From the fire fields of Timafia to the spainish mountainous region of Orihuela costa.
La Zenia Spain became the perfect backdrop for my final block of warm weather training before the 2017 season kicks off…and what a block of great work with solid positive young and fun athletes. They say your the product of the people you share your time with.. never more true.
GOALS for this block was to get in a final bulk of long climbs and endurance miles in before heading to do battle at the World Cup ultra Race across Italy at the end of the month (april29th) & Yet keeping in touch with long run miles & tack on some solid sea swims, all combinations required for the next Ironman 70.3 barcalona on may 21st and following on & beyond to the great white goddess of K2 in Pakistan later in the summer. PMI positive mental attitude or brain training a critical and undertrained leathal weapon in this world of endurance, finding those colours smells and feelings banking them firmly in my head for use when needed on those deeperdarker days. CHALLENGES to achieve what i feel is needed & required to hone those final corners in that life stone yet not push the conditioning over the edge undoing previous good work. NUTRITION & HYDRATION having the opportunity to finalise my race & recovery fuel for the non stop Italy race.. checking it against warm weather conditions with high risk dehydration due to heavy sweats in long warm exposure. CLOTHING in receipt of next clothing it was an opportunity to test new shorts helmets hoka runners along with mechanical parts thrown into to the jigsaw establishing good workable solutions & comfort levels…make sense “hopefully”.
Well the weather lived up to its forecast with beautiful blistering hot days, perfectly pushing those cold wet Irish winter conditions id endured to the back of my mind, if not only for a few days. Running & swimming by the sea and taking on the classic stages of the Vuelta grand tour cycling race, life just couldn’t get any better. Well in fact it could because for the first time ever two of my kids followed in my footsteps taking on there very own training camp.
We shared stories each night laughing at the good bad and ugly parts of our day, it was heart warming and a reminder of my early sporting days and how in front of my eyes sporting life was going full circle, it felt magical. Ohhh and it was great to get them away from that daily grind of the internet snapchat facebook and a million social platforms thats zoomed around each day. Billy & kate joined forces with the family camp of Sean Mc Fadden with a wonderful Mix of runners bikers swimmers & triathletes.
Just a week before heading out I’d taken a stupid fall down a flight of steps at work, my right ankle knee & hip taking a battering swelling up and having a huge loss in range of movement id thought not only was the ability to attend camp goosed but the season along with it..rest rest rest. And with rest & at the hands of my Physio we achieved amazing speedy results enough to let me get back safely & effectivly training…could the years training be saved.
With perfect conditions, I was able to tack together some great biking in the wonderful mountainous enviorment of sierra espuna if fact it worked out perfectly with 1050km 34.5hrs of bike time Combined with some ironman training with 3 x half marathons & 4 x 3km sea swims, what had looked a grim start turned out brilliantly .. and best of all finished the block fresh fuelled and positively charged to face the season with a feeling of the work is done & let’s press play.
An outstanding moment over my time here was peroidicly having the opportunity to train with some Very talented young athletes with serious potential and with continued focus determination and guidendance will do extremely well in giving a great account of themselves in sport.
To camp organisers Sean & Irene Mc Fadden a huge thank you on doing a terrific job. To Noel o Mahoney oriheura costa cycling for his professional cycling daily route guiding and the fellow athletes thank you for allowing me share your week… it was wonderful.
Thank you to Renault Ireland (highland motors) Velo revolution ,Voodoo performance & Bubblegum & diesel for there continued support in 2017 season.
TIME FOR THE EASTER EGGS, rest & race.
Life always offers you a second chance.. it’s called TOMORRO…take it
Jason
