Epic France Day 10 - Activities Day!!!

Day 10 – Activities Day!!! In Font Romeau

A few notes from yesterday first……….
A few tired folks around yesterday:
Mike Peters was truly trashed. He was worried for his own safety when riding solo back to Font Romeau as he thought he might wander out into the road like one of those RAAM guys and get munched. He did swim in the morning and then DID run 1:40 to get some points but then he DNF’d the Aquathon and rode home solo zombie style. One pooped camper.
Ed McDevitt thought he was having an asthma attack at the beginning of the Aquathon. Turns out it was really an anxiety attack! But he pulled the pin and sat on the beach for a while before re-grouping and got his running shoes on to run a bit.
Mike Montgomery lost about 5 minutes in the swim in the Aquathon. Normally he wouldn’t even lose that much to me in an IM swim and this time I wasn’t even swimming decent.

Today is our only really easy day of the camp. We’ve traditionally had an activities day at the end of the camp but logistically it is much easier to have it here in Font Romeau so we had it today.
Its just a fun day where we get to do some sports very dis-similar to IM training.
We do score points for all events, but we’ve reduced the over-al impact of the days points so as to not affect the over-all points significantly. Having said that a stellar effort on activities day may get some one a podium spot for the camp points competition! So competition is bound to be fierce!

The pool events are 400IM (a Tom Dolan), 200 kick and 50 freestyle.
Other events are push-ups to failure, 1500m run up a ski hill (steep!), 4km gradual uphill TT on the bike, mini-golf and perhaps one or two other events Johnno can think up today.

In the swim events Ken Wallace from NY showed a bit of spark to take out the 50m f/s in 28.3. Where the hell did that come from??? Turns out he used to be a 50m f/s and 100m fly specialist before triathlon.
Monica took out the 400IM comfortably in 5:59 which was a very impressive effort. She used to swim it a minute faster in college but she’s pretty shelled having turned up to the camp having had about a month off after IM Brazil. I’d like to say for the record that I got a very clear 2nd!
Most of the guys here don’t have a strong history in swimming so it was a bit of a struggle for them to get through the IM and kick.

After breakfast we met for the push-ups and run up the ski hill.
Ed McDevitt had a max Bench Press of 395lbs in college and once did 20 reps with 245 so he was the hot favorite to take out the push-ups and he didn’t disappoint. But push-ups at 6,000ft is an endurance event! I managed a respectable 54 which was a hell of a lot better than I did at the Aussie Epic so I was pleased my last 4 months as a gym rat payed off for something.
Racing up a ski run is always hard but in our state of fatigue it was downright cruel! Colm took it out hard as 20-year olds are prone to do but once he hit max Hrate about 2 minutes into it I was able to gradually pull away to hit the top just in front of G-Man with Mike M 3rd. I think every one else was just happy to get to the top at all. Gravity is clearly evident on a ski hill.
So a pretty good morning for the old guy having totally whupped G’s ass in the 400 IM, the 50 f/s, the push-ups and the mountain run! Without the silly 200 kick it would have been a total shut-out for the morning! And who the hell really needs to have a good kick anyway………. J
And I’ve out-blogged him by miles while keeping my heavy schedule of social responsibilities on the camp! HA! Since Gordo isn’t writing up a blog you’ll just have to accept my version of how things went on this camp……..
We did a standing long jump after the swim events. Several guys went over 2 meters which I thought was pretty impressive.

I immediately jogged down the hill back to the training center but most of the others went looking for super support crew Ian's young Lewis (age 14) who was taking part in the uphill run and got lost taking a short cut through the forest. He ended up doing about 10km in the mountains but eventually found his way back.
After a nap and lunch we headed out to the track to do a run with your bike for 400m (like you do in a very long transition......) ansd the guys showed a good turn of speed. I didn't!
Then we headed up to a dead end ski road to do the uphill 4km TT which turned out a little harder than advertised. I scored another victory for the old guys with Mike M a close second at 14 seconds back and the G-Man taking 3rd 30 seconds back and just in front of young Colm. With just the mini-golf left to go it was a close battle for the activities day champion! We have some pretty good golfers here but mini golf is more luck than anything. It must be since I did OK. Mike M and I ended in a tie for first for today and so he leads G-Man by a few points in the over-all hunt for the camp yellow jersey with 2 days to go.

We then went out for pizza and beer and some sugary treats and every one looked pretty damn tired. Most went back to their rooms for a nap before dinner and then right back to bed.

The weather has closed in again and its looking pretty gloomy and wet for our ride to St. Girons tomorrow. There's 2 passes on the route tomorrow and from this side Col du Puymorens is a biggie. I think its about 155km to get to our hotel so its going to be a long day in the saddle regardless of the weather. Most people will swim and then run before heading out at 9am for the first group and about 9:30am for the rest of us.
I'm hoping once people get rolling again they'll start to perk up. Although we did 3 all out events of between 6 and 12 minutes today there was a hell of a lot of eating! so most people should have a full tank for the day to begin with even if they're tired.