Introduction: 5 weeks ago I was a medical student bumbling around the hospitals of east-end of London. I was slightly overweight (when I say slightly my nickname was ‘Lurpack’ Leckie) and painfully unfit. So you’re probably wondering how it is that I’ve managed to blag my way on to a training camp with 25 of the best triathletes and duathletes, not only in Great Britain, but also the World without actually zipping up my trisuit and racing in over 12 months. Basically I’m very lucky, I think it would be fair to call 2008 a breakthrough year for me. That year everything coming together and I picked up some pretty decent race results that made me begin to think that I might just possibly have a shot at becoming a professional triathlete. However, there was a slight problem in that I was busy studying medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), an occupation that wasn’t particularly compatible with the training demands of elite triathlon. I sat down and spoke with both the medical school and British Triathlon who were both fantastically supportive, BSMS agreed that I could intermit from my studies from November 2009 and British Triathlon said that I would be placed on the World Class Development Programme for 2009 and 2010.
Sunday (day 1): we arrived at the camp yesterday afternoon and almost immediately jumped in the pool for a 3km relaxed swim or headed out the door for a gentle run to loosen up after the journey and prepare for the week ahead. Joel Filliol is the head coach on this camp, supported by Ben Bright and Rick Velati and this will provide the opportunity for a range of sessions to be run simultaneously in order to meet the variety of needs that are inevitably present in a group of 25 athletes. An introductory meeting followed and then dinner, for which the menu had been expertly prepared by Dr Kevin Currell our nutritionist who was joining us on the camp for the first few days, although once we discovered about his input there was the compulsory supermarket trip to stock up on Milka chocolate to ‘complement’ his menu as bit of sugar and fat rich dirtiness is definitely required at the end of days hard training.
Sunday started with breakfast (not sure if Kevin sanctioned the donuts on offer but they quickly disappeared) and then out on to the bike for a hilly 3hrs. We rolled out of town as big group at a relaxed pace, however once we hit the first hill the intensity appeared and I was unzipping my jersey and doing my best to perfect my poker face as those with frisky legs started to have a bit of fun at the front and make me curse my extra kilograms of winter insulation (it does save on the central heating though). It was all good fun though and the group stayed together throughout with Helen Jenkins looking very easy so maybe it’s just me feeling the squeeze. The big boys including Phil ‘motorbike’ Graves hooked on an extra hour whilst I crawled into bed and prayed to the recovery goods that I would survive the run and swim that was still to come.
I made it to Sunday evening in one piece, however the fun and games didn’t stop there as I had an hour of quality time to spend with our fantastic physio Emma Deakin. Now, Emma’s a genius and possesses some sort of magical ability to banish injuries but her massages are definitely not for the faint hearted, which is obviously a bit of an issue for me, however I do my best to man up and endure her elbows steam rolling my legs despite the sweats, shakes and whimpers of pain as the results really are incredible…just don’t let her find out as I’m not sure we should be encouraging her!
Monday (day 2): a tough swim began the day with the majority of the group cracking into 30x100m….ouch! The ride of the day proved to be truly epic with 2.30hrs of what seemed like constant headwind before a team time trial to finish the ride (I tried to clamber into the safety of the support van and escape but was quickly pushed out and told to stop moaning by Emma and Heather Williams – our performance director). My team consisted of Adam Bowden and Marc Jenkins, unfortunately Jinx wasn’t feeling the magic so the majority of the work was shared between me and Adam however Jinx put in some legend turns to help the team. Considering Adam’s limited riding background he was phenomenally strong and was really making me grit my teeth, leading to a spectacular bonk with 1km and a desperate raid of the support staff’s chocolate stash at the finish line. The dream team of Graves, Clarky, Jonny and Aaron set the standard for the day, with Phil showing us draft legal boys how it’s done.
The afternoon was spent in the gym with Mark Neimz, the strength and conditioning coach, supervising us lifting pathetically small weights and generally demonstrating why we’re all focussing on our weaknesses and spending much more time on strength and conditioning over the winter.
Tuesday (day 3): yet another decent 5km swim set commenced proceedings. The ride today was much lower key with a 2hr spin, everyone took the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and there was plenty of banter in the pack as we rolled round. The day ended with a quality run session, I’m still rehabilitating from medial tibial stress syndrome (aka shin splints) so I was restricted to steadier running on the treadmill and didn’t get involved, which was probably a good thing as it sounds like everyone was flying with Clarky ‘unleashing hell’ at the front.
Wednesday (day 4): A steady treadmill run before breakfast and then we departed on for 4hr ride including some 10km hill climbs. As soon as we left the safety of the hotel the heavens opened and it stayed that way for the entire day, turning it into an epic day in the saddle. There were plenty of attacks on the hills with the Brownlee boys and Phil pushing the pace, I tried to keep it controlled but couldn’t resist trying to hold the wheels and stay with the pack for as long as possible. Dr David Bailey, British Triathlon’s sports scientist/physiologist, was riding with us today and descending like a demon, he got the jump on us on the final descent into the hotel to take the victory making us all look very average.
I managed to crash on the final descent and, whilst I’m the blaming the atrocious conditions, it sounds like it was more of a schoolboy error and distinct lack of talent. Luckily there was no real damage apart from a knock to my hip and shoulder, but more there definitely was a massively dented ego.
Thursday (day 5): hard run and swim today. I swapped the hard run for a hard session on the cross-trainer, possibly the most boring activity on earth but I got a decent effort in and I know it contributes to my running fitness so I just accept it’s not going to be the most fun hour of my life and grin and bear it. The swim was not so much of a success as my injured shoulder went into spasm with the first stroke. Luckily Emma was on hand and within 30mins she had loosened it all off and full mobility had returned and I even got to have some snazzy kinesio tape that I got very excited about…sad I know but triathletes are an odd bunch aren’t we!?
Pete Gardner from the British Athletes Commission speak to us in the evening. He introduced the work of the British Athletes Commission and explained the numerous ways in which they were helping to represent and support elite athletes in Great Britain.
Friday (day 6): all we knew about the swim this morning was that it was a mystery team competition, I turned up to the pool to find my fellow teammates were Kerry Lang and Hollie Avil, who just happen to be two of the best swimmers in triathlon, so I was hoping that they would be able to carry me and we would stand a chance in the relays and drafting races that made up the competition. As it happened the Loughborough-Eastbourne-Scotland massive dominated proceedings, I even found a speedy 100m front crawl in me, that lead Will to declare that the teams were unfair because I hadn’t told anyone I had a some ‘twitch’ in me, I didn’t tell him but it was actually because I was terrified of being shown up by the speedy girls.
Next on the agenda was a 3hr ride and guess what? It was raining and freezing. If nothing else from this camp I’ve learnt that I will never be asking Mark Pearce (our performance manager) for travel advice; “come to Spain Todd, it’s a great chance to get some nice riding in the Sun”…I beg to differ! Anyway it was another quality ride, I don’t think I’ve heard a single person genuinely moan on this camp and we’ve all buckled down and got the job done (Barry Shipley cliché alert). However I was definitely cursing Ben Bright on the final climb of the day, whatever he was on I want some as he had me clinging onto my handlbars for dear life as he pushed on up a brutal 5km climb with it getting even more desperate when Ali and Matt Sharp attacked in the final 1500m and things really got emotional. If anyone’s interested and a bit of a wattage watcher I think I held something like 370 watts (I weigh 77kg) up the 15 min climb
I was also really impressed by Tom Bishop and Josh Daniels throughout our rides, I couldn’t believe these boys were still juniors and yet able to ride so comfortably with athletes who have several years more experience, there’s far too many quality GB athletes around at the moment, at this rate I’ll be retiring and heading back to the safety of university.
Saturday (day 7): the final day. A 3km swim, which felt like 6km started the day before the last big effort of the camp, a repeat of the 20km team time trial. The teams were shuffled around and I found myself with Clarky and the Brownlee brothers, who duly proceeded to rip my legs off as we motored around the course. Every team went quicker and although this was partly due to slightly improved conditions it seemed to show that perhaps we had used our heads and learnt from our experiences, who knows, maybe triathletes aren’t as tactically unaware as everyone thinks.
The camp was wrapped up that evening but not before Will showed us his hilarious video montage that he had created as a camp memento, apparently it might even be making an appearance on youtube, not sure if the world is ready for Aaron Harris’ supreme dance moves though.
Joel commented how impressed he was with how the team had responded to the various adversities that were certainly unexpected (the weather, crashes, sickness bugs) and how the team had rallied and focussed on getting the work done. For me it was great having the team atmosphere and mixing it up with the duathletes who I wouldn’t normally train with (Kat Grimmett, Daves Mitchinson & Roper and Phil Wylie) and this all contributed to us all getting some quality training in, although as Will said to me on the last ride; “it’s important not to celebrate big weeks but instead focus on the consistency of hard work”, wise words for the coming months.
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