Training Camp in the Sun

Been a while since my last post, mainly due to the fact that three weeks ago was a rest week before our trip to Gran Canaria for a family training camp with two other cycle crazy families. So I thought I'd save it till now to hit it all in one.

Like I said, week 6 was a rest week. Only a few lighter sessions in preparation for our trip to GC on 12th Feb. Already on the flight out I recognised the symptoms my daughter was displaying as 'pink-eye' or conjunctivitis. Sure enough the first morning of the holiday she woke with one eye completely closed from sludge. Poor thing kept saying that she couldn't see and was a bit panic stricken. Hard to explain to a 3-year-old what the problem is. The pink-eye was obviously uncomfortable, and lead to a cold for her. I also got the eye infection, but thankfully not the cold. Malin managed to avoid anything at all, but unfortunately, during the second week, Albert ended up with a cold too. What is it they say about sleep being really important for recovery when training hard? Doh! Poor Helen who was also on the trip got it the worst of all with a cold leading to pneumonia and a hospital visit! So important to rest when you are ill, and not try to train through it like we all try to.

Kids settling into the room at Cay Beach - Meloneras

Anyway, the week got underway for me on Tuesday with 2 x 25mins at Sweet Spot. The longer hills than at home allow for one of these to be on a proper climb - up to Soria. Jonas and I rode up, then down to Mogan and back along the coast. A superb first ride. So nice to be out in the sunshine with just shorts and a short-sleeved jersey, and best for me - normal shoes and gloves! The liberating feeling of only thin gloves, and normal shoes is just so nice. Feeling once again connected to the bike on another level.

The first week was pretty tough in general, Wednesday was some 30s intervals, and a shorter session. So more time was allowed with the family to kick back and mess around in the pool.

Boys day out in the hills - Ayagaures ride

Thursday was back to the hills, this time the shorter climb up to Ayagaures, riding with both Jonas and Fredrik. I had 4 ascents planned, and luckily the other two gave in to my whingeing and did the same. We got some funny looks from the many touring riders as we passed them going up, then again going down, then going up again! A great session and the legs were now getting used to the climbing, and also the brain was starting to get the hang of the European brake set-up (left-front) on the descents.

Friday was a recovery day for me. So Jessica and Fredrik took the chance to go on a longer ride together in the morning, then Malin rode with Jonas in the afternoon, and I did a short leg spin in the early evening before dinner.

Saturday was going to be intervals again, but with a longer ride after them. This time Jonas and I were joined by Jessica, and we took the well known 'GC60' route up to Pico de la Nieves, the highest point on the island. The intervals were dealt with early on the route up to San Bartolome, allowing the rest of the ride to be at a steady climbing pace - together in a group. The weather gods were kind to us, with beautiful sunshine all day, and a fairly strong easterly wind. The wind direction lead to a decision to take a new route down that I've not done before - on roads GC130 and GC120. The whole of the 130 road was horrendous tarmac. Broken and rough, with several points where it feels like you can't hold onto the bars! The wind blew too, in some more exposed places it was actually pretty frightening what with the terrible vibrations under, hairpin turns, and side winds!
But, the turn onto the 120 road was to be a turn for the better! Fantastic tarmac, and a beautiful, fast and flowing descent. In fact, very fast, a few seconds of not braking allowed speeds to fly up to over 65kph in a matter of seconds. Well worth the crap GC130 road and the climb up!

His and hers

Sunday was back to a local ride, and some short 30s intervals. I rode with Jessica, and tried to keep a cap on my exertion due to the day before, and the next few days coming. We did some pretty fun sprint drills with me leading out and her trying to come round me in the last 5s.

Monday was a rest day, and we all went to the zoo to celebrate Isabelle's (Jonas and Helen's daughter) 10th birthday. The kids all had a great day, and the adults took the chance to chill out and enjoy the holiday aspect of the trip!

Groupie, or selfie with photobombers? ;-)

Tuesday was back to intervals, but a spell of bad weather had come in the night before, so we decided to chance a trip up to Soria, then back down. The weather up on Soria wasn't so good, rain and wind, and pretty cold (yeah, nothing compared to home I know!). So on the way back down Jonas, Fredrik and I took a swing into a cafe and drank a coffee with a beach view. It is a holiday too after all, not just a training camp! The intervals were 2 x 25 again, and we rode the first one on the flat up to Soria, then the second on the climb. The flat section was great fun, and after starting out as 3 riders, we had amassed a whole bunch of new friends like a magnet dragged through iron filings by the time we reached the base of the climb. The tough headwind that day had some people thinking we were crazy to be expending all our energy before we even reached the climb.

Wednesday was a tougher intervals session, 3x10 minutes this time. Jonas and I decided on Ayaguares, saving the last 10 as a full ascent from the very bottom to have a crack at the Strava time. The first two intervals were pretty tough, with the legs complaining about the high pace after the tough sessions before. The third one was a screamer. Really good fun riding hard on the beautiful climbs, pretending you are Pantani and passing people standing up - just at the moment that are struggling the most with the steepness. I had started my clock at the beginning of the Strava segment, and knew where the finish line was too, so stopped the clock after my 10min interval, then kept track of the extra time after to know what my segment time was. I was pretty pleased with the time, and so was Jonas. Good to have a little extra motivation on the tough climb. Unfortunately we managed to stumble on an annoying bug in the Strava segment software - and managed to pass within the tolerance zone for the segment start when on the descent after the 2nd interval. So the descent time, plus some faffing and turning around were added to our times once we uploaded the files. A bit frustrating, but not much to do. It was still fun at least! :-)

Me and Jessica on the way to Pico - my hand is on the wall.....

Thursday was a much needed recovery ride, Jonas and I took an early pre-breakfast spin to Playa del Ingles to visit the Free Motion shop. The rest of the day devoted to swimming and family fun!

My last session for the holiday was then on Friday - 4 x 10 mins on the first climb on GC60. I really like the climb, and the descent as the corners are pretty open and you can see a long way ahead. Great fun up, then triple the fun down again!

Saturday we all rested up, packed the bikes away, some more swimming, and lots of good food.

All in all, we had a great trip - and the way we had planned out everything worked really well. I can highly recommend taking a training camp trip with some like-minded families so that the riding, and the child care can be nicely distributed around so all get to ride, all get to chill by the pool, and all get to spend time with the family!

Such good tasting fresh fruit when it's local!

A huge thanks to Helen, Jonas, and Isabelle Nilsson for the great company for both weeks, and to Fredrik Åberg, Jessica Bengtsson and Gunnar for the week between. It was great to spend the time with you all and do some fantastic riding! Now what's all this talk of spring in Skåne?