I had a few injuries from my hamstrings and a bad cold so I didn't do that much running but my training weekend was still spectacular!!!
Friday
I took a day off work and started to drive down to Lorne at about 12pm. The traffic getting on to the West Gate bridge was the only traffic we had. I arrived down at Lorne at about 2:40pm and I checked into the motel after I dropped Ella (a girl from camp that followed me down to Lorne as she didnt know how to get down there). The motel room was nice and comfortable and well worth paying the $40 extra to stay away from the life saving club.
The first session was a light run - I did about 8km flat run as my hamstrings were still sore from last week's ride so I just ran along the beach. The run was great and I felt really comfortable as I found my rhythm and running mojo. It started to rain which made the run more awesome as I felt like I was such an athlete!
After the run we soaked our legs in the ocean. It was so cold that my whole body was numb so at the end before I headed out I dove into the water and swam around abit. The hot shower at the motel was also an advantage from staying at the dorms.
Saturday
I was placed in Group 2 which meant that we were riding to Apollo Bay and back which is about a 90km round trip. The ride there was good. I took gels every hour and I was riding strong. When we got to Apollo Bay, I only had a powerbar bar and that was it for the ride back. The ride back back was hard work and I didn't eat anything after that. It wasn't the greatest ride as I had a stabbing pain rushing from my knees up to my groin. I could not ride up the hills properly or standing up. My legs ached when I got off the bike. We then soaked our legs again in the sea and because we were late (slower of the people in Group 2), we missed the first part of the info session on running shoes - Saucony. They were talking about minimalist shoes. This is a style of running which I am going into. I need to adapt my running to a forefoot running style using the correct shoes.
I did another easy run as my hamstrings had not improved. It was a 6km or so run followed by another soak in the ocean. I then headed back to the motel to take a shower before heading out for dinner. I had seafood linguini for dinner and it was great! So good after a long day training.
Sunday
Group 2 were to do 90km Apollo Bay and back and another 2km up to Deans Marsh Rd to Benwerrin which is 427m above sea level. The ride to Apollo Bay was great. I got into Apollo Bay in less than 1:45. I had about 500m left to go to Apollo Bay when the faster of the Group 2 were heading back into Lorne which meant that I was not too far behind the fast group. On this second day I felt stronger on the bike and I went up the hills on the large chain ring and only dropped to the small chainring twice! I am not able to have a high cadence on the smaller chainring. As I was comfortable on the larger chainring, I just stayed on it.
Riding into Lorne, I was feeling great. I was not too tired and so I decided to take another gel and rode towards Deans Marsh Rd to go up Benwerrin. The ride up was interesting. It was a steep 11km or so climb with very little "breaks" in between. When I finally reached the top of the hill, I was ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!! I felt such a sense of accomplishment. It was a hard ride up and my mind was also getting bored of riding the same stroke over and over. In my mind I kept repeating to myself "Every Stroke Counts, Every Stroke Counts, Every Stroke Counts..." I turned my legs over counting to those beats in my head and kept positive. I took a (proud) photo of the fact that I rode all the way up the hill which we were all so stressed out about the night before!
JC rode up after I took the photo and then Ollie drove past in Jarrads van. Apparently Ollie's rear gears derailed so he could no longer ride his bike anymore. They asked me if I wanted a lift down and I said "No, I want to ride down as I want to get over 100km on this ride" - I was so proud of the fact that I am about to ride over 100km and doing it on this weekend!
The descent down from the top was not that great - I am not confident coming down as I have a fear of falling off my bike. It took a while and I was so waiting for the end of the hill as I was getting too cold.
When I spoke to Sarah, we mentioned that only about 10 people did Benny's Hill which made me even more proud of my achievements. As I couldn't run, I just stayed in bed to rest before dinner.
For dinner, I had kangaroo which was ok. Went back to the lifesaving club to chill before bed. For Monday I decided to do the ride instead of the run (as I could not run anymore!)
We decided that we will roll out early and do 40km so we can get back in time to check out.
Monday
The recovery ride for Monday was just that - slow. It gave me a chance to take in the scenery rather than just thinking about training and getting from point A to point B.
It took us about 2 hours to ride 40km which was a recovery pace. We then just rushed around to clean up so that we could head back to the club. I rinsed out my bike before the start of the aquathon. Due to my cold, I didn't have to do the aquathon which was good cos I really didn't want to get into my wetsuit.
After the aquathon, it was a BBQ lunch and it was then home time. I remember staying back last year to help to clean up but it didn't look like many people stayed to help. I left about 12:30pm and got back to Melbourne at about 4pm. I decided to indulge myself and got a neck, shoulder, back and arms massage from Southland. The massage was great but my shoulders are still hard - nothing will solve this!
I am so happy that I went to this camp. I can see 12 months of training has really paid off and I have done more than what I did last year. My fitness has definitely improved and I am no longer "just surviving", I am actually feeling that I have advanced plenty.
For the next few days I just have to concentrate on my hamstrings and getting them stronger to be able to run. I have packed for windtrainer but it will depend on the workload and how I am feeling.
So proud of my weekend's achievements!
In total for Lorne:
Ride = 90km + 110km + 40km = 240km (higher than expected)
Run = 8km + 6km = 14km (low but with no regrets)
