Training Camp Day 3

The day started off with me waking up with a half eaten energy bar in my hand… apparently I sleep eat. Interesting discovery. After having a quick breakfast we packed our bags and got ready for a long morning of training.

The plan:

Bike out to Sand Hollow State Park.

Go for an open water swim.

Do a hard swim to bike interval.

Bike around the reservoir.

The Bike

The ride started off strong. We ended up in a long draft pack and I somehow found myself at the back of the pack - the yo yo effect was bad. About 10km into the ride I noticed my heart rate was hovering around 170bpm - basically race pace exertion. Around the 20km mark it had climbed to over 180bpm - not good. I knew I still had a lot of training left and didn’t want to burn all my matches so I dropped off the group, keeping them within 100m. I got my heart rate down to around 140bpm and was finally able to breathe again. About 5min after dropping off, I noticed Ella, Olivia and Charlotte had dropped off. Seizing the opportunity, I accelerated to catch up to them and get back into a draft pack. So much better. We enjoyed the scenery and cruised along to Sand Hollow. My body was not accustomed to the heat yet - during the 42km ride I consumed a whole bottle of water and Q (best electrolyte ever) with 4 protein pancakes.

The Swim

First open water swim of the year! I was pretty pumped to be out swimming in a lake. The water was beautiful and warmer than I was expecting. I prefer colder lakes. Swimming in a wetsuit after a eight month hiatus was a bit of a shock. I struggled to find my rhythm. Looks like I’ll be spending some quality time at Harmony Lake once I’m back in Calgary. We did a short warm up, some hard starts and exits, a longer steady effort, and some short race pace efforts. My swimming has been so hit or miss this season I’m hoping this next month will be enough time to get it together.

Swim/Bike Interval

After the swim we set up a transition zone for our bikes. At this point I noticed I had the beginnings of a tear in my wetsuit :( Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get worse before I can get it in to Tri It. We waded out about 100-200m from the boat launch. The game plan was to sprint in, grab our bikes, bike hard to the highway and then ride at a race pace effort for five minutes. The swim was a major struggle - I couldn’t find my rhythm and got bottle necked pretty bad by my teammates. On the plus side, I was able to get my wetsuit off rather quickly and run my bike out to the mount line. Mounting my bike still needs some work but it’s been worse. I got into a group with Emma, Charlotte, Mary, Ella and Soph. The pace was way harder than my 40km race pace and I dropped back (side note to Coach Kyle - my swim to bike needs work). I was bonking hard.

The Second Bike

After the 5min interval we had the option to turn around and eat lunch or continue on and ride another 20 ish miles. Chris, Emma , Ella and I decided to continue on. I ate a cliff bar and felt way better. We kept a steady pace and rode around the reservoir. Coach Lisa drove in front of us and our official fangirl Charlotte snapped pics.

After having a picnic lunch (and consuming probably the best chicken sandwich of my life and an entire watermelon) we were driven back to the condos. The girls and I had a stretching/foam rolling session and then a bunch of us headed over to the courts for some 3 on 3 basketball. Thanks to being forced to take a basketball class in university my skills have improved from embarrassing to passible.

We ended the afternoon with a mobility/strength session with Coach Kyle. This was followed by dinner - ham, mushroom and pasta casserole with a spinach, papaya, avocado, and date salad and a chocolate muffin. After stuffing our faces we had a team movie night. Nothing quite like watching a horror movie from the 80s. If you haven’t seen Children of the Corn you probably should. Lessons learned: never listen to sketchy gas station workers, always take the dog with you, and children are evil.

Tuesday’s plan: a track run, hill repeats on the bike, and a pool swim