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Epilogue - Epic Wrap Up

Well, I hit the WALL over the weekend. Just like the last two camps, I had just enough juice to get through the final day and then that was it. So my hundred hour fortnight will have to wait. That’s probably a good thing. If I had set it this time then I might have been tempted to beat it when I ride across the USA. As it stands now, the Baron and I will give it a shot in late April/early May when we have re-established our aerobics.

So I have a few insights that popped out of this camp. Not sure how many are relevant to the majority of triathletes. This type of training is really only appropriate for the most experienced and strong athletes (constitutionally and mentally). If you have a weakness then a 12-day crash cycle will certainly point it out.

Tapering – I was amazed at how well the crew raced. All of us were at the tail end of the biggest training week of the last five months (and some of us our lives). We broke every rule that week (hard running, downhill running, frequent high lactate efforts... you name it). Despite this there were a number of fantastic performances (mine certainly wasn’t one of them!). It appears that the younger, stronger IM athletes are more durable over the short term. My own experience this past summer with resting more after C-priority events than before would also bear this out.

Training Performance When Fatigued – I think all of us had some excellent training results on days when we thought that we were quite tired. Baron beat me out of the water on the Aquathon and rocked the Half IM on mornings where he probably felt quite tired. I had some life-best swim sets and sparks of decent cycling performance.

Incentives – Incentives work. We set up a pretty complicated points system that rewarded a range of activities. We gave swimming a much higher scoring level than in previous camps and, behold, we had the best swim training results of any of the previous camps. With myself, my personal goal of beating 84 hours for the camp was a big motivator and I probably logged an extra 15-20 hours because of it.

Stressors – We were all subject to a range of stressors: change in diet; change in sleep patterns; travel; training intensity; training volume; exposure to unexpected germs. Even with four highly dedicated staff handling all our cooking, cleaning, shopping, packing, unpacking... we were each barely hanging on at times.

Training Through – Just like Colorado, I was amazed at the ability of the crew to train through fatigue. We all experienced times where we likely would have stayed in bed. Some of us did! But most of the crew simply kept on trucking. One of the tenets of Epic Camp is personal responsibility and there were times when I wanted to tell people that they might do a little better if they simply backed off. It will be interesting to see how the crew bounce back over the coming weeks. Certainly, with myself, I’ll be interested to see what happens. This has been a good dry-run for my planned Desert Hell Camp in September.

Fatigue – What really shells us? Looking at the crew, it appears that the greatest fatigue is generated from the eccentric loading/muscular damage associated with long downhill runs as well as the anaerobic fatigue caused by sustained maximal efforts. Once we were into the camp, the heart rates seen at maximal effort were reduced (likely due to muscular fatigue). So, I think that it’s important to realize that it is possible for a fatigued athlete to be further shelling themselves at heart rate levels that would appear moderate in a rested state.

Mental State – Something that I’ve noticed over the camps is that the gains, and weaknesses, most exposed by these camps are on the mental side. An athlete needs a deep love of endurance training to deal with the challenges presented by these kinds of training experiences. Like Kevin Purcell likes to say, “I could tell you about it but even if you understood, you wouldn’t believe me.”

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So what’s next? Well, Scott and I built up the game plan for Epic Kona on the flight back from the North Island. Here’s a rough outline of the key sessions. If you give us about 48-hours then we’ll have the Kona Page updated...

Training Structure
Day One – Long Run, Queen K
Day Two – Long Ride, Kailua-Kona to Volcano
Day Three – Moderate Run, Volcano & Long Ride back to Kailua-Kona
Day Four – Aquathon
Day Five – Long Ride, IM Hawaii Bike Course
Day Six – Easy Day
Day Seven – Open Water Swim Race (AM) & 10K Running Race (PM)
Day Eight – Long Ride, IM Hawaii Bike Course
Day Nine – Easy Day
Day Ten – Strength Ride, Big Gear Work, Kailua-Kona to Waikoloa (return)
Day Eleven – Easy Day
Day Twelve – Swim, Bike, Run Session – Sprint and Olympic Distance Options

Each athlete will be able to shorten or modify these key sessions to suit their personal training needs. Sag support will be provided on all rides. Epic Kona is a race preparation camp so the overall goal will be post-camp race performance NOT drilling ourselves silly for two weeks!

In addition to the workouts scheduled above, we will be arranging supplemental training sessions that can be attended at the athlete’s option.

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My personal game plan for February is to take another four easy days (I’ve had three already). So that will be seven easy days following my 12-day crash cycle. Last year, I didn’t rest enough following Epic NZ and I feel like my final preparations were compromised. So this time, an unprecedented “easy week” will be followed by a reduced-volume (for me) cycle of race specific work. That race specific cycle will last about three weeks ending about ten days out from race day.

My easy week won’t be totally easy – I’ll be swimming normally and doing a 1:40 long run in the hills. I won’t be doing any long rides and will trim down my volume and frequency.

To give you an idea of my standard week:

Monday

• Swim Squad – 1:40
• Strength (Lower Body and Core)
• Run easy to steady, one hour
• Bike easy to steady, two hours in the hills
• Yoga

• Swim Squad – 1:40
• Run easy to steady, seventy five minutes
• Strength and CP30 Bike, three to four hours in the flats
• Massage

• Long Run – vary terrain and duration, by week (Hills 1:40, Zofingen Champions Loop 2:30 hills, New Brighton Loop 2:15 flat, Bottle Lake Loop 1:15 flat)
• Spin to/from Gym, one hour
• Strength (Swim Specific, Upper Body and Core)
• Easy Swim, up to 30 minutes

• Repeat Monday with Aquathon instead of Yoga
• Possibly Shorten or Eliminate Ride if fatigued

• Swim Squad – warm-up, 1K mod-hard to hard pace with wetsuit then aquathon simulations
• Strength (Lower Body and Core)
• Bike easy, duration based on fatigue – possibly just to/from swim/gym
• Massage

• Swim Squad, LT/VO2 100s
• Ride Five Hours in the flats with sustained steady to mod-hard as well as big gear work
• Run an hour easy in the evening

• Run easy to steady sixty to seventy-five minutes

• Swim – soak up as much mod-hard to hard swimming as possible
• Bike – build specific power and endurance at race and slightly over race effort
• Run – add a little bit of faster work on the flats
• Nutrition – follow strict g-guidelines to trim down

Thanks for reading,
g-man

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