Quad Camp Day 5

Another glorious day at Llyn Gwynant. I didn’t manage to sleep at all but that’s nothing unusual. I therefore busied myself in the morning with some washing up and then breakfast in the van. The cuckoos were calling from 4:30am and soon the sun was rising.

The plan for today was a full on Quadrathlon. Apparently there was a choice of routes and distances. A short option, a middle option and an option for me! However, my legs were in agony from my run up and down Snowdon and I wasn’t really feeling like any heroics today. I therefore planned to do the longest swim option and then see how things went from there.

Quad Time

We set up an informal transition area in front of the campers lined up for a few photos and then got in the water for the start. No one really seemed that enthusiastic.

Informal Transition

I headed off in the front and soon lost sight of everyone else. I have to admit that it did cross my mind that maybe it was all an elaborate joke. Maybe they’d set us off, left me to it while everyone else just got back out and headed to the pub. I wouldn’t have known if they had and might have done the whole thing oblivious to the fact that I was the only one doing it.

Swim

Despite doing the longer swim option I think I was still first out of the water as all the bikes seemed to still be there. Maybe they were all actually at the pub, or more likely all laughing at me from inside Jeans van. Nope, it was OK I looked out over the lake and could just about make out a few heads still swimming. 1350 yards in 18:30. Not too bad.

Bike

I got out of my wetsuit, doned my helmet, shades and shoes and jumped on my bike. I couldn’t get my right foot clipped in though. I tried a few times but it wouldn’t engage. I stopped, got off, took a look at both pedal and shoe and could see nothing wrong so I tried again. Still no joy so I’d have to do the ride without clipping in. I headed off towards Beddgelert, turned around and then made my way back. I passed Donna, and Jeff and saw Lance and Jean going in the opposite direction. At least they were out here with me. I turned around again at the car park at the end of the lake and headed towards Beddgelert again. I ended up doing three such laps to take my total cycle up to around 15 miles. The others did a little less than this. As I headed back to the campsite into the wind I noticed that the lake was looking quite choppy. The kayak could be fun.

Kayak

Transition 2 into the kayak was fairly chilled and I soon joined the others out on the water. The first lap was a little choppy at times but not too bad. The second lap was much choppier with some nice white caps at the far end of the lake. I could at times see Jean, Lance and John on the lake. They seemed to be struggling a little with the chop here and there. 

I did three laps of the lake in the end which was around 4.5 miles. I think most other people did 1 or two laps. I did the extra one just to put off the inevitable run that was still to come. With 3 laps done and no one else on the water though I could put it off no longer so got off the water and dragged my sore legs out onto the run.

Run

Every step was painful, uphill was OK, but downhill was agony.  I sensibly opted for the shorter of the runs which was only 2.5 miles long so soon found myself back at he campsite. Job done.

I have to admit that I quite enjoyed it. It might have been painful but the times didn’t matter so everything was laid back and easy going. I didn’t have to go as fast as I could which was nice and that meant I had time to actually enjoy the actual process. I’m not sure that it made me look forward to the Brigg Quadrathlon next weekend though. Maybe I should just take it easy and enjoy that as well. It’s a proper race though, and the World Championships so something tells me it’ll be harder, faster and I know for a fact that it’s longer. Hopefully I’ll be going into it slightly less fatigued though.

Recovery

Back at the camp it was time for M&M’s, chocolate milk a shower and a chill. 

The afternoon sun was hot, the lake was sparkling and all was good with the world. Good that is if I could ignore the soreness in my legs!

I didn’t do much else today. Time for some rest and recuperation. I’m hoping that Anna will be able to join me this weekend. It’ll be nice to see her, nice to show her around the campsite and nice to spend a night or two camping with her. Who knows, I might even convince her to go for a swim in the lake.

I’m not sure if it’ll happen though. The weather looks as though it might turn tomorrow. Whilst it’s idyllic here in the hot, dry, still, sunny weather we’ve had so far, it might be a different story in the wind and rain. I think I’ll try to phone her from the payphone tonight to see if she has a plan yet.

Oh yeah, I was upstaged today as well. When I ran up Snowdon the other day I briefly contemplated turning around and doing it a second time. Today, someone did exactly that, only he did actually do it twice and he did it with a fridge on his back – smartass!

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.