We had our briefing, I was still in confusion re where we were riding but hey ho. Brain fog n all that :-)

We were driven to the far end of the lake, wetties on , quick warm up then John shouted 4-3-2-1- GO!! Faaaark, felt like I was choking as my suit felt too tight round th neck or was it constriction from the cold water. Anyhow, channeled my inner Dory again , sighted quite well ( I think) then got out last but could see a cpl of white Epic caps just in front.

Total uncoordiantion in T1, helped by support crew and on to the bike, straight uphill really but it was a pleasant climb, peppered with goats, walkers with sticks and downhill knuckle draggers up the top. Nice descent into Morzine ( didnt get lost!!!!!!!) and pedalled crawled into t2 D.F.L. Oh well, get er done.

Once onto the run I felt good, ran 46.20 for the 9km, including a quick wee stop in the trees.

So, I not get camp completion as missed equation due to sickness on day 3 - I could have made it up to day but decided that I was happy with where I was at and that i had achieved far more than I ever thought possible, plus I felt it would be unfair on those who were sick now and unable to make it up.
I feel in terms of missing sessions in the camp it should be just like any race - its tough shit and your own call, tack ons for extra points if you want but if you miss something on that day then you have missed it. I had to make that call with my chesty cough and know it was the right thing at the time, just like bike mechanicals - its all part of competition and sometimes the deck of cards fall your way and sometimes against you.

Now its time for a weekend in Milan with my Epic girls, Di and Z - shopping, pizza and NO TRAINING. Cant wait!!

Camp has been a great experience to share with everyone but especially those 2 cool chicks, i am sure we will reminisce well into our old age :-)

Day 10. Non 100x100 day.

Quick bullet points to summarise today as have writers block. Must be brain fog from the all the bread or a bit of fatigue?!!
Summary of day 10:-

- ZZZZ a little bit disturbed as was quite warm, slept til 6.30 ish
-brekky at the chalet then surfed the net and generally faffed, had a walk around the hood.
-Taken to pool for 11am, swam for an hour in beautiful outdoor 50m pool. 24 x100 only.
-Ascenseur into town and lunch at Satellite cafe
-more faffing and laziness/procrastination about doing long run
-4pm finally made it out for a 2 hr run, jog/shuffle. Legs not very cooperative really and my right toe was sore.
- After run, Di and I walked back via the Lake and river trail for almost an hour sa we had to do a minimum of 4 and a half hours, within the 12 hr window.
-made it back to chalet as everyone was eating canapés, managed a quick shower in between courses , downed a kir royale and a load of water, then a yummy salmon dinner and red wine altho i was not very hungry to be honest.

In bed and organised for day 11 by 9.45pm :-) drugged up on magnesium , extreme endurance, nurofen for my toe, half an antihistamine tablet......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day 9- Gravel grinding+ 3.5 cols to Morzine.

Today's route from Grand Bornand to Morzine had to be changed a little due to landslide closing the Joux Plane so the ride route went to the Colombiere, (14km ascent) down a descent with patches of loose gravel and tar then straight up another gravelly climb which claimed the life of someone's derailleur. Just felt like being in Christchurch really :-)

A sharp right turn ( narrowly avoiding a collision with Coach john) then a further descent down to a town called Cluses which was a bit of a navigational clusterfuck but thankfully Zarnia's Garmin told us where to go and we duly followed along. Bit of gradual climbing a long a main road signed for Morzine and then we turned off to take the scenic route slightly uphill until we hit a wee village and the offical start of the Col de Ramez. 13km was what the sign said, started off ~ 8 % and wavered between 7-8 % for most kms. This felt really tough and reminiscent of the Iseran but given we were essentially riding a Tour stage, I tried to distract myself by reading the banners with ghosts of cyclists past on display. We did stop for a quick photo then continued trundle upwards.
My back was nagging a bit, my right hammy had been vert twingey since descending the Colombiere and the whole climb felt like a struggle, 3km to go and the average grade for the ensuing km said 10% on the sign. Yuk. Now I really felt like a monkey humping a football :-)

A slow grind uphill through a tunnel, quick off the bike for a stretch afterwards then survive the last 2km which were not so bad. I wolfed a Snickers bar and a coffee at the van then back downhill ( for only 8km. ;-( ) and met Di and Jen at the corner where we had to turn then we headed on with large sighs of dismay as we saw that we had to climb AGAIN. So much for 20 + km of downhill to Morzine. Aaaah.

We were on a windy country road that had a few bumps which took us up the Col de Aranacanaz ( wrong name, i can't remember the proper name ) then more ups and downs on winding roads with lots of moaning and groaning from us until we hit the outskirts of Morzine, unsure how to get to the lodge so Rob, who had joined us at this point managed to google map it on his phone so we wound through the centre of Morzine past hundreds of hairy legged downhill mountain bikers, across a swing bridge under the gondola then we managed to find the road and Brown bear lodge. 6h 20 riding time.
Lunch ( or what was left of it after the hungry hordes had eaten) was waiting and much needed, then just under the hour left to digest until it was time to run to the lake for a swim and meet the 10km run minimum. It was nice to run actually, I plugged my music in, did my 2 laps and a bit more of the lake to make my 10km and really enjoyed my run to shake the legs out. The lake ( Lac Mondrain) was perfectly flat and calm, a little chilly and after a 20 minute wrestle getting the Helix on, I also enjoyed a 1km swim which loosened off the stiff biking muscles.

Dinner at the lodge was highly tasty, free flowing red wine and a kir royale to accompany the canapés. Yummy. Wednesday is a kinda do-what -you-want day but minimums are 4.5 hrs of training, John and co are doing 100x 100 for his 40th birthday, dont think I'll do 100 x100 but maybe a few 100s ;-) and a run. Right, au revoir til tomorrow ;-)