English
I hope everyone enjoyed the abundance of bank holidays we have had over the past 2 weeks. I headed out to Nice with The Dutchman and a training programme that made my eyes water just reading it. The beginning of the break we didn’t have such great weather (unlike the UK!) so I spent some time in the local 50m pool trying to work out the French etiquette when it comes to lane swimming. Unlike my local pool where there are signs for fast, medium and slow, in Nice they had lanes dedicated to using equipment (fins, pool buoy, paddles etc) and those without. Anyone of any speed just gets in a lane and you work with it which was fine by me!
I don’t usually swim in a pool when in Nice, opting instead to take advantage of the warmer water and swim in the sea which is very doable between April and October, however the wind was whipping up the waves and the torrential rain wasn’t really making it appealing to come back to a soggy towel on the beach so pool it was. I did manage to make it out for a swim in my 2XU wetsuit and the first few minutes were ‘refreshing’ making the hands and feet tingle.
Thankfully it was only 1 full day of rain and scattered showers over a few other days that we managed to avoid on the bike. We did some great rides into the mountains and did some of my favourite climbs and rides, Col de Braus being one of them. We climbed the winding 10km road to the top where I did have a few spots of rain but kept going hoping it would be better over the other side of the mountain. The bad weather was moving in and heading towards me with 2km to the top so I really pushed hard to the top. I quickly slipped on my rain jacket and got into my top gear to race the storm of thunder, lightning and rain that was chasing me down the 12km descent into Sospel. Great fun and once again made me appreciate the superb handling of the Focus Cayo which takes super tight turns through the switchbacks and responds brilliantly, a must on tricky mountain descents!
Every day I was away, bar 1 rest day, was focused on training and really trying to build strength and fitness across all 3 disciplines without the distractions of work and normal life. It certainly isn’t hard to push yourself to go out riding when you can be riding in the Alps within 15 minutes of leaving Nice. I have a favourite ride leaving Nice and going up to Aspermont which involves a 10km climb, but never too steep so you can really get a good pace going and doesn’t have many cars on it. I was using it to do all sorts of different hill repeats including 15 minutes, 1km and 5 minutes depending on that days programme. I am sure the locals were starting to get used to the red faced girl huffing and puffing in the orange Wiggle top passing by! Most bike sessions were finished off with a quick transition into my running gear and then out the door for a 30 min hard run, often again just doing hill repeats to truly punish the legs!
Nice hosted race 1 of the French Grand Prix triathlon series which saw the Promenade closed down and thousands of people to come and watch. I went out for a ride in the mountains and got back in time to see the men’s race kick off. It was really fantastic racing and was a huge field of pros which ended up split out across the course once the top guys starting turning up the heat on the bike. It was very inspiring and impressive watching the race to see how fast those guys move and the gap that Alistair Brownlee managed to open up on the pack in the run. Really cool seeing Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee take 1st and 2nd place respectively in the race. I am really looking forward to seeing what those 2 very talented young men can do in London next year.
The great thing about going to Nice so regularly to train is that I have come to know the roads better than those I train on here in the UK. As such, my friend Claire who runs Cycle Cote D’Azur asked me to lead a ride out for two visiting triathletes which I did with great pleasure. The next best thing about riding around Nice, is sharing it with others! Claire operates out of Nice in partnership with Emma Davies who I had the opportunity to get to know a bit better this trip. Emma has an impressive track record including representing Britain at 2 Olympic Games (2000 and 2004) along with multiple National titles across her pro career. Emma and Claire have a great business going in Nice providing guided rides and local knowledge to visiting cyclists and triathletes, They especially encourage women to ride with them, something I am also passionate about as cycling can sometimes be very ‘blokey’ and a bit intimidating.
So, into a well deserved recovery week for me this week and back into the swing of things fitting training around work, something I am sure you all know about!
Happy training.
Cx
