Day 6

Phew! Another big day for the guys and gals. We swam bright and early for 3000m. Scott wrote a program for us which made the meters fly by. We are doing 50 LCM swims. Great stuff. I love long course. Post swim we had breakfast before heading out on the bike.

We started a little earlier than normal -- 9:45am this morning. The ride had some steep prolonged climbing - about 16k at the 60 kilometer mark into the ride. Some of the crew descended the back side and came back up another 9k. I did not. The solid climbing irritated my knee a bit after one of my stronger efforts on the bike and higher HR readings. I played it safe, trimming my ride by 18k. About half the camp did the same. I ended up with 152k and 5:48 saddle time. Followed that with a 50min run. So for Day 6 -- 1hr swim // 5:48 bike and 50min run -- about 7:40 on th day.

Each day there are points for KOMs (King Of the Mountains) on designated climbs. Points are accumulated by the first folks up to a specified summit. The competition among the strongest riders can be fierce. Today was no exception. One of the highlights of the first six days of camp occurred today when Molina put the wood to the entire camp over the top of the first 16k climb. When he picks a spot to give an impressive effort he can bring it. He was throwing bee bees today and was unhittable. Scott reached the summit firswt about 2min ahead of The Baron (Clas). Putting that in perspective -- it's HUGE. His effort was a kick in the pants -- although not suprising. He went into the ride focused and (I suspect) confident. It is one of his favorite hills in New Zealand and defense of the home field probably squeezed out some adrenaline and BOOM!

After six days I have logged 35hrs in the saddle // 18,200 meters in the pool // and 250minutes running. That's over 45hrs of training and there's a day left in this week. Should easily clear 50hrs tomorrow for the week. I am feeling good mentally, feeling good physically and looking forward to the second half of the camp.

See Yaaa