France 08

THE BASE- MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME…….

For the past two years, I have moved my training base for Kona, THE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPS, from boulder Colorado to DOMAIN DU ROUZET in Belveze Du Razes, in the South of France. This is actually the Triathlon NZ high performance European Base and Wow, everyday I wake up and I have to pinch myself to see, really is this all real.

The camp is incredible; it is run by Mark Watson (Mr. Excellence), who everyday pushes us all to Strive for excellence. Excellent training, and excellent preparation, should ultimately end with excellent delivery.  This being for me, in Kona, Hawaii October 11^th. for the World Ironman Championships.

Every morning the alarm goes, beep beep beep,  at 6:30 a.m. With enough time to get out off bed, make a cup of coffee and down to the vans for a 20 minutes drive to The  Mirepoix Piscine, the local swimming pool. The drive is just beautiful, in the distance the Pyrenees are just getting the first glimpse of light and they welcome us for many different rides, most of these rides have been ridden by all the legends of the Tour of France. Names such as; Rasmussen, Vino, and Lance Armstrong are sprayed on the pavement, which is a constant reminder that these hills are not gentle, these hills are step and long, and can go on and on forever.  But with the biggest reward at the top, you can see pretty much all of France. These rides are very important for my mental and spiritual preparation for Ironman. They can make you feel like Superwomen or they can make you feel like a human.

Back to the journey to the pool, where Mark Bone my coach back in New Zealand sends us the program and Mark Watson makes the magic happen every morning; he keeps us motivated for the next 90 minutes smelling excellence for each set we do. Many of these swims, I work on autopilot, I just let my subconscious take control and my imagination drives each swim stroke. Even on the odd occasion, I manage to throw in a butterfly set, without sinking.

Once showered and changed it is sometimes a quick visit to the local patisserie for some freshly baked, croissants, pain au chocolate, pain au raisins, and the list can go on and on.  Even the fresh baguette is sometimes too hot to handle, as it has only just come out of the oven. 

After the bakery visit, I had better get into some training, so sometimes we leave right from here.  If it is a run, I have two of my favorites runs, which are on the way home from the pool.  It is at this awesome lake, called MONTBEL, it just happens to be a 16km loop around.  It is very similar to running in the forest in Rotorua, so it is a great reminder of home.  It is very challenging, as the terrain is forever changing, and this is great for my core strength and focusing on my technique.  Always keeping me on my toes.  The other run is directly from the pool/bakery and it was discovered by Cam Brown.  It is called the GR7 and it travels pretty much the whole distance of France.  We could run to PARIS if we wanted.  Actually after I retire from Ironman I would love to do this trail with my husband Armando and maybe we make it all the way to Paris on a mountain bike. 

The other runs from the base are awesome too.  Every day we run in and around the fields of grapevines and sunflowers.  We run from mini town to mini town, where we can find little fountains of fresh crisp cold water running from the city plazas.  The only down fall about running thru these mini towns, is the dogs.  The dogs pretty much roam around free and a lot of them like to chase running athletes.  Not good for some we tired Ironman athletes.  But nothing like forced anaerobic training, once in a while…..

Enough of swim, bike and run.  It is time for me now to get a massage with a good friend of mine, Jo Buick.  I look forward to this session, I am lucky enough to get two massages a week, where Jo works her magic of flushing all the toxins created in training away.  So I am ready and feeling fresh for my next attack on the Pyrenees.

LOVE FROM FRANCE and until my next stop Hawaii!!

JO LAWN