Every day for the next 12 days my laptop will pop up a little reminder about the day ahead.
Unfortunately the one thing I cannot do is click ‘Snooze!’
I was awake shortly before 5am (the 8 hour time difference didn’t help at all) and at about 10 past I got up and worked out how to use the coffee machine in the room. Sorted myself out for the early activities on the list and then went downstairs. There I had more coffee, but some lovely Coffees of Hawaii brew, a little bit of food and then at 6:15am we all headed off to the pool.
It was a beautiful morning and the sun was just starting to rise. We ran the long way to the local pool.
The pool is stunning, outdoors, 150 yards long (137 metres each length!) and tasted lovely (not so much chlorine in it). We did a two length warm up and then got ready for a 10 lap race (1370m!). It wasn’t such a bad race, I’ve no idea how I did (somewhere mid-pack I guess). It took me 23:16 (1:42 per 100m, or 6:48 per 400m). Not bad when there’s not many ‘push-offs’.
Following this we just needed to swim to make it up to 3k in total. There was the option to tie an inner tube round your ankles and do 8 lengths ‘band only’ but common sense and a fear of drowning put that idea to bed. Some of the locals clearly weren’t too happy about our mass invasion and swim race!
After the swim we jogged about 2 miles back to the hotel for breakfast and to get ready for todays bike. Probably just over 10k or so of running this morning. My GPS had a hissy-fit this morning so I’ve given it a full reset and from tomorrow it’s gonna play ball, or else.
I won’t go into endless detail about the ride (as I’ll get knackered doing this as the days go on) but will mention a bit. We set off gently as a full group just after 10am. Headed around Stanley Park and then onto the coast road (Marine Drive) before getting onto Highway 99 (Sea to Sky Highway) all the way to Whistler - about 76 miles away.
It was hot. We had a bit of a tailwind which made it feel hotter still and I was getting through drinks bottles like something else. I (and I think a few others) pushed a little too hard in the first hour or so on the highway and paid the price later on. Heading towards Whistler I was getting slower and slower - also partly to do with the amount of climbing during the last 25 miles or so of the ride. There were punctures galore on the ride today. I survived and I’m hoping my new tires will do me good during this trip.
The views were beautiful as we headed into the mountains. The roads are still a bit busy at the moment with quite a few trucks racing past - although there is a reasonable cycle lane beside the road (read: hard shoulder).
It was a relief to get into Whistler and our accommodation - one of the buildings used as part of the Athletes Village during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I’m bloody knackered.
A few of the others did extra miles on the bike or added on an extra run session to get some extra ‘points’ but I happily left them to it!
Dinner is on-site tonight and then an early start on Wednesday for a swim in the lake used for Ironman Canada. And then a run. And then a bike ride…