Deserts, wind, and bikes!

La Santa

Having spent a week cycling in Majorca last spring I was well aware of the endurance gains a full week of training away from work and home commitments can make to your early pre season fitness. This year I was very lucky to be treated to a week away to Club La Santa which Is superbly situated on the north west coast of Lanzarote.  The terrain of Lanzarote is best described as undulating. There aren’t so many of the never ending 10% gradient switch back climbs that I experienced in Majorca last year but I have to admit to having never known a place like Lanzarote for its ability to have only up and down – no flat seems to exist there at all!

The scenery out there is amazing.  I’m a huge fan of the lush green mountains you find in Scotland and the French Alps so for me to be completely breath taken by the stunning volcanic, but very baron landscapes of Lanzarote was actually quite a surprise.

I spent a large amount of the week training alone and this was great training for both the physical and mental aspects of going out on 3hr runs or 6+hr cycles back home as we get into pre season.    One of the rides I really enjoyed and repeated more than once was a ride deep into the Tamanfaya national park and down to seaside village of el Golfo. The route I took, takes in a lot of typical Lanzarote farmland before hitting the vast lava fields of the national park and finally onto some amazing coastal roads around the South West of the Island. I would say of the Ironman man bike leg this has to be the most fascinating scenery.

As for running – I have to admit, la Santa has totally trumped Majorca as far as my preference for off road running is concerned. Around half a mile from club la Santa is a dirt track that takes you up to Cuchillo up a nice steady hill which gradually changes from dirt track to sand.  A small almost hidden fork in this dirt track then heads you out to a road crossing between Soo and Munique. Once you cross the road (I called it the temple of doom road, as it reminded me from a scene from Indiana jones where the sands where blowing over the road from the desert) your into the El Jable desert.

Small tracks in the sand fork off in all directions and you can easily run for 2-3hr without seeing another soul (apart from goats and a single goat herder). The desert running here was amazing – I really loved it and will miss that more than the cycling once back home.

The pool at La Santa is 50m which means your average 1hr swim set zooms by. Most of  my swims were before breakfast but I had one mid afternoon and was very Impressed with the facilities and the lack of crowding in lanes. Just had to get used to the fact that everywhere apart from the UK swims anticlockwise in all lanes – unlike our preference for alternating directions in lanes. There is a huge sea lagoon too but this seems to attract more wind surfers and kayakers that open water swimmers so my wetsuit never got unpacked.

If you are new to road cycling or not very confident I would opt for Majorca over Lanzarote for cycling simply as the wind here literally has you swerving all over the road on the windier days. I’m not the most technically proficient cyclist on skinny wheels (as an ex downhill MTB’er I’m more used to jumps and drops than high speed) and riding a Tri bike with very deep section frame meant on 2 days I’m actually not afraid to say I was really scared! One ride in particular the wind seemed to whip up over lunchtime and hit over 12m/sec which doesn’t sound that fast, but when you take into account descending at around 35-40mph between mountains and the funnelling effect of the wind as it’s gusts between mountain peaks and then lulls again this lead to me literally being blown into the wrong side of the road at one point which was very scary but even that didn’t my get my heart racing as much as when a passing bus driving very fast In the opposite direction created a kind of vortex about 20m afterwards and sent me flying into the barrier, luckily it was a glancing touch of the barrier but made me realise, another half inch and i would have been over the barrier and into the ditch which was quite a way down. Even climbing at low speed, there was a section of road with a deep drop over the side and the number of times I was blown to within a inch or so of the barriers there was scary. Needless to say I was very pleased to get home that day in one piece and celebrated with a beer!

Now I’m sat typing this blog on the plane home I feel very sad.  I think getting away from the stresses of home and work and training to that intensity for a week can have quite an emotional effect on you and I’m sad to be leaving Lanzarote but very happy to be heading home to see my little hairy companion Chilli and her friend and my current ‘dog lodger’ Ellie.  I guess I’m very fortunate though, not everyone has the ability to drop everything and jet off for a week training and for that I am truly thankful. I also have to thank Will for inviting me on this holiday and giving me the opportunity to thrash myself for a week. Hopefully this will have given me an extra bit of endurance ready for my ‘warm up’ race in Majorca before the big one of 2014, Ironman Austria.

Roll on May for the next ‘boot camp’ in the like district with my Tri club friends!

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.