Sunday, January 19, 2014

Checking in from Mallorca

Buenos dias amigas y amigos! It's the second rest day of our training camp here in Mallorca after another good three-day training block. We have one more three-day block to go, then it is home to Girona for me. The camp has been good thus far. We came straight here from the team presentation, which I guess means I basically came straight here from the USA because I went directly to the team launch from Brevard. In any case, it was super nice to finally arrive here after what felt like 3-4 days straight of traveling. I'm not sure how my teammates from farther than the USA (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Colombia) do it! Chapeau to them.

I suppose chronologically I'll update you on the team launch first. It was a good night/event to send us off into 2014. It took place at the indoor velodrome next door to the famous outdoor velodrome where Paris-Roubaix finishes. The venue was perfect. We had great attendance, a sold out 1000-1500 people I believe. The presentation itself was pretty fun, too. I don't envy my teammates who had to stand on stage from the start though because by the time the five different groups were introduced and assembled, I suspect they stood there for the better part of an hour or maybe more. The introductions involved riding a couple laps on the velodrome with your group, which was a neat experience. Then it was up onto the stage, a few questions, and then onto the next group. There were a couple VIP hours before and after the presentation, so I had some fun interactions with fans. A small bus ride for the "Mallorca" group after the presentation and we arrived at the hotel next to the Brussels airport to catch our fight the next morning. We had two other groups as well: the Australia group and the Argentina group, each going to those respective races.

Upon our mid-afternoon arrival in Mallorca, we had a small lunch, some of us went for a light ride, while others relaxed, and then it was dinner before we got things started in earnest the following days. The next two training days were already quite solid. Evidently they were a little bit too much for me, too because I ended up coming down with something the next night/early morning. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. I tried to do the ride for the day, but decided (very wisely in hindsight) to turn back. When I got back, which seemed to take forever in my miserable state, I immediately went to my bed where I slept for the next 2.5hrs until my roommate got back. With a little analysis from the doctor, we decided we better move my roomy (Jasper Stuyven) out in order to avoid him catching whatever I evidently had. That night I began to get some chills and body aches. My fever went up to 39'C/102'F, so I thought for sure I was headed down a bad road. I was having deja vu to my training camps of the past. It seems to be a tradition of mine to get sick at at least one of the training camps. I did my best not to worry and hoped I could fight anything worse off. Thankfully I slept like a baby that night and I woke up in the morning feeling much better. I've slowly progressed to feeling back to my normal self.

During this last training block, we'll have some more solid work. I believe we'll do 5-6, 4, and 7 hours respectively. I will have to do some lactate testing that I missed while I was sick, too. I'm interested to see how my testing compares to my numbers from last year, as well as my numbers from December. It is a slightly different protocol though, so they might not give me the same results. Some comparison will be interesting nonetheless.

Another large part of this camp for me has been working on my TT position. I spent the better part of one day at the velodrome here in Palma working with the aero gurus from Trek, along with some other experts in the field who are working with Trek/the team. I believe it was quite productive. If anything, it was interesting! Whatever technology they're using can calculate all sorts of numbers and figures that mostly mean nothing to me, but they mean a lot to them, which is what is beneficial to me because they can relay it to me! We'll have to see how it all pans out in the TTs I have lined up for this season. It was my first time riding on the track, too, so that was a neat experience. It took me a few laps to get the feel of things and get enough gumption to test the banking a good bit, but I did get pretty comfortable by the end of it all.

I believe that might be all for now. Stay in tune for more updates as the season gets rolling. Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

KyleJ said...

Hope your fit was more aero than Jordans! https://twitter.com/TrekJordan

What is your first race?