It’s training camp time, and I’m back in Lanzarote for the first time in 4 years. They seem to have done some resurfacing since then which made the daily grind a little more palatable. And if I’m not mistaken I think there’s even a bit more vegetation. Admittedly most of the island is still just black lava, but there is the odd bit of grass now. On previous trips the roads felt a bit arduous, now I’m relishing a bit of head banging into á bloc headwind.

I hadn’t planned to go on a warm weather trip in January, but the pre Christmas snow, while actually not that bad in Bristol, meant that I felt a bit light on quality miles. My MTB has had more outings than at any point since I was about 15 years old, I even think I stopped riding it like a big girl by the end. Anyway, I needed some guaranteed hours, hence taking up former team mate Alex on the offer of a Lanzarote trip.

It’s a relatively unstructured camp in that the focus is just on some good quality hours, 5-4-6-rest-5-4-6. Putting a few slightly harder long climbs in on the shorter days, but 32hrs or so should provide all the training effect I‘m after. I’d done quite a bit of zone 4 work over the previous week and that really moved my form on, so it’s back to an endurance week to top up.

As ever it’s been pretty nice getting back into the swing of things, would you believe it I even drew slight satisfaction from washing my kit in the sink, just like old days. I think I’m getting old. Unlike the old days however, boredom levels are being kept at a minimum thanks to a lad called Adam with a hard drive full of movies. I’m embarrassed to say my book hasn’t even been opened yet, and it has been noted that I only actually leave the apartment when on two wheels.