#TeamTCUK QoM and AG-winning triathlete, Jo Sutton, headed to Morzine at the beginning of June with several of her TCUK team mates for our annual training camp in the stunning town of Morzine in the French Alps. Verdict? She'll be back for more next year!

I hadn’t planned on going on two triathlon holidays this year but with feet just seconds on the ground following from Team TCUK’s trip to Lanzarote earlier in the year, I found myself booking onto TCUK’s Morzine training camp with Buzz Performance in June.

I had also decided it would be a good idea to race the Coniston Trail half marathon the day before flying out. It was not! Barely able to walk, I stumbled onto the plane to France the following day trying hard to pretend my legs felt fine and would hold up for the next 5 days.

We landed in Geneva in the evening and made the hour-long transfer to the chalet in Morzine. I have been out several times to Morzine before by myself but this time I was looking forward to being with a team group. After some food, we soon hit the deck to get a well earned rest before the next five days training.

The chalet – La Ferme à Mamy – was incredible, I loved it. With a huge downstairs living and dining area, bike room and super cosy upstairs bedrooms with ensuites, it was a great place to come back to after a hard day’s training to chill out (not that we did a great deal of that!)

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We took the following morning pretty leisurely; with the Joux Verte closed we instead cycled up to Avoriaz to enjoy the epic views from the top. We grabbed a coffee (hot chocolate for me!) from the café and soaked up the sunshine. We also had an amazing cake waiting for us back at the chalet when we returned, bonus!

Later that day, we swam in the local pool in Morzine, just ten minutes walk from the chalet. This is such a great centre and we had a couple of lanes rented out. Later on in the season they do open up the outdoor pool which, with the view of the mountains and up to Avoriaz, has got to be my favourite place to swim. There’s some great running around Morzine (more of this later) but we finished the day with a light 5km run. In fact, I take it back, after running a hilly half marathon two days earlier, this was far from leisurely, my legs were ruined. Sorry Matt!

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With a decent size group of 10 or so of us everyone was arriving at different times but by the end of the first day the whole team had arrived. We caught up over dinner and having Joe and Amelia from Buzz Performance made for great banter with everyone. The food was incredible, Bogsey can vouch for that (or at least the Hollandaise sauce!!) With cereals, baguettes, croissants and cooked breakfast options to sandwiches and cakes for lunch and 3-course evening meals with wine and beer, we were certainly fuelled well for our epic training days.

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For me, the best thing about Morzine is the cycling and the hills. There are so many cols to choose from whether it’s staying local and heading over Col d’Encrenaz and obviously on to Ramaz, or going further afield and riding across to Annecy just so we could swim in the lake, you are spoilt for choice.

Often, we would plan our following training the night before, see how people were feeling and what the general thoughts on training were. Towards the end of the week we must all have been feeling brave (or crazy!) but we agreed to do the Col de Joux Plane TWICE! Once from Morzine and, after a brief coffee stop, again from Samoëns. It henceforth became infamously known as the Deux Plane or Déjà Joux Plane, good one Smithy!!

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The Joux Plane is a 10km climb from Morzine and an 11km climb from Samoëns averaging around 8-9% although is harder from Samoëns with some 12 % elevations. As if this weren’t enough we then rode back towards Morzine ‘via’ Mont Caly (another 6km climb) and attempted a brick run at the top with Matt shouting: “this will be good practice for Wimbleball in a couple of weeks time,” which didn’t exactly help my nerves for this upcoming race, ha!

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This made for some epic elevation gains and Strava segments oh, and tired legs!! (obviously the only way to recover from this was a pool swim later in the day which, by the time we got back, was pretty much straight away!). I loved it, yes it was hard, but my legs had finally recovered from my previous race so I was ready to smash them again.

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We ran and swam just as hard as we cycled, with Lac Montriand too cold in June to swim we went further afield to Lac Annecy and Lake Geneva both perfect temperatures for swimming in and with stunning views it’s not hard to don the wetsuit and jump in. The riverside paths are great for running on, keeping the runs flatter, while on our longer run we headed up to Lac Montriand for a hilly trail run up and around the lake. The weather was very kind to us while we were there, with only one drenching while doing hill sprints (on the bike) up to Avoriaz, we stayed dry and warm the rest of the time.

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The week came and went so fast, I knew it would. Everyone was “buzzing” from the week’s training (sorry just couldn’t resist getting that in!) but before I knew it, it was time to fly home and put the training into practice during my next race Wimbleball Half Ironman which, my days, needed a bit of grin and bare it!

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Thanks so much to Buzz Performance for hosting us, we all had a fab time and will be back for more! Thanks also to Triathlon Coaching UK and Matt for beasting me up those climbs. Bring on the rest of the season!