Month: February 2015

I'm just back from a couple of weeks training at Club la Santa in Lanzarote.  This is the 8th or 9th time I’ve been to Club la Santa. It’s a great place for a training camp at this time of year – the weather’s generally in the 18 – 23 degree range, although it can be a bit windy – the last couple of days saw winds gusting to 70 km/hr.

The first week was a training camp run by Joe Beer, with Dan Bullock of Swim for Tri helping out with the swim coaching.

One of the highlights of the camp for me was setting an new PB of 47:57 for the climb up Tabeyesco – still an long way off the best Strava times, but 3 minutes faster than last year, and 13 minutes faster than 2012.

I also had my first experience of open-water swimming, which was also my first time swimming wearing a wetsuit. Unfortunately, the combination of the cold water in the lagoon and constriction of the suit made it hard to breathe, and it wasn’t the best experience. With hindsight, I should have worn the wetsuit in the pool first, just to get used to the feeling of wearing it. It also brought home how much work I need to do on my swimming before attempting a 70.3.

The second week I mainly trained by myself, getting in another 6 runs, 4 bikes, 1 swim and a bit of sight-seeing.

Total for the two weeks:

Running         10       51.6 km          06:11:21
Cycling            11       364.9 km       20:35:16
Swimming      3          4450.0 m      03:17:39

Shortly after xmas, I ordered a new bike box for our trip to Lanzarote. Previously, I'd used a Trico Iron Case, which had served its purpose well, but I wasn't confident that it's packing method wouldn't damage my new Felt Z3. Basically, in the Trico, the wheels lie on top of the frame, separated by a thin sheet of foam, then the top lid is placed on and the whole thing held together with straps. My concern was that the wheels would rub against the frame, potentially damaging the carbon.

BikeBoxAlan's product seemed like a good fit for what I was after - the bike's wheels were securely mounted in the lid of the box using wheel skewers, keeping them separate from the frame. The frame, together with the seatpost and handlebars are held in place by velcro straps.
One tip I picked up from Dan Bullock of Swim for tri was to use old skewers to secure the wheels as these can be bend during transit.

The box was certainly quick to pack, and, at first glance, everything seems to have survived the trip to Lanzarote.