Training camp complete...with my perception of a long ride completely skewed

This year I was back for my fifth year at the annual training camp at Ocean Shores. With a significant cycling focus, a lot of pain has been dealt to Queensland athletes over the years along the roads of the northern NSW hinterland. Along with the pain comes a lot of laughs and good memories. People have come and gone, but the hills are still as steep and the banter will always continue. As you may have seen in my previous post, I was rooming with 3 ‘cool house’ guys, where I most definitely copped the brunt of their banter :) 

We eased into the camp with a ride which was actually my longest cycle for the year. After tearing my calf in September I was really cautious with my running and cycling after taking some time off, so the increase in volume on the bike was a bit of a shock to the system. Making sure I got on top of the tightness in my legs, I felt as though I improved throughout the camp and finished quite strongly. During the course of the two weeks we were lucky enough to have Sara Carrigan come in a couple of times and help us out with a hill rep set and then join Emma and I on a 3 hour ride. Sara is obviously incredibly talented and knowledgeable but also extremely personable which makes you really want to listen and learn. 

Today we had a mammoth ride from Ocean Shores through to Murwillumbah, up the back side of Tomewin to pass through into Queensland. Taking a ‘back way’ through some more hills, we finally turned on to the coast road for about 30km into a headwind/crosswind back home. The wind was blocked by about 4 sets of boys in front of me, but with my legs slowly fading away and mentally drained from being on the road for so long, I was happy to get off the saddle. With some baking done yesterday by Wilson and myself, the choc-chilly cookies and rock cakes was the flavour of the day and definitely got me through. Completing my longest ever ride without any problems was a good way to finish my 2 weeks at camp. Back into training on the Gold Coast tomorrow, although of course there is time to spend with family and friends during this festive season.

Good luck to those at camp backing up today with 5hours on the bike tomorrow ;) ouch.

Merry Christmas everyone!