Lanzarote Training camp 2012
As some of you know, I'm doing my own Big Tri Week training camp at Lanzarote this week.
I have been to Lanzarote 8-9 times before (including once doing the Ironman), so I know the island quite well...What caracterises the island is: Lava, hills, sun and a relentless wind. I absolutely love it here - great training, but also hard work.
I somehow managed to persuade my family, that I should go on my own.,...so its one weeks of training, with no wife, no kids, no work - or any other distractions...Just train, eat and sleep...
I will try to describe the training here - in case some of you would like to do something similar.
Some stats about me: Mid-pack swimmer (approx 1h20 IM swim), FTP of 301, vdot approx 58-59.
2012 schedule: 1/2IM - 8 days after returning home from camp (Challenge Aarhus), Challenge Roth three weeks after that and Ironman Sweden six weeks after that...
My plan for the week was to try to do as much as possible in all threes sports. As per usual, I'm behind schedule :-), and my aim is to build the endurance, rather than improve on the FTP/vDOT numbers. Since my last IM (september last year, I have only swum twice - totalling maybe 1500 meters, so this was also going to be a focus area for me on this camp ;-)
The camp:
Flight was early friday morning, so I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning.
With the flight, time difference, transfer and unpacking, I was ready to go for my first bike ride at approx 2.30pm.
Did a quick 35k bike ride until I returned home to the resort (club LaSanta) and signed up for a swim camp.
Swam 75 minutes drills and ran 7k @14.1 km/h
Following that, I already felt tired (guess that's the price you pay for getting up at 4.30 in the morning) and I went to bed and slept for 8.5 hours.
Saturday
Unfortunately the swim camp timing was so we had 2 hours of swimming between 9-11 am and 2 hours again at 3-5 pm... this didn't leave much time for the long bike rides. Still I knew I had to prioritize the swim, so I decided that this was ok - if I then skipped a few sessions to focus on the bike.
Started the day (before breakfast) with a 8k morning run in the lava fields
Swam 90 minutes drills
Biked 120 tss points (215 np)
and swam for another 70 minutes
Slept from 8.40 pm until 7am
Lanzarote is known for its lavafields and hills, but the most challenging thing on the island is actually the relentless wind. At all times the wind is blowing at 11-15 m/s (don't know what that is the imperial system, but it is close to what we would call a a storm). This makes the bike rides quite challenging. Add to that that Lanzarote has very few flat kilometers and most hills range from 6-11% (with the steapest hitting 24%) and you have an idea of what cycling down here is about.
I train with a power meter, and log the tss-points, but even though this is supposed to be an objective number of the training, I dare say, that 60-120 tss points here, takes more out of me than 150-200 tss points back in Denmark..Obviously there is the accumulated effect of training 6-8 hours a day, but I also get a lot more sleep than normally.... Anyone else experience that?
Sunday:
Morning run (again running before breakfast - I hate that) 6k
Bike 122 tss (217np)
Sleep approx 9 hours
Sunday I biked the exact same route a saturday, but completely ran out of gas... Even though I drank 6 bottles of energy on the 2h20 minutes bike ride, I found myself in a very dark place...I had made a rookie mistake...I had cut too far down on the caloric intake the day before... Rookie mistake, I know....but everynow and then...you got to test yourself :-) Spent the rest of the day eating everything I came in contact with...
Monday
Body felt good again - and it is starting to adjust to the heat and the constant training..
Swam 120 minutes drills
Biked 87 tss (195 np)
and ran 11k in the lava fields)
Slept approx 9 hours
Today it was extra windy... On the bike ride today, there was a road going pretty much straight (no turns or anything) for approx 14k. The problem was, that it was diagonal to the wind, meaning that I was fighting the wind throughout the 14k... The wind was so bad that I couldn't - even for a few seconds - take a hand of the bike without risking being blown off the road.. I had planned to do one of the big mountains today, but after the 14k, my neck was absolutely killing me (from fighting the wind) and I could see that the climb would be straight into the headwind...not appealing :-)
The return to the resort was (of course) straight into the headwind as well, but that was actually a relief to just fight the wind head on - rather than to fight to stay on the road (note to self...the Zipp 404 are not ideal for Lanzarote).
Tuesday
It is time to get more biking in... I really need to get the endurance up and I need to do the hill climb that I chickend out of yeaterday...The wind is pretty much the samy today as it was yeaterday...maybe slightly less.
Swim 60 min drills
Bike 171,5 tss (211 np)
Swim another 100 min with 45 minutes open water
Sleep approx 10 hours
The bike ride was up the Mirador del Haria... (part of the Ironman course)... I did the Ironman 9 years ago, I am considering going back next year and to is again...It will then be 10 years since I did it last and it will also be my 10th Ironman... But everything I come to lanzarote to train, I always find myself thinking that I really don't feel like exposing my body to that kind of pain again..
Ironman Lanzarote was my first Ironman (and actually my very first triathlon)..and as I work in marketing, I have always thought that the tag line...the toughest IOronman in the world.-..was just a tagline to give the race some extra appeal...I have now done 7 IM's and I have to agree that this IM is by far the 'worst' :-)
The wind and the hills zaps you for energy and then you still have the marathon in 30+ (85F?) degrees..I sometimes wonder how I managed to complete it all those years ago... I was living in central London and thus did 80-90% of my bike training on a trainer or in spinning classes and I had only just learnt to swim. My bike was a good 6 pounds heavier than my bike is today...Powermeters were not an option and very few people actually knew how to train for an IM... Of course I was also 10 pounds lighter, but my bodyfat was higher...
Anyway... The powerfile of the Mirador climb is attached... At the harders point, I was going up 9-11% straight into the headwind..I was pushing 300-340 watts just to keep moving forward (and was running a 34-27 gearing).. Going downhill, the wind was now coming from the sides - which made the decend interesting to say the least :-)
More to come in the next few days....Questions, comments...? Let me know...
Bo
Comments
I am envious.
Only the strong survive!
And you are one champion sleeper - 9-10 hours a night?
That island sounds scary. Worse than Kona.
Great work, Bo. sounds amazing.