Every Day Training Camp - Day 2 - Ice creams and mountain goats

Every Day Training camp, day two: A swim session with entering/leaving the water drills (and a race!), a long day in the saddle with a lot of climbing, and a nice steady run.

We all started by a fun little session from the beach. The idea was to do a 25m out and back around a buoy by teams of two, paired after an initial flat out test from a mass start on the beach. It was close to reproduce and ironman start! Lots of pushing and shoving! Not on the same scale of course, but a nice washing machine around the buoy. Although some didn’t get the rules fully, and therefore had to do an extra lap, everyone had a ball, much to the bemusement of passers by, who had no idea what our group of rubber clad athletes was doing. Sweet and short, but quite funny. The run back up to the hotel didn’t feel as hard today, which was nice. There should be some good footage of this race later on the Every Day Training blog

As mentioned in the briefing this evening, the ride today was the second hardest after the ful IM course we’ll do on Thursday. And we all felt it! 2000m of ascent in 140Km, The donkey track out of Puerto del Carmen, the climb to Teguise, the meaty bit: Orzola to Mirador del Rio, Haria to its mirador through the switchbacks, and then the return from La Santa. Some stiff legs on the way back, and a fair bit of wind as well. Perfect Lanzarote. Some did feel it more than others today, but they’ll be back for more tomorrow I’m sure. That’s what camp is about: getting to and over your limits.

I had my go pro with me all day and filmed a few things along the way. I think I must have looked like a right goof with the camera on my head and my helmet completely sideways but hey, we’re here for some fun too! The hotel wifi is so rubbish that I’ll have to upload them when I’m back, which should give me a it of time to edit them as well.

The “fast” group today didn’t manage to catch the supposedly “slower” one before the top og Haria, which meant there was also a lot of good riding done up front!

I have to admit, the brick-sized sugar cake and coffee at the top of Haria was very welcome. Buzzing like crazy after that, but lovely stop. I also kept half my sandwich to eat at La Santa while some of the others had their bikes repaired, some quite extensively!

The return after La Santa was a little bit less enjoyeable as it was basically a long climb all the way back to and then a relatively short climb through Conil and the donkey track.

Top all that action packed day with 1h run along the seafront (and the dreaded climb back up afterwards), and you’ve got all the ingredients for a tired VERY hungry athletes who hapily raided the hotel restaurant :-)

Thanks Sarah for massage and the nudge about “getting acquaitned with my foam roller”. I’ll try to get on it more often. I don’t like knots either!!!

Tired now, I need some sleep: tomorrow, there’s an aqauthlon and that one will hurt!!

Today's stats for me

• Swim: 800m (only, but crazy sprinting)
• Bike: 140Km, 2000m ascent
• Run: 1h, 12.3Km.