BEN WICKHAM'S LES STABLES DAY 2

BEN WICKHAM'S LES STABLES DAY 2

By Booster Apps

BEN WICKHAM'S LES STABLES DAY 2

Ben spent a few days out in France on a training camp. He's produced a diary of how each day went, mixing up cycling, swimming a running. Ben is really upping his game for triathlons for 2018. 

Day two is the first of the run days. Choosing between an 8k or a 12km route to the local market, we set off in intervals to make sure we all hit navigated points at approximate times. This makes the whole thing like a handicap race, so you spend a long time chasing people down. Great fun, and quite frankly as a decent runner, the day I look forward to as I can gun it from the off. I'm out here with some great mates who are also decent runners. They chose to start with me, so game on. 12 glorious kilometres through the French countryside, with barely a car in sight. Perfect weather too. Cool and fresh. I managed to stretch them, then pull away and catch everyone in front of me. Strava says it's the fastest I've ever run this route which is always a plus.

At the end of the run there's a car with a change of clothes and water waiting for us, so we can change and hang out in the market at Brantome. Plenty of food to buy and coffee to drink. I managed to spend 50euros on olives and tapenade. Pro tip: check the price before you load up the bag. My training buddies Michel, Mark and Dwight are usually looking at doing some iron distance race or other, so jump at the chance of a double run, but not today. Everyone jumps in the car to head home, leaving me to change back into run kit and head back on the reverse route. It's pretty fabulous actually. No one to worry about and nothing but scenery to enjoy. I push the pace a little to get some good work in the legs. I'll pay tomorrow on the bike, but hopefully I'll find a wheel to sit on ;)

After a pile of tapenade for lunch (delicious), and a chat with Laurence, an ITU pro who's spending a few days out here with the camp, Mark, who runs the race team affiliated with the camp showed up with some branded kit for the residents. He's asked me to race for them next season, so for me this is kit drop time. I crashed in my last set of Les Stables kit, so getting a full new set is pretty sweet.

Just time for a cheeky Erdinger before swim sets. As I said yesterday, no easy technique work this year. It's hard sets, late in the day. Today was 1500m of sprints. Off the chart intensity, which, off the back of the running, hurt like hell. Lactic acid all over the place. Very glad when this stopped.

As the sun went down we ate risotto outside and drank beer. Then watched athletics and played pool, before going to bed, very early.