Lanzarote!

Here we are, finally, in Lanzarote. My favourite place in the world. The place where all sportsmen want to be. Here is where the training really starts. Every day I’ll be doing at least 2 hours of quality training.

The first day we got here, Sunday, I rode 75km which was a great 1^st ride in Lanzarote because it is definitely one of my favourite routes, the El Golfo ride. Then at 16.00 I had a watt test. It’s a 10km time trial on a fixed bike and covers everything. Anyway it was my first test like that and had no idea how to play it so I started slower than I should have. I still managed to do a time of 15min36. After it we looked at all the data and spotted that my legs work 50/50 and my threshold is 187 bpm which I know I can improve. The thing that stood out the most was that I can produce 4.5 watts/kilo. I was really happy about especially after travelling and 75km in the morning. Nevertheless I am going to have another shot at it on Sunday to try and improve.

On monday I did 115km including the hardest climb on the island named Tabayesco. It was a very pleasant ride and averaged just over 30km/h. My PB for Tabayesco last year was just under 30min. It was windy down the valley so I knew it was going to be hard and so decided to start behind everyone. I climbed up and caught the front group who were flying up the hill. I overtook them but then they re-overtook me so I stayed on their wheels until the top. In the end I pushed a time of 27min dead. That was another goal I achieved.

On tuesday I did 55km in the morning and a 15km time trial in the afternoon. It was a very windy day and I wanted to save some energy for the time trial. I have to point out that DAD is the reigning champion of this specific time trial for the last 3 years. I started the race 1min behind my father and wanted to catch him before the top of the hill, and I knew it was going to be very hard because of the wind. It is simply a 7.5km hill and then back again. I was the fastest up the hill with the wind behind but as soon as I turned round I knew I had to kill myself to win. Of course I did, but I could barely even keep it over 40km/h coming down. I finished and didn’t catch DAD. He came up to me and told me that there was 4secs separating us. I got scared and knew he would have taken the micky if he would have beaten me. He didn’t. I won the Time trial in a time of 23min47s.

On Wednesday we left Club La Santa with a group of 12 including 3 pro riders who really pushed the pace on. The ride consisted of 2 of the hardest climbs of the island. It was a breezy day with clear skies and pretty hot. I felt tired at the beginning but managed to stay with the group the whole way. The ride normally should have been 165km but I knew that there was no point in doing that at my age so instead I cut the last 40km out and turned off homewards early zezaera. I still did 125km and the last 10km on my own into the wind. The average of the day was 29km/h. Can’t wait for a well-deserved “rest” day.

On Thursday I did a 100km ride with some of the Stratford boys. We rode south of the island round El Golfo and Playa Blanca and back through Femez and False Fire mountains.  It was a really nice day, blue skies, no clouds and warm. We stopped in Playa Blanca for a quick drink. After, we headed off to Femez which is the shortest but steepest hill. Before it, there is a long drag up to the start of the hill. I did it twice for the training. We flew back with a tailwind and averaged just over 28km/h.

In 5 days I have done 530km.