I admit I’m pretty lucky to be sitting here in La Santa reception once again. As I crossed the island by taxi I realised that the coming week means I’ve spent 10% of the year on Lanzarote! Not the most exciting fact, but I enjoy working out how long I spend away from home. Don’t get me wrong I like home and have come to realise I achieve some of my most consistent and best training back in the UK. But when you’re offered the chance to get an extra week’s training in the wind and hills of Lanza who could resist?
Obviously not me especially when in the fortunate position that I can drop things at a moments notice to fly off to warmer climes. Thanks have to go to Roger for the unexpected invite, hopefully we’ll get some good work done together this week. Also thanks to the guys at Tri2O Centre who had no problem managing without me (should I be worried!) Not that I’ve been slacking at home, but I intend to make the most of the next seven days.
Even after two years of it I forget how tiring travel is. Especially when your budget precludes staying in a hotel over night at Gatwick. I killed time drinking badly made coffee in Costa. I have been very disappointed by the standard of barista back home. Milk is poured into the espresso for most coffees, latte macchiato is the only exception that comes to mind. It’s just lazy and thoughtless to do it any other way! Sorry, I digress, but these things matter.
Following a lot of training last week I decided I should be careful not to push things too hard before arriving here. Better to come into a training camp with the energy to make the most of it. Of course trying to balance this with other goals proves more challenging. After all I can’t completely slack off running if I want to hit around 110km this week.
Sometimes it’s more important to listen to your body than focus on distance goals. Monday was easy, Tuesday contained a particularly hard session and Wednesday should have been easy, but long. When Steven sent me a text to bail on the long ride I wasn’t disappointed, I felt knackered! With relief my plans for Tuesday grew easier and easier until all I did was a 9K run shortly before leaving for the airport.
Even then the level of fatigue I felt at that point was remarkable. I’d gone to bed a bit later than I should, slept very well, but still needed more. Definitely not moving in the right direction recovery-wise which was a little concerning with the impending camp. I have to admit I ran for two reasons the desire not to log a zero day and the need to keep on top of the run target.
I couldn’t quite let that one go! My legs really didn’t enjoy it for the first four or five kilometres and it took resolve to resist taking a shortcut. Right on cue, twenty-five minutes into the run I started to feel good. Enough that it seemed absurd I’d wanted to call things short in fact I could do more if I liked. On a good run day I feel great straight out the door, on a bad run day I still seem to come good in the end. Admittedly it did require a proper easy pace a good ten to twenty seconds per kilometre slower than usual.
I’m still in the run game, but have a challenge in front of me with 75km more to do in the next three days. I know I can manage that, but have to factor in that I’m at La Santa and have all these wonderful facilities for swimming and biking. I want to achieve that mileage whilst training hard in the other sports as well. You’ll find out how that one goes by the end of the week.
Skimming the plan for the next seven days is quite exciting. I’m not sure how well I will handle this load, but it’s such a great opportunity to test myself and push just a little bit harder. I really feel I’m working towards being in my best racing shape yet.
Ironman Training Library
From nutrition to pacing - a collection of CoachCox blog posts focused specifically on Ironman training and racing.
