Epic camp day 8 - awesome day in paradise.

As the song goes, what a difference a day makes......24 little hours.
or perhaps a good nights sleep in a temperate room and the sun shining on us today..

I can't be bothered writing lengthy prose tonight so you will have to work out the story from the photos ( just for you Nicky !!)

Brief synopsis:

6.30 left for swimming lake to do pre brekky handicap aquathon.

I was off first so had responsibility of checking water temp.....warm luckily as was non wetsuit.
Swim 3 laps ~ 1100m
Run 4 laps on the trail which amounted to just under 5km.

Back in van , attack breakfast buffet ( another good one. Lost count of croissant/bread consumption so hence no longer noted )

11am depart 57 km to the med ( St Cyrien sue le plage ) with a 13km TT to start the ride. Nice tail wind net descent... then regroup and cruise to the seaside.

A few swam, I dipped my feet in so have had a foot in each ocean either side of Pyrenees.

A few ( myself included ) chose to ride back, warm headwind ( kinda like a Canty NW but not as strong ) with a net uphill. Lost the boys, Garmin took me in weird directions but managed with the help of Ian spotting me on our tracker app got back on the correct road and was soon rolling through vineyards in the French countryside in the sun, on my bike. Living my best life as they say, cant think of a better way to spend a Sunday arvo....

Opps, back on the main highway to Prades, run out of water, should have stopped in last village, all i can dream of is a huge diet coke..... getting a bit hot and hangry..... luckily McD's is across the road from the hotel, Couldnt find the way in, couldn't be fucked so climbed over the wall..... Big Mac and a pint of diet coke.....that felt like all my dreams come true at once.

Right enough waffle, hopefully all these pics upload, Google doesn't like Safari ... b

Note the pic of f my torso is to show what it looks like after a ride in the heat.... salty!!!

Day 7 Epic camp - From one extreme to the other......!

Planned day was either 179 or 140 km ( min) ride from Andorra to Prades ( France ) with most of the climbing in the first 50km and a KON on our 2nd ascent to Port d' Envilara which rises to 2406m and is the highest paved road in the Pyrenees.

Then if you rode 140km , 10 km run to complete the day.


Another not so great sleep but got up at 6am to get my self sorted as brekky at 7 so deposited overnight bags in van, etc etc. Loaded up on a decent brekky, then with plenty time to spare pumped up my tyres and in the process of removing the pump managed to pull half the valve extender off so bang, no air left, quick change and pre ride loo trip while Ian wrestled with the tyre to get it back on the rim ( those Mavic Cosmic wheels on the Cervelo are a bloody nightmare for tyre removal. I changed to Conti GP 500- tyres as I thought it was originally the Mavic tyres that were on, but no...). The others in our grupetto grupetto had already left and it was quite drizzly and chilly when we set off from Arinsal. Its a ~ 7km descent down to the turn for Ordinho ( first climb of day ), through a few roundabout.... first one I nearly got wiped out by a Subaru that didnt give way, then took a wrong exit from a roundabout in La Messana and the Garmin kept telling me to U-turn and I was super confused but worked it out eventually ( duh... was being a super blonde this morning...). I started on the climb to Ordino and just about fell off my bike to a large rumble of thunder then lightning then progressively heavy rain......... I was able to pass the time a bit chatting to a German guy who was doing some self supported bike race from Vienna to Barcelona, oh dear.... carbon rims in the wet with a loaded bike than he also got a front flat .... I felt a bit bad not stopping to help but to be honest, despite climbing I was absolutely freezing as the rain was hammering down with intermittent rumbles and lightening flashes. Oh well, tyres are rubber at least so i can't earth the lightening should I get struck.........

From the top it was a ~ 7km descent to the next town ( Calina) where we basically started to climb up the 16 km KOM to Port d Envilara. Aside from being so cold, it had quite a lot of winding tight switch backs and I had a few hairy moments with my brakes just not working, as well as getting progressively chilled and starting to shake.... we had been told, left turn at the bottom then hit lap button after the garage to start the KOM. So some dumb arse went right...then got confused by the Garmin saying off course.... but I was also shaking so bad in every muscle and teeth chattering I actually thought I was going to throw up...I stopped at the petrol station and asked the lady who pointed left.... duh.....blonde...

Once on the climb I pushed it really hard, not so much for KOM ( honest ) but was trying to warm up.... at that moment Deacon Blue "Raintown" came on my iPod which I thought was appropriate for the current situation........

"Its a rain dirt town job, hurts but it don't pay.......don't you see, don't you understand.....rain down on all those tired eyes and tears and frowns........

Luckily there was a wee cafe/bar at the top so the support crew ( who did a STELLAR job today looking after us) hustled us all in and ordered hot drinks, soaked through. I took off my wet tops, Philintaor lent me a thermal he had spare then I put my winter jacket, booties, beanie , knee warmers on. However, as soon as stepped outside and felt the wind chill and knowing we had 20 km of descent ahead, I decided to get in the van ..... however today, I was not the only one. Half the boys took that option and the other half decided to complete the ride ( the LONG ride). So big kudos to them !!
It did look at one point like it was clearing but then we were straight into torrential rain again.

We are staying in a lovely Best Western and thankfully there is a heat pump in each room ( mine is on "heat" not aircon.....can you believe ....) AND a heated towel rail. Heavenly!!

After a hot shower as I was still quite chilled I thought I ;d better get this 10 km run done so had a wee poodle around the town centre, aiming to not get lost for the 3rd time today.
I had only run 4km with a bit of faffing so found a country road to run out and back on .... and suddenly the heavens opened and its still pissing down now.........

Anyway, definitely an Epic kind of day, still got 3 hours of riding in with ~2000m of ascent...not sure how the KOM points will go after today but I think George got back out of the van at the base of the descent and rode with a couple of the other hard nuts so I feel I don't really deserve it if I did win the KOM today.

Right time for yet another hot shower and ohhhhh perhaps a wine before dinner :-)

Epic camp day 6- Swim/Bike/Hike in the heights of Andorra

3km swim
22km ride with 800 m climbing ( camp minimum)
steep trail hike of 8km which took over 2 hrs


Aaaaahh, the benefits of a good night;'s sleep.... I woke up at 10 to 7 almost like a new person this morning, had also chosen to sleep with my legs elevated on 3 pillows as felt everything was a bit swollen last night ( heat, training, altitude.....)and had left the window wide open and could only hear the gushing stream which must have soothed me to a deep slumber....

The breakfast buffet did not disappoint ( as did last night's dinner, VEGGIES. SALMON. OMG!!!) but we were departing for the pool at 8.30 am so most of us were sensible. And the coffee was OK too. Phew...

We left for the pool which was about 7km away, today's option was 100 x 100 or min of 30 x 100 with a ride of either 30km or 800 m climbing in. I knew I was not in any form to swim for the infinity it would take to do 10km as well as John placing an embargo on buoys and paddles; apparently that is a standard Epic camp rule that somehow slipped past my beady eye.....but it was a beautiful pool and we managed to sequester 3 lanes between us and I have to say i REALLY enjoyed swimming this morning, toy free altho I felt like had really bad asthma when I started and couldn't get it under control then remembered we were at 1400m which does make quite a difference to the oxygen available!!

Us 3 km er's were dropped back to the hotel so i then went to do my ride and rode up to the ski field above Arinsal. It was 5km and got me 415m so I dropped back down then straight downhill to La Messana ( the next town ) then turned around and climbed back up, quick coffee stop at a pizza place to join the boys who had successfully swam 10km then i toddled off to finish my ascent. There is nowhere flat in Andorra, its up or down at around 8 %......there is also ZERO cell phone network coverage if you are on roaming as none of us had any cell phone coverage as soon as we crossed the border yesterday, solely hotel wifi but at least its decent.

Quick shower, snack then regroup at 3pm to be driven to some trail which climbed 945m over 4km, rocky and cobbly so it was a hike not really a run. I lost sight of the group, got confused at a sign pot so I think took the wrong path up and never met anyone else coming down so turned around and then also managed to take a wrong track but realised after a few hundred meters so climbed back up ( aaaah ) then made it back down to the van just as a few of the others arrived, that descent was hell on the knees and quads.........

More snacks, dinner, a couple of Riojas to end the day and now getting ready for tomorrow; a big day as we ride to Prades and also climb the highest climb in the Pyrenees ( cant remember name right now...)
Hopefully my butt has repaired itself and ready for another millennium on the saddle, it looks to be quite a bit cooler too which should help altho I don't want to get cold....hmm..... undershirt os looked out for tomorrow for the first time.

On that note, I;d better get to bed and get those legs elevated again, got to see if I can win that polka dot jersey back though given the amount we have been eating and that my carb consumption has increased three hundred fold, I'm probably lugging an extra few kgs up the climbs.........

Until tomorrow, adios from Andorra...

Day 5 : Epic camp 1 Grinder 0 #meltdown

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.....

Epic camp Day 4- Benvenida a Espana!!!

10km run pre brekky with a "guess your time" competition ( John's fave....)
105km ride from Bagneres de Luchon to Sort, 2100m asc of Portillon and Port de Baguieera.

I'll apologise now as my brain is likely a little fried from the 40 degree temperatures outside.

I had a great sleep last night, leggies elevated on 2 pillows to aid recovery and get rid of my heat cankles :-) Woke about 5.30 am then dozed until the alarm went off at 5.45 so up, into run gear, stretch and a snack etc.
We met at 6.30 to start our loop 10 km course with a guess your time. I forgot that the surrounding land is not flat, so estimated 53:30 but took 54:58 in the end. As anticipated I felt bloody terrible for the first 4 km ( tho a marked improvement on yesterday's monolithic state ) but started to come right and pushed the pace a bit more.

Quick shower, brekky then set off just after 9 and straight into the Col du Portillon which is around 9km with the French- Spanish border right at the top of the Col. I have done enough of these camps to know that each day you feel horrendous for the first hour as well as a little sick from riding uphill too soon after breakfast and I made the cardinal sin of eating too much for brekky this morning. Dam French bread.
I set off solo with some tunes in my ears and tootled up the Portillon , no km markers on these climbs ( probably a good thing ) ... started to come right about 50 mins in, turned the corner after a steepish section and lo and behold, at the top !!

Obligatory photo by the sign ( in my polka dot jersey of course!) then a pleasant descent to Bossost and another 14km along the valley to Vielha. Made it through Vielha, no sign of Ian to point to start of climb so kept on rolling, was getting hot and I needed a pit stop so found a service station with nice clean loos and a cold fridge so bought a cold diet coke, checked the route card and saw was supposed to have started KOM in Vielha, oops. Pressed the button from the servo then hoofed my way along the road, saw a sign saying Baquiera 4km ...hmm was that the top? can't remember. Put in a solid effort then saw Ian and support crew who told me it was 8km to the top in Port de Banaguia. Shit!! Hope I hadn't blown my self up.
What a glorious climb and glorious scenery, I was feeling pretty good in the leg department and also had the threat of losing my polka dot jersey looming over me which spurred me on altho somewhat dismayed as I hadn't realised I was technically on the Kon from Vielha and probably had been faffing around a bit....

A tasty lunch was waiting for us at the top, thank you Julie.... stellar job !! Then 51 km to Sort, net downhill... a few switchbacks then the road opened out to glorious smooth, long 60km+/ hr descending. I could feel the mercury rising the further down I got, have a hot spot on my right butt cheek just where the edge of the saddle was so once I was down in the valley things were getting a little uncomfortable. I stopped for some shade and to relieve the pressure on my arse for 5 mins ( sorry Mum if you are reading this!!!) My Garmin said it was 40 degrees.

Anyway, I just had to keep it rolling and it didn't take too long, despite a bit of hot headwind in the gorge and soon arrived at Sort, same time as Thierry and Philinator who had tacked on to get to 120km. We all headed straight to the bar for some limon Fanta with ice. yes, yes I know that stuff is bad for your teeth but

Epic camp day 3 - Grinder by name, Grinder by nature

Well, today dawned bright and early at 4am after a sporadic sleep, similar to that post Ironman feeling.
Quads, glutes and hamstrings felt like someone had taken to them with a baseball bat overnight, rather unpleasant really. No kettle in the room either so couldn't even console myself with a pre run coffee :-(

First up was a run, we were driven part way back up the Peyresourde and dropped off, at small road to run ~ 7km into the start of a small trail which leads to Lac d'Oo. The road in started down hill then was progressively uphill, a treat for stiff sore quads. Some of the group chose to do 20km, I stuck with 10km and avoided the trail as had no contact lenses in and was so tired and immobile I thought prudent to avoid risk of twisting ankles etc.

Once that ordeal was over it was back for a shower, decent brekky, regroup at 11am to ride to the lake for a swim which was ~ 26km away. Sadly had been unable to locate a sheepskin cover for my saddle so had to suck it up. Took a 800mg Brufen instead :-)
It was so warm most of us swam sans wetsuit, which I actually like ( despite being a crap swimmer). We did around 30 mins of swimming then had to state our guesstimate time for 2 laps of the lake ( each lap ~ 500m approx ) Then we all set off to do our two laps ( timed ) and then had tomato it up to 3km of swimming. I could have stayed in there all day, the first time I've been cool for about 30 hours and the soothing feeling of the water lapping my sore muscles.
We had a picnic lunch by the lake and then it was back on the bike home...... toasty toasty! It was 36 degrees up the valley, possibly more with a slight very warm breeze. Altho a lot more loosened off than i was this morning, I was pretty trashed to be honest between the heat and 16h30 of biking with 7260m asc over 2 days.

However, its been nice to have a couple of hours of downtime, rest a bit and have a wee wander around Bagneres de Luchon, its beautiful wee town.

On a brighter note, John informed me that i have the KOm jersey for tomorrow; KOM points worked out on a % of your uphill ftp submitted prior to camp. I was just pipped by 0.1% for the Marie Balnque on Sunday but won the Tourmalet yesterday and was possibly drawn for the Peyresourde. So sorry George Gray to have taken it off you, I don't intend to give it up too easily.........*** think it helps that I am the only person not to have a compact... I run a 52/36 with a 28/11 at the rear. So I have no option but to grind it out........haha.

Secondly I guessed my swim time to within one second so won that one too, apparently my prize is furthest out person cleans my bike. Yes Glenn O, that may be a job for you tomorrow.....!!!


Right enough of that. Its nearly wine o clock here.

Day 2- Cols, Cowbells, Concrete pills + combustion

Eaux Bonnes to Bagneres de Luchon via Cols d'Aubisque, Souloir, Tourmalet, Aspin + Peyresourde

154km 4160m asc ( ride time 8h 57)

You know that thing where you have a bad dream then wake up and realise it was only a dream. Like the torture of climbing for eternity on your legs and having your arse on a saddle for longer than a working day when the previous day had left its mark......

Finally some cream for coffee and also peanut butter with brekky - an auspicious start to the day then a quick delivery of bags to the van, photo op wearing the green jersey and hoping some of Scott Molina's energy would rub off it onto me then ready to depart!
I left about 10 minutes before the grupetto, basically we were straight into the climb up the Col d Aubisque which is 12km with an average of ~7% I think.
From previous camps I knew the first hour or two always feels horrendous and this didn't disappoint, however the last 3km were out of the trees and into the sun and the views were stunning; greeted by a load of friendly horses at the top.

Quick photo op, filled up a bottle as it was getting warm...nice descent which takes you part way down then you climb up the Col du Souloir which is a pleasant 4% wish for 3km, then a nice long descent and a 25km section along a valley which takes you to the base of the Tourmalet. I was having major troubles with bruised sit bones along with some chafing from the day before but flat sections and bumpy roads were causing me strife to the point where I stopped , had a large cry then turned back down the road to the van and asked Ian if I could get a lift up the valley as reckoned it would be ok climbing. Thank goodness....he dropped me off in Luz St Saveur which was packed busy and I met a few of the guys there ( yellow jersey group). I explained my plight and George kindly gave me 2 nurofen which did the trick and took away sit bone discomfort, thank god!
From here the climb up the ( in) famous Col de Tourmlaet begins, 17km at around average 7-8 %.
The gradient felt very pleasnat after the Mari Blanque yesterday but my god it was BAKING hot. Like 32 degrees hot and no shade....just keep pedalling...you pass through a village and then a ski town further up and after that it had begun to cool down a little which made it easier. The last km felt like the steepest one, was met by Olly who gave me a cup of coke , quick photo op by the famous monument altho again, I look slightly retarded in the picture so that one won't be published.....

Lovely long descent then a rolling ~ 7km into Peyolle for lunch which is about 5km from the Col d'Aspin. Riding along that valley in 32 degrees felt like a furnace, so hot with little shade....almost unbearably so, especially when you have come from a Christchurch winter! It was a welcome sight to see Julie and Cath at the lunch stop so had some food, a sit in the shade then on my merry way up the Aspin which was pleasant climb, again ~ 6-7 % wish but it was FUCKING HOT. I mean FUCKING HOT.I stopped a couple of times in the shade of trees to try cool off a bit, when its that hot you have to keep it very steady and it was a bit frustrating but at least a shortish climb. Quick photo op at the top then enjoyed the slight breeze descending altho today was so hot that you could feel the air warming as you dropped further down and once back in the valley t was like being in a fan oven. This must be what hell feels like ?! Hmmmm.

Its about 10km along another sweltering valley and through a pretty little town, at this point I felt like I was actually going to spontaneously combust - being France, nothing seemed to be open but i found a public toilet and rinsed my bike shirt under the cold tap and put it back on to help cool me, met the girls further up to top up a bottle before climbing the Peyresourde and we had a big downpour which altho short-lived, was very welcome!
Last climb of the day was the Peyresourde, 9km at average of 7%. Again a lovely climb which would have been a little quicker and a tad more enjoyable if it hadn't been so hot but them the breaks and I'd rather heat than pissing rain and cold.

The best reward for the huge day was the 14km descent down into Bagneres de Luchon, billiard ball smooth road with some wide sweeping bends, breeze in your face., made the whole day feel worth it just for that... something only those who cycle can understand!!

This is a pretty little spa town, reasonably busy and I suspect probably a ski town over winter. We have amazing accommodation here for 2 nights at the Hotel Alti on the main street, properly functioning air con, decent wifi and crisp white bed linen.
A tasty diner, bit of wine consumption and chewing the fat. I now possess the red jersey as I "won" the KOM on the Tourmalet ( KOM based on % FTP) altho I am not in the lead for the polka dot jersey. ( YET. Yes, its only day 2....I have ambitions...hehe). Forgot that the Peyresourde was a KOM but I was a bit fried by then anyway.

Day 3 starts with a run somewhere up the hill at 6.30am. Forecast to be 38 degrees so better to be done early, then a spin later to swim in a lake somewhere altho was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to park myself on a bike seat today, am in need of a sheepskin cushion :-)

Right better get ready for this run, had the most terrible sleep and woke up at 4am. Quads hurt, back hurts, butt hurts, arms hurt from the descending. Poor old me, what kind of idiot pays to put themselves through this ?!!