EC FR06 - Day 2 Jeff Shilt

Epic France Day 2

Chalet d` Solour

Swim 3k
Run 2 hours (~22k)
Bike 95 k

We started off the day with a swim this morning in a pool in Lourdes. Met the reigning 50-54 Kona Champ…the guy apparently ran ~ 3hours. Amazing.

The boys had a little surprise for us following the swim. We did a 12k run back up the mountain to the Chalet d` Solour…what a killer. I actually felt decent and against my better judgment, decided to “add-on”. I went for 2 hours and covered very little ground. When you are up in the mountains every run downhill is matched by an uphill, so choosing your course wisely is important. Unfortunately you eventually have to go down at some point.

The views were amazing!! We are surrounded by small villages and the mountainside is littered with livestock of every shape and size. I’ve not usually had to worry much about cow dung on my bike shoes, but this is certainly a concern here.

We headed off on an “easy” bike ride today. This was basically a circular route back to the Chalet. We got lost (this is becoming a pattern when Molina is leading the pack), but it was well worth it. We passed by a few castles and – can I say it again- the views were amazing!

As most people who know me well know that I have very little power which results in poor climbing and no sprinting ability. This is really exposed when I ride with cyclists who do a lot of surging and any climbing. So this is one of the reasons that I came to camp-to hopefully improve some of the climbing.

The perspective from the back of the pack goes like this: you can typically keep it rolling on the long climbs when the pitch is 6-7%. However, I really start crawling at 8-9%. We’ve hit some 11 & 12% average kilometers which is really a struggle. (Worth a note here: it is really cool in that all of the climbs have a sign every kilometer that tells you how far to the top, how much more altitude gain you have left, what the grade is for the next kilometer) The signs really give you something to look forward to as your climbing.

I was just in front of the sweep vehicle today. I hope this has more to do with my long run than a prediction for tomorrow.

The evening was fun-I was interviewed for the podcast that John Newsome and Bevan do. You can find them on www.ironmantalk.com I look forward to hearing more of these when I get back to the states.

Random thoughts…Mike Montgomery is a beast…that guy can ride a bike unbelievingly well. Colm (Cierran Cassidy’s son) is strong as an ox. I don’t think he has been out of the big ring yet…I pledged that we teach him how to speak English instead of the Irish dialect he has before the end of the trip. Been great to have Jonathon along this trip…certainly hope he moves back to NC.

SRM :
4:13:42 ride time
Power average 125
Speed 13.7 mph
Mileage 58.5
HR data not picking up. Will try and adjust, but probably avg 130. Kind of tricky to figure out the meaning b/c the descents and flats are easy. The climbs are hard and I can’t really produce enough power to get my HR up.

J