Going to do a slightly different format today because it’s been a while, there’s plenty to cover, but I don’t want to spend ages writing a mammoth post. As for today’s title, we’ll see how much if any is true!
Lanzarote – I’ve been here since Monday and am enjoying it. It’s not as hot as I’d been led to believe, but it is as windy. Some of the road surfaces defy the definition of road. However it’s great for training, you can’t really ride easy here. I’m staying in…
Puerto del Carmen – with Steven and Jo. The hotel isn’t bad really, not the best buffet in the world, but food is food and it’s all included. I find PdC an odd place really, but then the Brits abroad beach and bar life never appealed much. Healthy options can be tougher to come by, especially on a budget.
Leaning up – shortly before I flew out I received some racing advice – “you’ve got to race lean”. Having seen the pictures from Ironman Oz, I took it all on board and lets just say despite the buffet I am very, very hungry! Right now because I rode 100km today, 40km of which were part of an olympic tri. Most days because I eat big at the buffets ad not much else in the day. Surprisingly it’s working – I’m leaning up and not dying on my arse out on the bike.
Speed Wobbles – so far I’ve had two very exciting moments on the bike. By exciting I mean hard to keep calm and on focus as your bike madly vibrates on very fast descents. Initially I thought maybe it was a combination of the rough road, high speed, wind and a 404 up front. Then this morning I tightened up the headset… Hopefully no more stomach churning descents.
Sea Swimming – Steven and I have a plan to swim every morning before brekkie. So far so good, we wander down to the beach and get soem time in the sea. Jo had a 90 minute session the other day which proved interesting. To get the time in we tried swimming round the headland which with strong currents proved more of a challenge than expected. We didn’t make it this time, but will possibly try again.
Long run/No water – I was very pleased to get a solid long run in this week. I can’t claim it was perfect, I took no water planning to do loops. Then I realised I could run all the way to Arricife on the coastline and it was too good to resist. End result was 2:20 in the sun with no fluids. Had I been better hydrated before hand it would have been fine. I was a little bit desperate by the end though. However it reassured me that it really isn’t that hot here for running.
Volcano Triathlon – entered shortly before I flew out a quick race in the build up to the Ironman. Really quite fun even with the added challenge of riding there and back. I’m fairly happy with how the race went. My swim was OK, my bike started badly then I picked up and took a lot of places back. The run was OK, felt like hard work even though the time was just over 40 minutes. That has to be a tough course, that’s way too slow!
The kindness of race directors – have to mention that as Jo and I were riding to La Santa with all our race kit the race director pulled up and very kindly took it over for us. Made quite a difference for the final part of the ride.
La Santa – a point of debate on the trip has been La Santa. Cost aside I’m not sure I’d want to stay there. It seems such an odd place with all those athletes about. It’s quite nice relaxing in PdC without the fit and healthy all around!
Lean? Mean? Racing Machine? – all up for debate! I think I’m getting leaner, even with the pain au chocolat on the ride home today (I haven’t eaten that much and I raced – it was a case of eat something or not get home!) Not really that mean, when a guy out sprinted me at the end of the tri, but then missed where the finish line was I pointed it out so he still beat me. In all fairness I couldn’t stick with the surge he was putting in. As for racing machine, well it fitted with the title, I am optimistic for the Ironman.
Time to chill out for an hour or so before dinner. Which means ignoring the hunger pangs!
