A few weeks ago over a post run coffee at Bushy parkrun Sharon was chatting to regular race director Ray and his lovely wife Ann.  It turned out that they were going to Club La Santa in Lanzarote in mid-November for a week.  A few minutes later Sharon, Ray and Ann had decided that it would be a good idea if I tagged along as well to get some good swim/bike/run training in!  Sharon mentioned it to me whilst at the cafe and the seed was sown…

Within a week I had flights booked and I was going to stay as the third person in their apartment.  My work is much more flexible than Sharon’s so I was heading away without her.  The other trusty love of my life who enjoys a good ri…, er… What I mean to say is I also booked my road bike on the fight as well so I can train on that (although there’s well over a hundred bikes at the resort it’s always good to train on what you’ll race on).  40 quid return for the bike on the plane.  Good work Thomas Cook Airlines.  Just sort out the legroom and I’ll be happy (I ended up paying extra for decent legroom seats – although lets not mention that ‘large’ lass sat next to me on the way home who needed a seat belt extension!).

Club La Santa…. If you’re after a beach holiday with endless cocktails by the pool then I’d strongly suggest going somewhere else.  If you want to stay in an environment where you can train to your hearts content and know that there are others doing the same then you’re in the right place.

The days mostly had a general routine to them – a morning warm up (known as ‘morning gymnastics’ in the programme) with about 75 other guests and then a 3, 4 or 5km run. Followed by a bike ride and maybe a swim somewhere in there as well.

The overall aim of this week away was to get some good bike mileage in and also some more swimming.  I’m not a fan of swimming and just see it as something that needs to be done in order to get me onto the bike and run!  I’m a middle of the pack swimmer off of limited training so would just be happy to get a few regular sessions in this week.

My running is in a strange place right now as I have recently got a pain close to my right shin.  Running doesn’t seem to make it worse, or better and prior to going away I had 10 days of zero running and it wasn’t feeling any much better.  I decided to play it by ear (or feel) with regard to my running this week.

So this is what I got up to – partly to show that it wasn’t really a holiday in the lazing-by-the-pool-all-day look of things.

Friday

A 4k easy run followed by my first ride on the island.  Just getting out on my own bike felt fantastic. So much happier than using one of the club bikes here.  I know my bike, I know how to ride it and I am responsible for the brakes, gears, whatever.  It’s also got my lovely power meter on it so I can train better and get some great data out of it at the end when I load my cycle computer data onto a computer.

I had downloaded some bike routes in advance of going away as well as getting a detailed map of the island onto my GPS.  This was a great help if ever I decided to go off of a planned route.

So back to Friday – a solid ride up to the North of the island following part of the Ironman bike course.

Actually it’s pretty difficult not to come across parts of the Ironman course as there aren’t that many main roads on the island.  The climb on the way to Haria was pretty much never ending.  I’d say that it started at Famara beach and just goes on and on (there’s one very small downhill but generally its all up up up).  Looking at my GPS logs the climb took me about an hour and was over 14.5 miles long!  The view at the top is great, but even better than that is the ride down complete with multiple switch-backs on the road (which unfortunately do force you to slow down).  The nearest you get to switchbacks back home is Box Hill in Surrey and this climb eats Box Hill for breakfast!

I then continued riding up to the North of the island which had another climb – a simply stunning one all the way up to Mirador del Rio.  Once at the top (having taken a few photos) the descent to Arrieta was awesome and I clocked over 45mph on the descent. A right turn then takes you onto a long long climb through Tabayesco and then ends up just before the switchbacks outside of Haria which you then have to climb back up.  Nowhere near as much fun as coming down them but plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.  The ride back had plenty of descending which was lovely and I got back to base mid afternoon in time for a swim.  For the power geeks out there my NP for this ride was 247 watts with over 8,700 feet of climbing.  TSS was 310 (VI 1.09).

3km in the pool and I was done!  That’s probably the furthest that I have swum in a long time and although I could go further if I had to, I didn’t and was knackered.  I’ll just do little and often with the swimming this week.

• Totals: 2.5m run, 64.5m bike, 3k swim

Saturday

Saturday started with a parkrun – well, not a real parkrun but a 5km run.  I then took myself back out on the bike for 51 miles which took me down to the south of the island (lovely view and very steep downhill section from Femes), a lovely coastal road through lava fields and then and then back up through the volcanic Timanfaya National Park. Lovely scenery all round.  As soon as I got back to the apartment Ray and Ann were heading out for a little bike ride on their own so I decided to join them.

A couple of easy runs of 4 and 5km on the first two days and I felt happy to get a few more miles in.  We got back to the apartment at about 4:30pm so this gave me 45 minutes to decide whether to run in the 5 or 10k running races that were taking place at 5:15pm. What the heck.  It would make a reasonable brick session, even after a little break.

Race time… I had no plans to really race as I’m just being cautious about my leg at the moment so the plan was to run 5k and if all felt ok then run the second lap and make it 10k.  The course is set that you run a 5k lap (including going across the finish line) and if you want to run the 10k race you just keep going and run a second lap.  I set off and before long found myself comfortably in third place.  Positions don’t mean much here as the standard from week to week varies widely but either way I was running well and pretty comfortably.  It was very windy and as I came onto the running track for the end of the 5k I saw the two chaps who were ahead of me cross the line and stop.  This meant that I had a choice… I could take third place in the 5k or hopefully take first in the 10k.  I think that was an easy decision to make.   The first 5k took 19:22 and I felt very comfortable running this pace.  I then just carried on running with me now in the lead.

Another steady lap and there was no sign of anyone close behind me.  I came back into the stadium with plenty of support from other runners and spectators and crossed the line in a time of 38:50 (just looking back in my records from when I came here in 2007 – we called it a holiday and not a training camp back then – I finished in 39:28).

• Totals: 3.1m run, 66m bike, 6.2m run (10k race)

Sunday

I skipped the morning run and went straight to the pool and did 2k. My shoulders aren’t used to swimming more than once a month!!!

Sunday is market day in Lanzarote so I upped on the bike and rode to the old capital of Teguise to walk round the market and then rode back to La Santa via Famara.

Later in the day I went out for a little mountain bike ride with Ray and Ann and covered about 7 miles.

• Totals: 2k swim, 34m bike

Monday

After the morning warm-up by the pool I decided to join the organised 5k running group.  The group leader lady said to us “I shall run at 5 minutes per kilometre pace. If you all run faster then I shall run faster.”

We set off and after about 2k I had drifted off of the front together with another chap.  We pushed on and had a good little bit of back and forth between us.  An easy run turned into a bit of a speed session!  Oops.

I wanted to get a long ride in today so after breakfast (Alpen rules!) I headed out.  Once again it was very windy but that didn’t matter as I was trying to ride to a fairly constant power output whether into or being followed by the wind.  Back up to the north of the island and then down into the wine growing region of La Geria and back through the volcanic national park to La Santa.

On the way back I managed to come across Ray and Ann who were on a group bike ride so I tagged along for the last 6 or 7 miles (which was at a much gentler pace than the pace that I’d been riding all day).  As we came into the final descent from Tinajo to La Santa the headwind was fierce.  You really had to push hard to get any sort of speed (and it’s all downhill) and the group of riders with me at the front were pushing hard.

I immediately noticed that one of the riders wasn’t keeping a clear gap between himself and the rider in front – his front wheel was overlapping the ride leaders rear wheel.  This is a big no-no in group riding.  I planned to tell the ride leader about this once we’d finished the ride (it was too windy and dangerous to start making hand gestures at this point) so I just pulled right away from the other riders and kept my distance.  I found out later that the riders had been told not to overlap wheels at the pre-ride briefing.

Within less than a minute there was an almighty crash as the man who’d been causing the overlap went tumbling to the ground.  We all stopped as quickly as we could and ran up to him.  He was lying on his back and there was blood all over his head.  He didn’t look good at all.  It turned out that one of the riders in the group was a paramedic (I think) and she took control of the situation whilst calls were made to the emergency services and a few cars pulled up.  Ray and Ann appeared a few moments later and then one of the ride leaders rode back to La Santa with about half of the ride group.

This was one hell of a frightening thing to be so close to (I was probably about 10-15m away from it when it happened) and it reminded me for the most part I am much happier riding solo rather than in groups.  Two days later I heard that the man had been flown to Gran Canaria with spinal injuries and was in intensive care in an induced coma.  Poor sod. Really not good news.

• Totals: 3.1m run, 86.5m bike

For the power geeks out there my NP for the ride was 235 watts with over 8,100 feet of climbing.  TSS was 382 (VI 1.1).

Tuesday

Tuesday is half marathon race at Club La Santa do I thought I could use it as a hilly long-ish run (I’m meant to be running 19 miles in training right now but this will have to do).  I set off at a steady pace at the early start time of 7:45am and had a good solid and comfortable run.  Once again it was blowing a gale on the top of the hills but this make a good workout.  I finished in 1:37:24 (much slower than in 2007) but then I was racing hard then and hadn’t ridden nearly 90 miles the day before.  I came third.  The winner did a great time of just over 73 minutes which considering the windy conditions was pretty damn good indeed.

Another visit to the pool for a 2k swim and after a steady 27 miles on the bike the most important sport of all – a game of ‘compact golf.’

• Totals: 13.1m run (race), 27m bike, 2k swim

Wednesday

My legs were really starting to feel tired at this point and my right knee was hurting (I believe all the hill climbing on the bike) but I really wanted to get out on the bike to enjoy the weather and scenery once more. After a gentle (25 min) morning 5k I headed out and rode just over 16 miles, came back to base and then went out with Ray on the bike for a further 27.5 miles.

I nearly went for a swim later in day but didn’t quite make it.  I’ll count that as a ‘half session’ as I did have my swimming shorts on, but just didn’t make it to the pool. I almost went windsurfing in the afternoon but instead just watched and supported the windsurf race.  Much drier on land.

Early evening it was time to pack the bike for the journey home tomorrow.

• Totals: 3.1m run, 43.5m bike, intent-to-swim-but-not-quite

Thursday

I went for a bit of a hilly off road run – headed in the direction of Famara close to the coast.  I got to Caletta de Caballo and then headed inland and uphill to Soo, then back on the road home making it 5 lumpy miles.

I followed this with a breakfast and a 2k swim and then it was time to head back to the airport for the flight home.

• Totals: 5m run, 2k swim

Summary

• 321′ish miles on the bike over 6 days. That’s an average of just over 53.5 miles each day. Nice.
• 36 miles running (not bad when I would have been happy with just 3!)
• 9k swimming. No comment.

The cycling is fantastic in Lanzarote.  The roads are for the most part lovely and smooth (ignoring 100m in Famara and the part of the Ironman course after Arrecife when you turn left just before Nazaret).  I really liked having maps of Lanzarote on my bike GPS so I could see exactly where I was at any moment.  It’s windy, warm, hilly and there’s often other cyclists out there who nod hello to you.  Cars give you tons of distance and there’s actually not very many of them.  A bit of a bikers paradise.  I just wanted a few more cafes and bakeries to get supplies from but I had plenty of food and water on my rides to be completely self sufficient anyway.

Running is great with off road tracks if you want them.  Be prepared for hills though.

As for swimming, the 50m heated outdoor pool at Club La Santa is superb.  I just wished that I actually enjoyed swimming.  The first couple of lengths of each session is good but then I just want it over with.  I see swimming as a means to getting on the bike.  Maybe that’ll change one day but right now that’s how it is.

Two months out from my third Ironman distance triathlon and think the timing was ideal.  I’ve never cycled so much in my life and I really enjoyed it.  I think the weather back home will take some getting used to in late November and December but I just need to man-up for these rides.

Running is still a concern with my leg but if I can keep ticking over and get some good physio in over the coming weeks I’ll be happy.

As for swimming – lets just not go there.  I’ll go to the pool and get plenty more swims in but that’s all I have to say on the matter.

At the outset I said this would be a training camp and not a holiday.  Over the week I have probably read about 10 pages of a book and came home with more magazines (there was a copy of Triathlon Plus in the room on arrival) that I came out with – all of them unread!

Finally I must mention the evenings as it wasn’t all training.  The entertainment laid on by Club La Santa was very good, although we never made it up past 10pm.  Food wise we ate on site every night and I was happy with what was available.  A couple of beers with dinner together with the lovely company of Ray and Ann made it a lovely little break.

I just need to recover now!

Over the past few years I’ve entered a few bike sportive events and also taken part in the Dunwich Dynamo overnight ride.  I’ve never entered a bike race or time trial before.  I’ve certainly watched a few races and taken photos at them and this past weekend was no exception.  You’ve all seen those clips on television of riders climbing up the mountains of the Tour de France and screaming crowds of supporters cheering them on.  Well, although we don’t have 20+ mile mountain climbs the UK does have some awesome (and a little shorter) ‘hill climb’ events.

The past weekend Sharon and I went along to watch, support, shout and take a few photos at the Catford and Bec hill climb events in Kent.  I’ve posted a blog about the events over at our photography website so take a look and then see the gallery of photos that’s linked to near the end of the blog.

Anyway, following this blog post my good friend Richard suggested on facebook that I should give one of the hill climbs a go.  Having watched these events I’ve wondered what it would be like to be the one fighting their way up a steep hill with crowds all around.  The nearest I’ve got to this has been climbing the (much less steep) Solera Berg during the Challenge Roth iron-distance event a couple of years ago.

Following Richards suggestion to me I decided that todays long bike ride should head south-east towards Yorks Hill, the home of the Catford Hill Climb.  I planned a route using the excellent Running Free Online website, loaded it into my bike GPS and off I set.  About 40 miles later (and lots of short – and long – climbs and descents) I found myself at the bottom of Yorks Hill.

I didn’t know where the start of the climb was (as it was almost too steep to walk down on Sunday!) so as I was cycling along the lane the road levelled out and with an incline just ahead I hit the lap button on the GPS and dug deep.

Two minutes later the road levelled out (again) and I saw a painted white line on the road!  Bugger.  That’s the start of the climb and I’d just expended two minutes hard effort (and two and a half hours cycling) to just get there.

I pulled over, got myself down to race weight (meaning, I had a pee in the bushes) and prepared myself.  My bike clearly wasn’t ready for a steep climb as it was laden with tool kits, bike pump, spare inner tubes, water bottles, energy bars, etc. etc.

I stood on the line, clipped into the pedals and hit the start button.  My heart rate was at 121 (much much higher than resting) and away I went.  Within a few seconds the incline ramped up and I had those thoughts of ‘you’ve gone off too hard.’  Too late to worry about these things now.  I was in my easiest gear (and remained in it the whole way up).

This incline then flattens out a little before the real fun begins.  A lung bursting 20+ percent-er which was painful to say the least.  Out of the saddle, gasping for air, convincing myself that this is good for me and pushing up the hill as quickly as possible.

I’m sure my style wasn’t great but when I saw an opening in the trees up ahead I knew the end was near.  At the top of the climb just before the entrance to a small car park there was another white line painted on the road.  I pushed to the line, hit the stop button again and then unclipped and came to a standstill as quick as I would be if I were about to ride off of a cliff edge!  Bugger me that was tough.  My heart rate peaked at 174.

Shortly after the finish. Looking a little worn out!

Looking at the clock my time was 3 minutes 11 seconds.  This would have put me in 88th position (out of *cough* 102 finishers) in the 2011 Catford Hill Climb.  Surely with an easier warm-up, less ‘crap’ on the bike and screaming crowds I could go under 3 minutes…?

Looking through my cycling logs I’ve got my heart rate higher than 174 before so clearly I wasn’t trying hard enough.  Finally, here’s a little summary graph of the effort from my GPS/power meter for those who like this kind of thing.  Click for a larger version.

This means I need to go back sometime and ride it again!  Watch this space….

As for the overall bike ride, I rode just over 77 miles, around 5,300 feet of climbing, 4 hours 51 minutes of riding (5:09 total ride time – which includes stops for traffic lights/junctions/getting lost).  Normalised power was 235 watts.

After taking part in Thames Turbo race 2 earlier in the year I decided to enter the August Bank-Holiday race as 1) they’re great fun, and 2) it would hopefully get me in the swimming pool again as I’m rather slack when it comes to swim training.

I’d planned to kick start my swimming a few weeks ago but whilst doing some maintenance work on my brothers mountain bike I somehow smacked my ribcage against his bike, which caused a great deal of pain for a good 2+ weeks.  Coughing, turning in bed, sneezing – all really painful.  The pain started to get less and less and this meant I had to go swimming again.  I managed three swim sessions (in just over a week) prior to this race which is pretty good for me!

From a self-timed 400m time trial swim at the pool at the start of the week I swam a steady 6:50 which was the same as I’d estimated for the previous race – so it looks like my 400m time hasn’t changed in the past few months.  That helped no end with my swim confidence going into this one.

Once again I was in the second swim wave but I’ve decided that apart from the long wait from signing in to the actual start I’m happy to go in the busier second wave. It’s not busy as such in the pool, but there are lots more cyclists around my speed to work with (or against).

Happily I had a good uneventful swim. I felt comfortable throughout and didn’t get overtaken. I did catch up with one swimmer ahead of me and rather than overtake him (he was very similar speed to me so it would have taken quite some effort) I conserved some energy and just swam right behind him for the final two lengths.

Transition 1 was fast and efficient, with the only pause being when I turned on my ‘on-board’ video camera! More on that later.. I also didn’t wear socks this time round as I have some triathlon specific cycling shoes (and running shoes) that don’t seem to rub when not wearing socks.  My swim time (including transition to the bike) was 8:40 (53rd fastest).  Looking back… May 2011 (9:06), August 2010 (8:50), May 2010 (9:17).  These previous times did involve me sitting down and putting on a pair of socks – which because of the times there show that my August 2010 swim was very good indeed (I’d estimated 6:40 for 400m for that race).  Note to self… must swim faster – or give myself a faster swim estimate so that I can really push hard to keep up with the people around me.

Putting my cycling shoes on in Transition 1

As I got onto the bike I found myself in lot of traffic heading down the main road from the pool. It was not safe to try and overtake the cars so I just pedalled steadily alongside them until I got onto Hampton Court Road. At the roundabout by Hampton Court I then had to slow down as there were people at the pedestrian crossing! Very frustrating.

Before long it was back to full speed and racing towards the dreaded traffic lights at the turning to Lower Sunbury. As I neared the lights there was a large van ahead that slowed down as the lights were red.  I eased off the speed knowing that the lights would be green before long but I then was shocked that the flippin’ van was also turning left. I and two other riders were then stuck behind the van for what seemed like ages.  I think I only lost about 20 seconds during that segment but it was long enough!

Once the van had turned off into another road it was back to full steam ahead. There was a bit of back-and-forth between myself and another rider but when I saw him slow to have some drink I pushed hard past him and gained some valuable time. I didn’t see him again.

It was just a case of head down and push hard all the way to the turnaround point. This first half of the bike route was into a slight headwind and I knew that it would feel easier on the way back – well, I’d be pushing just as hard but hopefully going a little quicker with the wind behind me. It wouldn’t ‘really’ be easier. As I did the 180 turn at the roundabout I saw Dean, a fellow competitor who I seem to race close-by at these races quite often. He took a tight inside line and got ahead of me.

I chased hard behind for a couple of miles or so. As he overtook one chap ahead of him the guy being overtaken changed gear quickly, pushed hard and sat right on Deans back wheel – big time drafting. I didn’t want to be anywhere near such activity (!!) so dug in and got past them both. I then kept pushing all the way to the finish.

At the end of the bike leg you get 7 minutes to return to transition 2, where the run begins. I rode gently back to transition ready to give it some in the 5k.  The best sight of all was when I ran in with my bike to put it on the rack and there were no other bikes around!  This ‘never’ happens with me – so clearly I had a pretty good bike leg!  Transition was nice and quick and it was off on the run I went.  My bike split was 34:48 and 15th fastest.

The view coming into T2

Here’s a bike split table showing my bike form in this race together with some power data (a link to the full power data is towards the end of this report)…

My increase in speed certainly is related to the increase in cycling that I’ve been doing the past few months and also (at least I hope) related to the new ‘go-faster’ wheels that I recently bought.  One thing I do know is that because of the traffic on the course I did lose probably in the region of 30-60 seconds on the bike.  Give me a traffic-free route and I’ll smash my time (hopefully!).

Onto the run… Normally there’s quite a few runners around during the run (one of the things I like about being in the ‘second wave’ of starters) but today it seemed really quiet.  I overtook a few (much slower people from the back of the first wave) but there was nobody close to me that was anywhere near my pace.  I just had to get on with it and run as best I could, overtaking (and giving support if I had a spare breath) to other runners.

On each lap I had some fantastic screams and shouts of support from family and friends that were really appreciated.  The final push came to the finish and I crossed the line with a run time (including transition) of 18:57 – 12th fastest of the day.

I felt that conditions on the day were ideal and on top of a great bike split I also put in an awesome run…

• May 2007 – 21:06
• August 2007 – 20:08
• August 2008 – 20:00
• May 2010 – 19:18 (slightly shorter course)
• August 2010 – 19:56
• May 2011 – 19:33
• August 2011 – 18:57

The results came out later in the day (all times are from the provisional results) and my overall time was 1:02:25, 15th overall and 9th in my age group.

Here’s how my times have improved over the four years that I’ve taken part in these races…

• 08/05/07 – 1:20:27 (using my mountain bike)
• 27/08/07 – 1:07:51 (on a borrowed road bike)
• 25/08/08 – 1:06:33 (using my recently purchased road bike)
• 31/05/10 – 1:04:55
• 30/08/10 – 1:04:37
• 02/05/11 – 1:03:59
• 29/08/11 – 1:02:25 (same bike, new wheels)

I’m really happy with how the race went and as this is really the start of my triathlon season (I’ll be training during the winter for a big race in January) this is a great boost for me.

Finally, for anyone who’s interested – here’s my full power data from the bike – viewable at the TrainingPeaks.com website.

Finally I mentioned something earlier about a video – well, here’s the video I took during the bike using a camera fixed to the aero-bars at the front of the bike (or click here to view it at YouTube.com).