Epic Camp D12 - Calgary

6:45am run up to the Lake Agnes Tea House, starting from Lake Louise about 4k and 400m (1300 feet) of climbing.  This gradient was much more manageable as an actual run versus power hike, although the walk / run strategy was definitely employed.   Tried to keep up with Gareth on the way up, but he Killian Journet'd it back down.  Stunning views of sunrise on the mountains overlooking Lake Louise.  Finish by running all the way back down from Lake Louse to the Village, 12k all in.

With all the eccentric loading of the quads from the last two trail runs, the long ride in to Calgary was always going to be a slog.  Barry put things into Beast Mode after the 1st rest stop and I yo-yoed off the back the rest of the day until the lunch stop at 150k.  I don't know what kind of watts he was laying down but I when I checked mine I was well north of 300 in the group, and he did it seemingly for a 100k.  And when he dropped off the front, the Philinator kept things rolling.  A very hard day in the saddle.

Glad to have completed the camp with everyone safe and sound.  More thoughts on camp later.

Epic Camp D11 - Lake Louise

"Light" day with tack on options.  15k climb up to Morraine Lake.  6k (12k return) "run" / power hike up to Sentinel Pass at 8500 feet.  Then bike back to hotel.  Sentinel Pass was beautiful.  Steep downhill running loaded up the quads, but I managed to stay upright on this trail run.  Afternoon was open for tack ons.  I tacked on a 3 hour post-lunch nap.  Had time for a 10k run but the will evaporated as the rain came in.

Epic Camp D10 - Lake Louise

7am - run to lake - icy swim - can't feel frozen brick feet on run back.  Mental prep for cold wet ride, castigate myself for leaving my good winter gear at home.  Coldest, most miserable I have ever been on a bike, coming down off the 1st KOM from 6,000 feet a long fing way.  Close to chucking the bike in the U-Haul and climbing in the van at the half way rest stop.  Spent ten minutes in the restroom under the hand dryers trying to get warm, which only made it colder when I stepped back outside.  Right.  Decided to get the fing ride done.  Rode hard to stay warm.  Made it into Lake Louise and sunshine.  Hot shower.  Pre-dinner snack of poutine and IPA.  Quick trip to the local sports shop:  leg warmers, booties, proper gloves, proper smartwool socks.  Caught up with my better half.  Proper dinner.  Ice cream run.  We can sleep in tomorrow.

Sorted.

Epic Camp D9 - Sunwapta

First day where I felt truly shit, where the legs never came round.  I've been fatigued throughout camp but able to push thru after warming up.  The 3 hour trail run yesterday depleted my reserves, apparently.

However, day did start off well.  Day wasn't scheduled to get off until 7:30am (relatively late for camp).  Got my first good night of sleep the entire camp, then short bike up to picturesque Pyramid Lake for a morning swim.  Quick breakfast and then we were off on the ride to Sunwapta.  10k into the ride and the day's KOM up to Marmot Basin kicked off.  Molina took off like a bat out of hell and was quickly out of sight.  Unfortunately, he ended up taking a wrong turn and we never saw him again until Sunwapta.  I tried to keep up with the group but it simply wasn't happening.  One by one everyone went up the road from me.  View from the ski area was lovely over the Athabasca river valley, and Bardsley finaly got his bear siting (up the ski slope about 200m).  After the regroup the group headed back down.  A few stayed behind with Bardsley and were plotting out how best he should strategize his bonus points sessions vis-a-vis what Newsom had planned.  Wheels within wheels.

Ride down the Icefields Parkway was beautiful, and I was riding by myself at my own pace, and got to enjoy it.  Into Sunwapta and off for our minimum 10k run.  Another hilly tricky trail run.  Whereas yesterday I was hyperfocused on foot plant, today I kept spacing off and paid for it, rolling my ankle once and biffing it twice, doing my hand no favors.  Only a flesh wound.  Shannon, Gareth, David, and Leah were kind enough to check on my condition and wait up for me.  Do bears smell blood, the way sharks smell blood in the water, was I believe, the essential question.

Run done and that is all for today.  Hope to feel better tomorrow.

Epic Camp D8 - Rest Day in Jasper

Day started with a 5:50am walk over to the Jasper Aquatic Center for swim games (body clock, 4:50am:  we lost an hour leaving BC for Alberta).  400 IM, 200 kick, 50 free.  The 100 flys almost killed me.  Fortunately, it was a short course yards pool.  I tried streamlining half a length but that quickly went out the window as I went hypoxic from the unfamiliar stroke.  Good competition amongst the swimmers Molina, Newsom, Petro, Zach, etc.  Kid Stanford slew all.*

After that I grabbed a quick bite to eat and tried to take a nap for an hour before our scheduled 10:30 run, with minimal success.  Run was to be an easy trail run, on the "flatter" option south of town.  Newsom led a bunch of us out.  Run ended up being a 3 hour hellacious hill climb, my longest and most punishing run outside of my one and only IM marathon.  We would all periodically regroup at trail junctures but eventually the gazelles were up the road as it were.  Barry and I ended up running the remainder together.  Both of us biffed it a few times, despite being hyper focused on foot placement.  A sore thumb, wrist, palm, and some funky knee pain was the result.

We were scheduled to roll out for an easy bike session of 60k up Maligne Lake Road.  Since we ended up returning from the run at just before 2pm, grabbed only a half of a taco, wolfed that down, showered, then changed into my cycling kit to heat out.  Ride was super chill as all had been out on the 3 hour bitch run.  Scenery was beautiful, but you know that from the pictures others are taking and posting.

Dinner at the Jasper Brewing Co with Molina, Zach, Petro, Rob, Gareth, and Lou.  Had a nice stout (the 6060) and a Bacon Cheeseburger.  Was quite tasty.

Epic Camp D7 - Jasper

Day kicked off with a 2k swim at 6am -- two laps around the small lake next to the Mike Wiegele heli skiing chalets where we were staying.  I was a little late getting going as all the work and the relative lack of sleep is catching up.  Then, we had a 7k run prescribed.  I decided to do it as the 7 x 1k interval bonus set, so I had set out on a likely looking bit of flat road to measure off the 1k.  Hoped for doing them under 4:10 for two bonus points and hit a few right on 4:10 but mostly 4:15 to 4:20.  Have to be satisfied with that at this point in the camp.

Breakfast was best so far.  Michelle was making huge buttermilk pancakes.  There was some friendly jostling for position to get them you can be sure.  I doused mine in butter, blueberry preserves, and maple syrup.  A great way to fuel up for our monster 210k ride to Jasper.

The ride was nice and civilized to the first aid station at roughly 60k.  Afterwards people were free to fly to the KOM point 80 klicks up the road.  The peloton stayed together over the mostly flat lead in to the climb up thru Mt Robson provincial park.  Newsom put in the first attack, an attempt to go Hans Solo from something like 30k out, but was chased down.  Phil attacked the first climb but the bunch regrouped on the descent, so everyone was together to kick things off on the decisive climb.  I put things into steady mode and the race went up the road, Shannon floating up the climb and the boys working hard not to get chicked.  Zach took things out from Kid Stanford in a sprint, I was told, with Shannon chicking Petro.  The Internet never forgets.

After the regroup it was all about finishing the 80k as quickly and sanely as possible.  The ride itself was spectacular, following the Moose river thru an alpine valley with 10,000+ crags to either side. "One Pull" Molina was good for several, Zach "Metronome" P, and Petro all putting in big shifts to pull us home.  Barry got tired of riding on the bull horns and decided to go to the front so he could "rest" on his aero bars.  He proceeded to put it in "Beast Mode" and it was hard work hanging on to his draft.

Unfortunately, Adam "Kid Stanford" Krez had a major mechanical.  His rear derailleur hangar cage cracked, the derailleur pulled up into the wheel.  I felt no small amount of empathy for him.  Hopefully the bike manufacturer will replace the frame under warranty.  Amazingly Adam borrowed a bike after getting to Jasper in the van and proceeded to knock out the 60k he missed before dinner.

Into Jasper and the usual rush to sort out rooms, gear, get showered up, and try to catch up with my better half.  Today was my turn for being interviewed for the IM Talk podcast with Bevan, so I prepped by getting stuck into a high ABV brew on minimal food.  Afterwards I got a chance to talk with Phil and others.  I had roomed with Phil already so you would think I'd know a lot about him, but in you are so focused on eating, training, recovering, staying in touch with those at home, and sorting out your shit for the next day that there's in actuality there's not so much time for deep conversation.  Phil has a 50+ hour work week and a young family and a typical training week for him is "only" 8-10 hours.  I find it amazing how fast these athletes are on the life mandated "minimal" training protocol and how well they can absorb the odd 45+ hour week.  Good genes and quality sessions I reckon.

Molina was in fine fettle and had us in tears before and during dinner.

All good fun.

Epic Camp Week One - Stats

Total time:  41h
TSS:  2600
Swim:  19 km
Bike:  812 km
Run:  95 km

This is a crap-ton more training than I have ever done, or will do, save next week.  And I am not one of the crazy ass athletes who have been tacking on every day.  Next week I'll push the envelope and see what happens.

Epic Camp D6 - Blue River

Day 6 done and dusted.  Still a lot of day left but Mark did so much bodywork that I want to take the remainder of the day and let things continue to heal.

Got up early knowing I had to get my swim in, starting no later than 7 in order to finish on time and be ready for the ride.  I fiddled about and watched the super ambitious getting out before the sun was over the horizon for the 6k bonus swim.  It was quite chilly out and could not muster the will to get going until just of 7.  Once I got in the water though it was quite warm (wetsuit) and enjoyable.   Swam one clockwise circumnavigation of the lake (just under 2.5 as I swam it), then did a lap down the lake to where we had dinner the previous night and back to get over 3k.

Light breakfast of a couple of pieces of toast and peanut butter and started riding at 9.  Everyone seemed to be set on riding their own pace, so the group quickly spread out over the road.  A group of four of us stayed together for the entire ride:  Molina, Doug, Kid Stanford, and I.  We hit a long climb early in the ride and Doug was immediately off the front up the road.  We EVENTUALLY caught up to him a few kms after the top of the climb, though whether we caught him or he sat up to wait for us I could not say.

Doug can ride.  I forgot to mention y'day that he's in the 55-59 age group.  Doug leaves a vortex in his wake, but the thing is it only extends about one millimeter off his skinny ass, so "drafting" Doug is as good as riding on the front.  Doug is still only sixish months into recovery from a serious accident from what I understand, which forced him out of IM New Zealand this year.  If this is indication, I predict he will slay all and sundry next year.

Doug seemed suitably chastened from yesterday's shenanigans and rode sensibly all day.  We all took turns on the front and made relatively short work of today's ride:  68 miles in 3h 20m with just under 3000 feet of climbing.

Then on to the 10k run.  Whilst others were doing bonus sets (10k under X time gives you Y points), I just did easy 5 and a half minute kms.  Like a moron I ran down the freeway when apparently there is a nice trail just 50m from where we are staying that goes around a lovely lake.  In my defense, I am tired.

We saw a couple of bears a 100m or so up a river from a bridge we ran over.  Others went to the "River Safari" just down the road and apparently saw three more bears.  I guess that's one (of many) things that distinguishes this Epic Camp from others:  mega fauna / apex predators.

Job done for day six.

Magic

Just got off the massage table with Mark Rendall.  I have a recurrent issue due to a slight curvature of the spine.  I gather when I do lots of training combined with sitting at a desk all day my mid-back and upper neck / shoulders compensate, resulting in what feels like a pinched nerve in my upper right trap.  Hasn't happened for awhile but recurred with a vengeance two days ago.

Mark worked over it like the expert he is and it feels much better.   Worked it with ART like the best physios I have seen back home. Hopefully with the acute tension from the over-compensation released, it will be manageable from here on out.

Mark proving himself to be super multi-talented and invaluable life support on camp.  I believe he coaches athletes as well.  Magician.

Epic Camp D5 - Clearwater

The WiFi gets saturated and virtually unusable in the afternoon / evening when everyone is trying to catch up with family by email or Skype, upload pictures, and blog.  But it's great at 4am when noone else is up.

Slept poorly as I have a pinched nerve in my neck that makes it hard to get any deep sleep in, despite the fatigue.

Day started with a 10k run into the hills above Clinton.  It was basically a 5k hill climb up and back, so it was real breathy on the way up and conversational on the way down.  The upper part of the "road" / trail was rocky and rutted so picky our way down meant lots of braking.  My quads were reminding me of yesterday's 2h run.

The ride to Clearwater was our longest day on the bike yet, at 190k / 118m.  Zach, Barry, Phil, Molina, Doug, and I all took long pulls.  Some were bitching about the surges.  For my part, I was trying to keep it sensible, especially on the rollers, where power-to-weight aint in my favor.  Doug was killing us however.  Fegan had us in stitches with a long and well justified rant after Doug pulled us into the second water stop.  Doug had just the hint of a very satisfied smile the whole time like he really did mean to rip our legs off.  Did I mention that Doug looks like a cross between Chris Froome and Bill Nighy and presents to the wind like a Kamm aerofoil?  

The ride profile finished with a long 10k ish descent of 3000+ feet and then a flat 30k finish.  The descent looked tasty on paper and did not disappoint.  Very wide sweeping turns, nothing technical, so we all bombed it.  Some were more madmen than others.  I am looking at you Rob Hill, who was expressed that it might have been more fun had it been more technical.  On the flat Molina took us home at a gentleman's pace.  Kid Stanford also put in a sensible pull, until Doug took over and caned us again.  Fortunately, there were only 2 miles left at that point.

Arrived shelled from the day's effort.  My gut had been pretty hosed a couple days before, and on D4 I stuck to drink my fluids and eat my calories.  That helped a lot.  But today, with such a heavy workload on tap, I reverted to standard protocol of putting a light dose of energy drink in my bottles, hoping to keep topped up on calories.  Mistake!  I'll stick with water from here on out, I think.

Immediately jumped into the lake right outside our door to get my 3k swim in, before lethargy and fatigue had a chance to sap the will.  Job done for day.

Dinner was good: salmon, wild rice, mushrooms, fresh rosemary (I think) bread and butter.  But best was the Dairy Queen run afterwards, where I had a Blizzard (Reeses).  Thanks for Mark for running a bunch of us over to DQ in the van.

Epic Camp D4 Clinton - Race Day

Today was supposed to be a "rest day", Epic Camp style of course.  Instead of the typical 6+ hours of proscribed work, a race of 2k swim + 50k bike + 10k run.  Well under 3 hours for all.  I'll have to check others' blogs to see who won, as I was way off the back.

Since it was a relatively short day, it was an atypically leisurely start with a 7:45 breakfast.  I could not fall asleep last night, and when I did I woke up at 2:30 and was unable to go back to sleep.  Stayed off he caffeine today so hopefully that's sorted.  Thought about just getting out of bed and tacking on, since I was never going to be competitive in the race anyway, but couldn't drag my tired ass out of bed.  And running at night on lonely roads in the boonies BC sounds like a surefire way to a bad end.

At any rate, after the race Scott and Andrew kindly took my bike into Kamloops, over an hour a way, to get it sorted.  Epic Campers are treated extremely well.  I am very grateful to both for burning an afternoon on that errand.  I think one or two other campers got some things sorted as well.  Fortunately, Scott and Andrew made it back in time to make dinner.

It did not seem right to sit on my ass all afternoon, so I got one of the high scoring "special workouts" done, a 2 hour 22k run.  Cruised the entire thing, but really started feeling the fatigue from 15k onwards.  No records were set, etc.

Am spent.  Looking forward to our first huge day in the saddle, 190k to Clearwater.

Epic Camp D3 - Clinton

Can't sleep.  No matter how much I try to quiet my mind, I keep turning over the day.  F it, might as well get my blogging done.

Day started with a majestic swim in Seton Lake just 7k out of Lillooet.  Stunned.  Fellow camper David Rowe blogged that it reminded him of Doubtful Sound, which I haven't been to, but if that's like Milford Sound, which I have been, I'd agree.  Something like Queenstown, too, although the lake is so much smaller, it pulls the mountains in right on top of you and makes them seem far bigger.  Serene.  Pristine.  As I am a middling swimmer at best, it was mostly by myself, with fellow camper Balland for company.  Not sure best to express what I felt 2.5k down that lake, other than to say I can't stop playing it back in my head.

Did 5k, which was my longest swim ever.  Did not do the full tack on as A) I am not a GC contender and B) my shoulder was startin to hurt a bit.  Ran back to town + a little extra to get my camp minimum run in (10k).

Today was a shortish ride (relatively) of 105k, front-loaded with a lot of climbing, but mostly under 10%, so that was manageable.  Made the questionable decision to try to hang on to Kid Stanford, Zach P, and Petro - not the wisest thing I've ever done.  But I hung on to the rest stop.  Those guys can motor.  Molina hit the front multiple times, too.  He was talkin two days ago about how sweet it would be to not hit the front the entire camp, but I think he got fired up when the big dogs got to crankin and wanted a piece of his own.

My day got interesting when with something like 20k to go I snapped off my rear derailleur.  And when I snapped, I mean, ripped it apart.  Superlative tech support Mark Rendall MacGyvered me an impromtpu fixie and off I went to finish.  I had checked out the course profile on MapMyRide earlier and thought we had a lot of climbing again to finish.  Big mistake!  I chose a gear for climbing but there was nothing steep and quite a lot of flattish stuff.  I looked like a right igit (for you Americans) / git (for you Brits) flogging away on my TT 39 x 27 fixie at 130+ rpm.  Beat that dead horse right into the ground for a max speed of 12mph.  But I made it home finally.  Day 3, job done.

The guys are gonna get something sorted out.  The logistics of camp are hectic as it is.  I feel terrible for throwing this monkey wrench in to boot.  But extremely grateful.  I may be ridin fixie for a few days.  But I learned a lesson:  Know the Course!  Cuz you never know when life is going to make you choose One and Only One Gear.

Epic Camp D2 - Lillooet

In Whistler we stayed at the Whistler Athletes Center, where the hosted athletes during the Olympics.  Very nice.  We got up and bicycled out to a lovely lake where they do the Ironman swim (Alta Lake).  On tap to start the day was an Aquathon:  2k swim followed by a 6k run.  I was predictably at the back end out of the water and as it was only day two and I felt fresh, I caned the run.  Still slow relative to the other athletes, though.

Then back to the center, pack up our stuff, brekkie, and were off on the bikes to Lillooet.  There is a routine to each day:  do some training early (as early as 6am), then pack up all the stuff to be loaded for transport to the next venue, day bags in the van, luggage in the U-Haul.  You can't get breakfast until you've brought your day bag down, as per Super Dave Dwan, the ringmaster of this traveling circus.  A sensible rule that helps to keep the show rolling.  Brekkie, then on the bikes to the next destination.  Depending on the length of the ride, more training in the afternoon ("tack ons" for points) after lunch / rest/ catching up.

I tried for an easy tack on / recovery ride -- since we had done by my count 20k in the morning biking up to Alta Lake -- I figured we only needed 10k more to get the 30k ride tack on (one point).  After conferring with one member of the rules committed, Phil, Gary, and I headed out for 14k.  Got back and was getting settled in for the evening when Gary tells me another committed member said we needed 6k more.   Not sure how that worked but I couldn't be arsed at that point.

Epic Camp Day One - Vancouver to Whistler

Day started off early with a 6:15am run of about 6 miles, over to the pool that is 137m long.  Then we did our swim.  Warm up was two lengths, then we had a 5 lap race.  I did not finish last, but I was way down on the uber swimmers.  Then run back to the hotel.  

So that was an ass kicker itself.  Then, try to cram in replacement calories from the morning activities, without overdoing it so as to not chunder on the bike, in about 30 mins.  Food is good.  They have something called Ems Power Cookies in N Zed.  They are freaking delicious.  I like Bonk Breakers and Picky Bars and such.  But Ems are that much better.  Wish we had 'em in the States.

Then on the bike to Whistler.  Nice and slow thru West Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay.  Friendly locals waving to us from passing cars.  Then onto Hwy 99 north:  Lumpy, and rumble strips are no fun on high speed descents.

Hung with the front group until the sustained climb out of Squamish began, then took the remainder at my own pace.  

Job done Day One.

Met two legends

So I arrived into Epic Camp one day early.  Had the good fortune to dine on some fine Indian cuisine with the Terminator Scott Molina and my fellow camper Lou DiGiuseppe.  Lou has done thirty-nine IronMans going back to the 80s.  He and Molina were just dishing all night on past races and racers.  Lou is a walking historian.  Newsom should get him on the Legends podcast, or at the very least, pick his brain.  On the walk over to the pool for a "prologue" swim, he rattled off at least 5 now defunct races that I've never heard of, and I've listened to just about all the pods.

At any rate, funny true story.  So, I'm just listenin', in awe.  I finally break in, "So, Scott, when you're not training and reading Slowtwitch, what do you get up to?"

Molina:  (pause)  Um, besides eating and sleeping?  (pause)  Coaching?  Well, I don't coach as much as I used to.

Lou is a veteran Epic Camper and is kindly sharing all manner of hard-earned wisdom.  Ease into it, see how the body reacts, let the big dogs bury themselves, then start tacking on later.

Legends.