EC 2007 days 7 & 8 (Dave C's blog)

Day 7

First week at EC is over. Looking back over the log is a bit scary. Just over 50 hours in total -6.5 hours swimming, 7.5 hours running and an eye-watering 36.5 hours on the bike. Around 1,050km riding. WAY over twice my previous max. weekly bike volume. Still well short of Mike M though, who has done around 1,000 miles!

At what cost? Well, the body sure is hurting. They say that, in week two, the battle is as much mental as physical. I think I’m just starting to see the changeover. But I’m in good company. In fact, a couple of the lads have been injured and have missed the odd day or two.

If I had to put a number on it, I’d say today was at least 30% harder for me than yesterday (hopefully not the start of a trend). We did a nice 3k swim, point-to-point, in a nearby lake. With a southerly supposedly on the way, we wanted to get going on the bike early, to avoid a head wind into Haast. For me, it was pretty much a 160k TT.

The hills started soon after Franz Josef, and that broke up the group. The first 70 minutes was all hills and that sure took its toll on me. Having to sustain 300-350w efforts on shelled legs is tough going. The best decision I made all day was to put my ego aside, not try to stay with the group I was with, and do the ride at my own pace. Mentally, that made the ride tougher but, physically, it was the right thing to do. Stats for my ride – 5:42, 191w AP, 214w NP, h/r 124 bpm. Still a solid ride given the last 6 days.

My 10k brick run was not what you would call a quality session. But I got through it ok. My goals for the remainder of the camp are (1) to complete all the sessions, (2) not to nuke myself trying to hang on to the rockstars, and (3) to retain my sense of humour.

Day 8

EC has really altered your sense of perspective when a 5:30 ride and 750m/5k aquathon seems like an easy day. But today seemed (relatively) easy.

For a start, we finally left the We(s)t Coast and bid adieu to the sandflies that have bugged us (pun intended) for the last few days. Once again, it was raining when we left Haast but, by the time we got over the Pass, the sun came out. KOM points were on the line for the climb over the pass. Bevan took the honours there. Scott D and I decided to opt out of the madness and took time to take in some great scenery during the day. There were times when we were TTing on long, straight sections of well-sealed road, tailwind assisting, 50+ kph, sun on our backs and I thought to myself "this is more like it". We got to ride a section of Saturday's Quelle Challenge race towards the end of the ride. Ride stats - 5:24, 160km, 189w AP, 211w NP, h/r 125 (very similar to y/day).

The aquathon was part of the build-up for the race. The EC team dominated, with Gordo taking line honours. Lake was a heck of a lot warmer than expected. I can leave behind the neoprene cap on Saturday.

A beer after the race, pizza for dinner at our motel overlooking the Lake, massage. Suddenly EC has become, dare I say it, almost enjoyable. But if there's one thing I've learned in the last week it's that you never know how the next day at EC will treat you.