Epic Woman Camp - Kona 2011
This year from April 16 through April 23 I was fortunate enough to attend Epic Woman Camp in Kona, HI. Based on the Epic Camps put on by Gordo Byrn and Scott Molina in New Zealand and other locations, Tara Norton (an Epic Camper with the men), now a coach in Toronto, decided to launch an Epic version for women only. The inaugural camp was last year in Tucson.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, the idea is to come together with a set of like minded people to push the absolute limits of what you think you can do. The camp is fully supported - people cook for you, provide van support out on the roads, do your laundry, and provide massages! No spouses, no kids, no jobs, no interruptions - just swim, bike, and run. It is also a competition with points for every swim, bike, and run completed, for every day completed, for KOM, for swim TTs, bike TTs, run TTs, swim sets, etc., etc.
We were 8 women ranging in age from early 30s to early 50s - 4 young 'uns and 4 oldies (I was an oldie). All but one of us has done several IM races, 2 of us had raced on the Big Island before, all were in the 11:00 - 13:00 range (except our fearless leader Tara who is a sub-10 gal and the one woman who has not done an IM but will likely race pro at IMLP this year.) Over the course of the week we cycled approximately 900K, ran 75K, and swam 20K.
The week started with a pretty typical day: head down to Dig Me Beach for a 3K ocean swim; back for 2nd breakfast, and then hop on the bikes. The first day was out the Queen K, then right at the T-junction at Kwaihae to Waimea where we all collected and then raced up the 4 mile climb for our first KOM competition. Finished the ride back to town along the upper highway with 150K on the dial. Quick change of shoes and out onto Ali'i Drive for a 10K run. Each day was a new bike route - but always LOTS of climbing - and a new competition thrown in. If it wasn't a KOM climb for points, it was a swim TT, or a 5K run race, or, as on the last day, Hawaiian State Championships 40K TT on the bike!
The ladies and 2 of our support crew guys lining up before the start of the 40K TT.
Thursday brought my day of reckoning. Up until that time, the camp had been hard, but it had been doable. I had even earned the nickname "Schleck" given my climbing abilities and the size of my legs. But Thursday was the wall. It was where the line got drawn. After 45K of riding up the Queen K, we turned inland and began the ascent to Mauna Kea, the "other" volcano on the island. After a lunch stop after an original 16 miles of climbing, we had another 9 to do to get over the Saddle Road. We had been told it was a series of rollers to get out there, some of which were quite steep. Given I had been climbing in my lowest gear most of the last hour before lunch, I wasn't too thrilled. But off I went. Turned out these weren't rollers - they were stairs! They just went up and up and up!
It was hot. I was dripping sweat. I had to remove my sunglasses because the streams of sweat meant I could no longer see. I prayed for a downhill. I was fixated on the cars coming towards me - were they possibly tilted upward as they crested the hill ahead of me, signalling a downhill? Twice I had to unclip at the side of the road, willing my legs to stop shaking and give myself a stern talking to. I climbed from one road reflector to the next. I willed myself from mile marker to mile marker. I was fixated on the road ahead, squinting into the distance to try to discern the hint of green that signalled the next mile marker. I just needed to get 90K done to get the day's completion points. I needed to get to Mile 44. I finally got there, tears filling my eyes. But where was the sag wagon? Come on! I rode another mile. Oh please let it be there. Maybe my ability to do math had been compromised by my exhaustion? Still no sag wagon. I rode a bit further and suddenly there it was - below me, WAY below me. The mother of all downhills awaited me. New bottle, some food, some caffeine. Yay!
Leaving after 8 days of this kind of experience left me a changed person. New friends, lots of shared experiences, some good, some bad, all epic! Learned a lot about myself and what a group of like-minded women can encourage each other to develop and do together. I hope I can do it again next year!
You can check out all our blog entries for the week here: http://epicwomancamp.com/blog/
Thanks for reading.
---Ann.
Comments
I'd be interested in knowing what a previous "big week" would be for you? How many hours did you put in during camp? Oh yeah, I'd love to hear the average daily calorie count, must have been very impressive
Luckily, Rich told me that I would be fine with the OS training in my legs and the couple of weeks of HIM work that I had done. He was totally right!
Hours put in during the camp? Not sure, but most days we would start about 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning and not be finished our day until 5:00 or 5:30. Daily calorie count was certainly large, but honestly, I couldn't eat enough. We would generally eat 2 breakfasts, but lunch was not a huge meal as we were usually out on the road somewhere in the middle of one of these monster bike rides. You can only eat so much before having to get back on the bike and climb yet another hill! By dinner time we were generally exhausted and it was all I could do to eat what was on my plate and then fall into bed. My roommate was waking up in the middle of the night and eating she was so hungry - Clif Bars, nuts, granola. I slept the sleep of the dead! I find myself catching up this week.
---Ann.
just noticed your location! I lived in Ottawa / Toronto for many years. An epic event like that without any outdoor riding before hand is very impressive. Maybe when my kids are old and out of the house, I'll try something like that. Very cool.
Lynne