Training in
Spain, where the rain falls mainly… no… no rain! J
My pre-season training started quite late
this year due to a late race season in 2013, which only finished in Hong Kong
on October 27th. Training started officially at the end of November after about
3 weeks off. My plan was to keep things pretty low key and not really pick it
up much until after Christmas. The main reason for this was that my race season
is going to go very long into 2014 and I wanted to delay getting super-fit
until a bit later than last season so that my body (and mind) could carry on
racing all the way into November.
The main aim this season is to improve my
running as that has been consistently the part of my race that has been letting
me down after strong swim and bikes. The approach my coach and I decided to
take was the high-mileage approach. This is something that I have never really
touched much on as I never felt that my body could cope with the stress of high
mileage running on top of the rest of my tri training. But after 2 years of
consistent running mileage and pretty much no injuries we decided it would be
time to start to really lift the mileage on my run. So while my running picked
up quickly in terms of hours/week I kept cycling mileage relatively low with
just 3 rides per week to give running a chance to increase without any injury
problems.
So after being asked if I wanted to join
many of the British national team athletes in Spain on the 6th of January by
one of the coaches, I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to get
my training bumped up to where it really needs to be going into the next
Olympic cycle!
The camp base for the British squad this
year, as it has been for many years, is a sleepy little Spanish fishing and
farming town called Aguilas, just south of Cartagena and Murcia. This part of
Spain has 300 days of sunshine per year on average so the likelihood of rain is
low and the average temperature is around 10degrees warmer than in
Loughborough. It makes for perfect training conditions and Aguilas has
everything the pro triathlete needs to get a good winter’s training in.
The town is super quiet at this time of
year, which makes the roads in the mountains around the town very quiet and
safe for cycling. The town is also surrounded by huge lettuce fields and
orange, grapefruit and lemon groves, which all have great dirt tracks running
around almost every border – these make amazing terrain for run sessions
because you can keep the impact lower by staying off the tarmac or the track.
There is also of course the sea just 5 minutes from our apartment, which
conveniently has buoys out for swim sessions and a great coastal trail, which
is amazing to run on! Probably one of my top 5 ever runs when the sun is setting
in the evening! The pool is also just a short drive away (or a 10min run if
you’re feeling spritely after swimming!)
The apartment I’m staying in is perfect,
very comfortable and is a great place to relax and recover in between sessions
and in the evenings. It has a small pool, which while not good for swimming due
to the size and temperature IS good for icing my legs after hard sessions!
Having some great flat mates to share with (Joel and Cat Jameson and Iestyn
Harrett), who are also some of my training partners from Loughborough, as well
as some of the other guys from the Loughborough training centre (Adam Bowden,
Morgan Davies, Sophie Coldwell and Aaron Harris) Aguilas has been a great place
to train for the last 2 weeks.
With regard to the training, my cycling
mileage has been hiked up a lot, with some 4 and 5 hour rides and the run
mileage is still high, with no niggles and I have been doing 2 hard sessions
per week within that. Swimming is also going great and so I am starting to feel
in good shape all round – it seems that it doesn't take very long to get fit
these days!
Here are some pictures of the camp.
Gym with a view
Coffee with Conor Murphy. What a tough life!
Icing the legs after the Friday session
Orange trees galore!
Incredible views on our 5 hour epic ride in the mountains!
We actually got to 1980m. Climbed up to there from 750m!
Sunrise out of the apartment window
Starting out on the 5 hour ride
Some of the crew on camp: Sophie Coldwell, Aaron Harris and Conor Murphy the Irishman!
