The year 2012 kicked off on a very high note. This year’s A Priority race are all to be held on a hilly course. My coach, Dermot Galea (Malta Triathlon Champion and level 3 British Triathlon Coach), assigned me a 4 day training Camp in Gozo. Following my coaches’ quote “you train for the race”. Gozo was the perfect option!
The first day of the training camp started with a 4.5km swim session at the MFA Ta’Qali pool, with club teammate Barry Farrugia. The session’s main focus was on Muscular Endurance. After we went to Gozo and settled ourselves in a flat at Qbajjar. We had a 50mins hilly run from Qbajjar to Victoria and back in the afternoon, followed by a 1hr Core work session. After the session, Barry had to take his daily treat, “panina bil - jam” with coffee. In the evening we went out for dinner, in a restaurant at Marsalforn.
The second day was the hardest day of the camp. Barry and I had a 4hr Hilly Long Ride. I covered 100km and it was really tough. After an Hour of warm up, we went to Xaghra and covered 10 laps of the Xaghra Circuit. This circuit was used to be part of the cycling championship and for the tour of Malta. I always stayed on the big ring including the Xaghra hill and covered 10l laps in 1hr 45mins at a steady pace.
At this point everything was fine (including the nutrition), however I decided to climb the Qbajjar hill. A very tough hill with instances at 20% and after that climbed the Dwejra hill. During the last 45mins I just had to survive and pray. It was nice to see Chef barry preparing food as I was starving, and not surprised seeing him eating his daily treat. Guess what? … ‘il panina bil-jam’. In the evening had an hour hilly run. My Legs were dead but was pleased that managed to keep my heart rate in the zone. I Ran from Qbajjar to Cittadella and back. A very nice route!
The third day was very difficult due to very bad weather. It was very windy and It was very dangerous to go out. In fact I was very close to be hit straight in the head by 2 pallets. Thank God nothing happened. I still continued the run and just prayed to arrive back to the flat safe. We had a bike session in the afternoon with some spin ups. Barry and I decided to do the session inside. It was a good choice that we had the turbo trainers with us. In the evening we had a hilly long run but coach Galea changed our schedule and we did another core work session due to very bad weather.
The fourth day started with a gentle easy bike session in the morning. Chef Barry cooked some pasta and we packed our stuff to return to Malta. However we had our coach waiting for us at the pool for a 4.2km Endurance Session. The day after I took part in the MAAA Qawra Road Running Race. I classified in 11th Place, in a time of 36.20 for 10.3km. Unofficial time for 10km would be 35.40. It’s a very impressive time considering the amount of training and hills done. It seems that everything is good as planned and the new training system is working.
I would like to thank Coach Dermot for his Kosovo training and advices during the camp, Ms Johanna Calleja for the nutrition plans especially for the one specific for the camp and last but not least a big thanks you to club teammate Barry Farrugia. Really enjoyed training with you mate.
That’s all for now
Yours in Sport
Keith
No comments:
Post a Comment