Last session in the heat chamber

Debbie's last session in the heat chamber

Nick's last session in the heat chamber

The whole team sweating in the chamber and at this point still laughing..

Last session
After many hours in the heat chamber at 35 degrees (Celcius) and 70% humidity, this was finally the last session. I had been doing more or less the same thing every time I had gone into the heat chamber so I could see progress. This time, however, there was no progress... my legs were just too tired after two weeks of very hard training. Also my swim session earlier that day (4200 meters) seemed to be taking its toll.

I had been doing these sessions with Debbie Southwood and Nick Horton for the last few weeks. Both Debbie and Nick had the same goal. Debbie qualified for Hawaii by winning her age group at Ironman France and Nick qualified in the exotic location of St Croix. We have spent quite a few hours the last few weeks sweating together in this hotbox. Typically the session would start with a lot of chatting but after 30 min or so the conversation would dry up, our heads would be down and the floor would slowly convert into a lake.

Nick was the record holder. He managed to sweat over 3 L/h, I followed closely with 2.6 L/h and Debbie managed to gain weight on one occasion...! I think that means that we will be in a lot more trouble than Debbie in Hawaii...

The photos here are all taken by Francois Li who is also preparing for a long distance triathlon in Elba in two weeks time. More heat chamber photos by Francois can be found here. Thanks Francois for this and good luck in Elba!

A couple more days before I leave to Hawaii. I have to pack my suit case and my bike box. Packing the bike is always good fun... fortunately I have a bike box that makes this really easy. I will report on this at a later stage.