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Lanzarote turned me from a novice to a sprinter!

By CoachKev | Published 21 March 2017 | No Comments

When I booked the triathlon training camp I looked it as a goal to improve my fitness,  lose a bit of weight, and really what see what level I could take my cycling and swimming to. As we neared towards the trip my fitness was not too bad, but weight loss not great.

In preparation for the camp, I had a bike fit done which meant a new saddle, handlebars and various other adjustments, so I was looking forward to trying out. 

We arrived on the Sunday in lovely but windy weather at Club la Santa. Kev’s training programme for me looking very challenging and I was with some very good athletes!. No rest, everything started at 4pm on the Sunday with a swim in a 50 meter pool, for me a big challenge!.

The pool was outdoors and as I swam my first length, I survived and I had just swam 50m without stopping!!, a first as I had always the excuse to stop in a25m pool. I can say I would recommend anyone wanting to take their swimming to the next level try some training in a 50m pool, I swam 10 sessions and did between 800m to 1km per session, something I never thought I would achieve. My wetsuit also got its first use with my first try at Open Water. I got some fabulous coaching from Jason, I had no goal but to try it, but managed to swim 400m in Open water – another goal I thought I would never get to.

The cycling in Lanzarote was amazing with fabulous quiet smooth roads and a few hills. Our first day on the Monday took us out in high winds, I stayed with the overall group, but wasn’t an enjoyable day, but experienced my first drafting and energy from jelly babies, this helped get through the wind and get back (thank you Sally!). Tuesday proved much better and I decided to tackle things on my own and notch up 50k, with a beautiful stop at Jonnie’s Bakes for a coffee and cinnamon swirl.

The rest of the week I clocked up more kilometres (with a sneaky wee tourist trip up Fire Mountain), and tried my first brick session – 40km on the bike followed by a 3km run.

The running for me involved gentle 3km runs around the Club la Santa campus lagoon, I never thought I could run 5km, and as Kev told me it is only another 2km on top of what you had already done – so I ran 5km, this was needed as we were approaching Saturday’s sprint triathlon which has a 5k!, the culmination of our weeks training. 

Saturday approached and the night before nerves kicked in as I approached my first ever sprint triathlon!!. I had only ever tackled a couple of novice events in 2015. I woke up early and got everything organise, heading out earlier than the main group. I knew I could do the 750m swim as I had been doing this distance all week. The trick was to “bubble bubble breath” and it worked, I got through the swim, in excitement transitioned onto the bike (forgetting my water bottle!!, and having to come back!), a beautiful but tiring 20km bike ride, back into Club la Santa, and very poor dismount forgetting to take one of cleats out and nearly falling off!!, I was on the home run and and now realised I could do this, 5km run was tough, and I finished it, I couldn’t quite believe I had done and and I felt very emotional, lucky I was wearing sunglasses and no one else was back!!.

I then clapped everyone else in, we took some team photos, hot shower, stretch and relax class (all classes are free,), aloe vera massage and a cool glass of celebration Cava at 6.30 in the poolside bar watching the sun set.

A wonderful experience, with many personal goals achieved and things learned along the way which was good for me personally and as a coach. I now have a wee voice ringing in my ear – when are you going to book your next spring triathlon!!!.

Anna