niigata training camp

Just back from a fun-filled booze-filled training camp at Andrew’s place….

Saturday was a rest day of sorts. Enjoying watching Sean and Luke riding their bikes and playing in the park on a warm sunny afternoon. Hideko cooked a wonderful dinner as always and Andrew and I had our first beer session in a good few months.

Sunday, 545 start to meet Kei in Yahiko village at 630. 9 degrees means we ride fast just to keep warm. 615 in Yahiko and Kei is ready to go. Today’s menu? 3 climbs of Yahiko.

Climb 1: Yahiko village climb.

This was supposed to be a warm up. As usual it starts off nice and easy but once the gradient picks up, the pace picks up, race mode. Once I got a gap on Andrew on the steep hairpins, it was foot to the metal all the way to the top. With about 1 km to go I met Nozaki san. He was up for a sprint, which made a good finish to the climb.

Climb 2: the steep side.

This time we planned to ride tempo to the hairpins and attack each other from there on up the climb. Nozaki san set a good pace up to the hairpins though, so we were going pretty hard from the bottom. Once in the hairpins I tried to up the pace. Dropping gears though the curves to get as much speed out as possible. Heart rate was 180 plus all the way. A rest day always pays dividends. I managed to creep away gradually. Full gas. Andrew not far behind at the summit.

Climb 3: Nozomi climb.

Three climbs is always tough. I took it relatively easy up to the gate. I upped it on the long steep drag. Nozaki san was hanging on my wheel. Another dig through the steep hairpins but I couldn’t shake him off. With about 2 km to go he came on to the front. I sat on. Waiting, waiting. He opened the sprint on the last two ramps up to the finish. I had the legs to ride over his sprint and had a good gap at the top. Happy with my top end speed. Recent interval sessions seem to be paying off.

Back to Andrew’s place. A late breakfast. Play in the garden. And off to the onsen near Kei’s place for lunch. Beautiful scenery as we leave Niigata and head into the hills around Kamo. A great onsen too. The beers were flowing once again, this time courtesy of Kei.

Beer > Bike > Beer is what Andrew calls it. Not a bad triathlon this weekend!

Sunday's training: Yahiko x 3 (83 km, 1600 m climbing)