Thursday 6th March
11 members of Tri-Anglia and friends met up for a holiday to Club la Santa, Lanzarote, they were Mick Powell (trip organiser), Simon Edye, Jan Edye, Penny Edwards, John Fitts, John Adams, Stewart Ingram, Rob Gibbons, Jonathan Briggs, Gary Wootton and myself (Rob Lines).
Flight from Stansted to Arrecife where Simon Edye unpacked his bike and rode to Club la Santa. Eight of the others got into a mini bus, the bikes loaded into a van leaving myself and the other Rob waiting at the airport for an hour before the rep agreed to lets get a taxi to the complex.
Gary, Jonathan and I all had packing / unpacking issues with their bikes where screws had either been lost or broken that required surgery from the local bike shop.
Meal on mass at the Atlantico buffett ahead of beers in the Green Bar.
Friday 7th March
Most of the group up for a 7am swim ahead of a fitness class and then a bike ride taking in Tabyesco. The ride was 57 miles long and with 30+mph winds was on the testing side of fun. I had a couple of high speed wobbles on descents which were incredibly scary, which rendered me the most cautions descender for the rest of the day, almost to the point of descending at the same speed as climbing. Whilst being slowest on the descents I made up for it by being quickest up Tabyesco ahead of Simon Edye, Gary Wooton, Penny Edwards, Jonathan Briggs, Mick Powell, Rob Gibbson, Stewart Ingram and John Adams.
Back to the bike shop for Jonathan and me - I needed a new stem
and handle bar to try and stop my bike from performing bucking bronko impressions. Jonathan was investigating compact chain rings.
Saturday 8th March
Even I got up for an early morning swim. Nice leisurely breakfast before going for a 33 mile ride with Gary and Jonathan over Timanfaya to test my bike components - no good, wild stallion still trying to unseat the rider. Did I mention it was incredibly scary? A very cautious ride back to Pro Bike in Santa, Jonathan Briggs got his compact chain rings with associated bottom bracket and cranks fitted. More analysis on my bike led to the loan of a pair of forks to try to resolve the issue. The mechanic, Steve, is very sure it will solve the problem - I'm really nervous about riding the bike, as the next pitching fit might be the one that unseats me and I have a real aversion to going to hospital.
John A, Rob G and Stewart also out for a 20mile bike ride.
Simon Edye rode tandem with Jan accompanied by Mick and Penny. Penny then went on to win the Ladies Club la Santa 10k race for the week. Her time was 43 mins.
Still windy.
Sunday 9th March
Long run day. Simon, Penny, Rob L, Rob G, John A and Stewart ran from CLS to Teguise and back again ably escorted on mountain bikes by Mick, Jonathan, Gary and John F. The route was out an back with lots of off road dirt track and plenty of hills. In Teguise we had a cafe (tapas) stop. Rob L added some extra mileage in to get to 3 hours and hopefully circa 20miles (need to plot the route before it is forgotten).
Still Windy.
Monday 10th March Mick's birthday
Made it up early again for a second 7am swim. Managed 3,500m in just over the hour. My session involved 800m warm up, 21x100's on 1:45 followed by a 600m warm down. There are some seriously speedy chaps here. A guy in the lane next to me was doing backcrawl as fast as my front crawl.
Plan today was to go out to El Golfo over Timanfya returning via an ascent of Femmes. Simon and Jan were going to get a head start at 9.30am - we heard them leave at 9.40am. Gary, Jonathan and I then pitched up at 10:10am to ride with the others, but seeing as we were 10mins late and they weren't there I guess they'd gone with out us.
So how was the bike with the new/load forks? Well, it was definitely much better behaved and didn't try to unseat me. Though at two points on the way to Timanfaya I had the bike shake under me. I turned round and came back via Pro Bike. The nice friendly chap there has now lent me his bike for the rest of our holiday but with Force 6 winds continuing, plus a 53-39 with 12-25 I think I'll be very cautious though his Scott CR1 is gorgeous and seriously light.
Gary and Jonathan pushed on for El Golfo to meet the advance party for another tapas style lunch with coffees and cokes. After lunch the El Golfo crew headed off silently along a beautiful windy coastal stretch of road knowing that a 5k climb ending with the infamous "Femes" 20% 1k climb at the end. Mick was first up, followed but Gary and then Jonathan and then Penny. We regrouped at the top and waited for the others. Simon and Jan were next up with a monster effort on the tandem, quite an achievement. Stuart, John and Rob paused to catch their breath at the bottom and then started the ascent. Rob made it to the top while Stuart stopped just short and John slightly before, leaving them the harder task of pushing their steads up the remainder. Coffee and cokes then preceded a journey home in v strong headwind!
Mick's birthday meal in the evening at Restaurant la Santa was good. Was nice to get out of the complex.
Tuesday 11th March
John Adams, Rob Gibbons, Stewart Ingram, Penny Edwards and Simon Edye had all entered the weekly Club La Santa Half Marathon. They talked me into joining them. I have to say I was quite impressed. Low key event, turn up at race start, timing chip and an interesting route. Actually, lets be more specific, a very testing route. Decided it should be a training run and that trying to get into the top 10% shouldn't be an aim. Penny disappeared into the distance straight from the start. Found myself running alongside one of my heros, Simon Edye. I feel very pleased to now be at a level where I can compete with him even if I have got a few years advantage. At one point I thought I'd got well ahead of him, but come the finish line he was breathing down my neck.
Half marathon results - unofficial - Penny 1:39, Rob L 1:46:58, Simon 1:47:02, Stewart 2:00:30, Rob G 2:01, John Adams 2:15.
In the afternoon Gary, Jonathan, Penny and I went out for an easy 23mile ride. An opportunity to test the Scott. Still windy, and I'm still feeling a bit apprehensive and cautious. It's possible that it's me being scared and trembling on the bike, but that didn't seem to be the case. Whilst it was windy and with deep rim wheels I was prone to side gusts I never felt that the Scott CR1 was trying to do anything unexpected. Not confident enough to really give it loads of welly on the descents, so couldn't keep up with Gary and Jonathan but now able to match Penny. I had been worried about the 53-39 chain ring with a 12-25 rear cassette seeing as I'm used to a compact 50-34 at the front, but I really had no problems on today's route. We stopped at Famara at a cafe and were joined by Simon and Jan.
5pm and second race for the day. The centre has a weekly kayak race that Jonathan spotted on the CLS programme. Went down to see what the score was, roped Gary and Penny into the fray and between us we were 1st, 2nd and 4th, and Penny was also 1st lady.
Plan for the rest of the week
Wednesday 100mile bike ride on a variant of the Ironman course. No longer sure about this - what with being on an alien bike.. Wind is due to drop to 13mph according to the BBC, but not according to the local shipping forecast. Can hear it howling outside as I write.
Thursday - 4.5k early morning swim ahead of a big breakfast before heading home.