Chinese New Year "Vacation"

For this years Chinese New Year holiday I decided to do something different.  Nope, no beaches, no adventuring to a new and undiscovered place.  In fact I decided to go back to someplace I've been a few times but this time to do something totally different.

Where and what?  I went to Phuket, Thailand to a triathlon training academy to swim, bike and run for 10 days!  While I don't regret it one bit and I plan to go back again in the future, I can guarantee that when I go back it will be in shape, not starting to get in shape!  Wow it hurt!

Here is a link to Thanyapura (difficult at best to pronounce!)...
http://www.thanyapura.com/tslc/tslc-academies/triathlon

The coach that runs it, Jurgen Zach, is described as a "legend" in the triathlon community, having won numerous Ironman races in his time.  The cool thing is he not only leads the workouts, he joins in and participates as well.

Over about 10 days of training I got about the following distances in...
Swim - 18.3k
Bike - 323.5k
Run - 38.5k

This kind of says it all.  First sign is the British Swimming National Sprint Team, the other a swimming team from China.  I guess this isn't just for slackers like me!

500m track, that kicked my butt!

Unbelievable 50m pool with the mountains in the background.  Highly motivating!

They literally have to hose down the pool at night to keep the temps cool.

Cool view near sunset

So what was in store for me?  Basically a group regime was sent out on Sunday nights showing us the workouts for the week.  Given some people live/train there year-round and others come for shorter periods there was activity everyday.  Generally speaking the week starting on Monday is just a swim and as the week progresses it gets more and more intense/challenging, finishing with a 110k ride and run off the bike.

Time for the morning swim...

Nope not a simple set at all!

On the morning of Valentine's Day one of the Pro Women brought roses for all the coaches before the ride.

Rest stop and time for some refueling of fruits, pastries and caffeine during our 110k ride in the heat!

Post workout, not much is better than a fresh mango/banana smoothy!

I loved the options the hotel had in case of a fire.

Great flowers and landscaping around the resort as is expected given it it Thailand.

A smoothy and this little pad was great for some afternoon sleep.

More hotel decorations

I saw this rare "double rainbow" one evening and went searching for the pot of gold.  Had I found it, I doubt I would have left Thailand, but alas no luck.

 

Overall I absolutely loved it and learned a lot.  There were the hiccups of course.  Day one I had a bike malfunction when my pedal came off the crank, thanks to the crank being stripped out.  I was about 45k from the hotel and had to find a taxi to take me back.  Another time I was involved in a crash with another person from Shanghai ironically.  However that ended much better for me than for her.  I didn't hit the ground but she did as she hit me from the back on a turn and skidded to a stop.  Other than that it was all a fun pain and suffering.