9th March 2019
Arrived in Paphos. Long day.
Got up at 6am, didn’t feel like eating so just had a coffee and sat watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager for an hour before getting ready to leave.
Felt a bit disappointed when I did set off as Tracey had come down to see me off but by the time, I’d reversed the car and was driving up the street she’d gone back to the house. When we’ve had other visitors, we’ll wave them off and wait until they’ve driven out of sight before going back to the house. I, at least, expected her to do the same for me.
The trip to Bristol airport was uneventful and I got there with plenty of time, which was good, because after checking in and weighing my bags I was honest enough with the airline staff about the CO2 cartridges I had in my hand luggage. For the next 20 to 30 minutes they tried to figure out how many I could take in my hand luggage and in the end it came down to how many security would allow through, which turned out to be 2.
The fast track security took a bit longer than when I’ve been through normal security as they went through my bag, unpacked it, rescanned it and the contents and even did swabs on it. I even had to go through a scanner myself and be checked, because of the finger armour I was wearing, I think. Thank goodness I wasn’t pre-surgery or that could have been interesting.
The flight was delayed taking off by about an hour and apart from some turbulence was uneventful. Looking out the window at various times I could see snow capped mountains through the clouds at times as we flew across Europe. At one point, jet travelling in the other direction, rocketed across the sky in the distance.
As the sun began to set, I noticed that some of the clouds took on a red glow, not the normal sunset glow because the colour seemed to be isolated to spots.
One thing I learned travelling was that when I go to Finland it should be a lot easier because I’ll only need the minimum amount of sports kit, pretty much just race kit, and not the amount I’m brought with me this time. That should make life a bit easier.
Check-in at the Aliathon was nice and easy. I’ve not got an apartment like last year with a separate bedroom., This time it’s more of a studio apartment with the bed in the living area. It’s perfectly fine for my needs.
We went out for a meal at a fish restaurant and I got to meet Julian and the others. Rob and Fiona are here so I’ve got some people I know already. I’ve also got to meet two of the others. I’m getting the feeling that I’m going to be the least experienced triathlete of the group again this year but that’s fine. I’m not here to compete against anyone, I’m here to get some intensive training in and then take part in next weekend’s race and get an idea of where I am with regards to my training and racing.
Yesterday was a tough day in some respects. When I got up, I found myself regretting my decision to come. I felt slightly sick, so I didn’t want anything to eat. If I could have justified pulling out of the week, I probably would have done but I couldn’t.
Even travelling to the airport, I found myself thinking about pulling out, but I’d spent to much, I’d told too many people what I was doing, it would have been too hard to pull out and have to explain to people.
I think part of the reason I felt that way is because I mentally and emotionally I’m still recovering from losing Rhys and I feel more comfortable in an environment I know. Coming to the training camp last year was exciting but was also part of the plan to achieve what I’d set out to do. This year more of a precursor to racing next weekend, but I’m more aware of what I’m doing and being more sensible about it, so I didn’t need to do the week. I didn’t need to race at Ayia Napa next weekend. I could have carried on training at home and gone to work this week.
But I need the downtime. I need the break. I need the chance to build up my strength before things get a little bit hectic again and I’m juggling work commitments and triathlon training.
On the way out I was reading Brene Brown’s book Braving the Wilderness. In it she describes how she uses post-it notes to write down things she’s giving herself permission to do. I don’t have any post-it notes so I’ve started a Word document that I can write down the things I give myself permission to do.
My first entry is:
I give myself permission to have fun in Cyprus for the next week and a half. Chilling, training and racing.
And that’s what I’m going to try and do.
March 10th 2019
Day 2 in Paphos, Cyprus. Last day before the training camp starts.
Most of this morning was spent putting my bike back together. Although it wasn’t too difficult a job, there were a few hiccups.
First, I couldn’t find the screw that holds the handlebars to the stem. I knew I’d put it in the bike box but it had been loose so I wasn’t sure if it had fallen out at home or if it might have fallen out because someone had opened my bike box in transit. In the end it was neither, it had fallen out when I opened the box in my room. Phew!
Putting the bike back together was simple enough but then I hit the second issue, snapping the tire valve when pumping up the rear tyre. Grr! With only two spare inner tubes with my I had to use one of them up. Hopefully I won’t need to use up my other spare, although the support vehicle has plenty so if I do run into any problems, I can use one of those.
This afternoon I wandered into Paphos. Like last year I took my camera and took lots of photographs. Not as many as last year, but I was more focussed on what I was looking for this time. Cats and things like cans and plastic bottles. I got plenty of both and think I have enough photos of beer cans and other items that I can complete my still life exercise.
Walking back to the hotel I stopped off at the church I visited last year. After praying briefly, I lit a candle for Rhys. This is beginning to be an annual event, although I’m not sure I’ll be lighting one every year in Paphos.
The last part of the afternoon was spent taking the bike out for a ride to make sure that it was OK. It was, although I think I stopped the bike computer half way through the ride by mistake.
The rest of the evening was spent in the pub watching the Ireland v France rugby match and then meeting up with everyone for a meal.
Tomorrow training starts in earnest. It should be an interesting week.
March 11th 2019
Cycling, cycling and more cycling.
Today started off with bike time trial session. Up and down the dual carriageway. I remember it from last year. However, Perry remembered me and offered me the chance to do a harder session involving intervals of easy and mad cycling. Of course, I had to accept the challenge. I want to try and push myself this week and see how much I’ve improved. 19 miles later and I had my answer. I’m a lot stronger on the bike than I was last year.
The rest of the morning passed restfully. Breakfast then back to the room to chill and relax lying on the bed.
This afternoon was another bike ride, we hadn’t been able to do a pool session because it’s a bank holiday and the pool wasn’t available.
Our route took us out to Aphrodite’s Rock, a place we cycled out to last year. Although I eventually found myself dropping away from the rest of the group, I was only a couple of minutes after them arriving. I’m sure that was a lot better than last year.
On our return I allowed everyone to get a head start on the downhill section and then made my own way back, at my own pace. Quite a lot quicker than last year too I’m sure. My cycling has come along a long way in 12 months.
In the end the second bike session saw me covering just over 30 miles. In total 50 miles of cycling in a day, 6 miles short of what I’ll be doing at Ayia Napa next weekend.
Today has been a really tiring one. Tomorrow may be an easier one, I certainly won’t be covering as much distance. Swim first thing, followed by a session at the athletic track, and maybe something else later in the day.
Whatever happens with training this week and the race on Sunday I’m going to be going back home with ideas for things I need to work on.
12th March 2019
Today started off with a swim session. Water was a bit cold when you first go in but you very quickly didn’t notice it, unless of course you hit a particularly warm or cold section.
The pool is 50 metres long, double the length of my local pool so it was a bit more of a challenge to swim each length. Like last year we were doing easy and mad, swimming with a pull buoy for the entire session.
My swimming has improved but it could better, so I’m going to have to start trying to get in additional sessions when I get back home, maybe even do the Saturday morning swim at Oxley as well as the Tuesday night swim, and then fit in an extra two sessions. Whatever it takes so that I can get my swim time down and give me a bit more of a chance with the bike and run legs.
Getting back to the hotel it was breakfast time. Although the selection available wasn’t as good as it would have been at the start of the day there was enough for me after I’d had fruit, bacon, eggs, beans, some mushrooms sausages.
Certainly enough to fuel the second session of the day.
I remember the track session from last year and I’m sure that it wasn’t as hard as it was this time. Non-stop running, even for the easy parts. Bends and straights, easy on the bends, flat out on the straights. Four laps like that, then two easy laps. Do that twice and then four easy laps to finish.
I managed the warm up and both sets of bends and straights but when it came to the last four laps I was out of time and everybody was finishing the session. If I’d not stopped so long to get a drink after the main part of the session, I’d have got a couple of extra laps in.
The last session of the day was a recovery run. I decided I’d go and run on my own so I could set my own pace. My route was the same as our first early run at the camp last year and took me to the harbour at Paphos. Stopping at a point that I would be able to remember if I come out for training camps in the future, I took a short breather before heading back.
Dinner was vegetarian sushi, eaten with chopsticks and very filling. I even found myself trying a few other things, calamari heads as well as a few other things I wasn’t sure of. It’s funny but it’s really easy to eat things when you don’t know what they are.
It was a hard day and the first since I’ve been here where I didn’t have more than one Keo, instead returning to the apartment and getting an early night.
