Usually
I’ve been in Portugal on a training camp this time of the year but after all
injuries last year I chose a less risky alternative with plenty of cross-training
possibilities and went to Las Playitas in Fuerteventura. I knew its popularity
among triathletes but I didn’t know it was such a perfect place for an injured
orienteer. There was not only a 4km stretch of perfect cycle lane to run but
plenty of trails and paths in undulating milieu, lots of hills to climb on,
hundreds of kilometres of perfect tarmac for road cycling, fine MTB routes,
Olympic swimming pool, fully equipped gym and variety of different group
training sessions. All that combined with sunshine and temperature around +20C
made it pretty nice for training. The only single disturbing thing was wind,
but even that was bearable in otherwise perfect conditions. It certainly added
some extra challenge to cycling but didn’t bother much in the swimming pool.
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| Cycle lane of perfection |
I wasn’t
sure how much running I could do so it was great to have lots of possibilities
for alternative training. Luckily it went better than expected and my body
adapted well to 2+1 day rhythm. That meant two days of running, combined with
strength training and swimming, and then one day of cycling. Having those run-free
days I was able to cover over 20h of training in a week, including over 100km
running and about 200km cycling. First evening after arrival I used exploring
the hills just next to the resort. There were plenty of nice paths to run up
and down and along the hills and the views were great. What else can you wish
for?
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| Hills around the resort |
The
following day I used to take a wider look on the surroundings. I ran up to the
lighthouse, supposedly a run you have to do when in Playitas. It’s a single
road route from the resort up to the top of a mountain queue, with a massive
lighthouse at the end of the road. It’s about 13km back and forth with 270m of
climbing. The last kilometre up to the lighthouse is brutal with its 100m
vertical climb. Otherwise it’s a fairly nice and easy route to run. A bit
boring but works fine for a tempo session. And the views up on the top are
definitively worth the climb! Rest of my runs I did on trails and paths, except
the last day, when I took part to the actual lighthouse run, a weekly race
arranged at the resort. To run it after a week of heavy training was tough but
I couldn’t miss a chance to try to run a race when feeling absolutely dead and
exhausted. It’s seldom you get an opportunity to train your brain to push
through that wall. I’m quite happy I did that. Although next time I will most
certainly plan my arrival time better…
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| Faro de la Entallada |
I was
surprised to find that there were also many nice gravel roads and trails to
run. In the sports centre you can get a map with several marked routes of
various lengths on it. The map itself was very accurate but, being such a
pedantic orienteer, I couldn’t help noticing that some routes weren’t drawn
correctly on the map. However, there are painted stones in terrain to follow,
so you can go and run without a map. Just knowing which colour to follow will
do. The lengths of the routes were approximately right.
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| Never-ending trails |
Cycling in
Fuerteventura is great too. Roads are mostly very good and the attitude is
friendly. After riding a bike in Sweden it was great to see Spanish drivers
being so respectful. I’m sure that road signs advising drivers to give space to
cyclists helps too. I joined Sami for a few longer rides in the mountains and
it was just terrific! Fuerteventura is perhaps not as mountainous as Gran
Canaria or Mallorca but climbs are still long enough to put you through some
great suffering. I would say that the headwind we met on our first ride on the
way to Tuineje and further to Antigua felt almost worse than the biggest climb
of the ride (the mountain top between Antigua and Betancuria). But the great
thing with the wind is its payback time. On the way home we got to enjoy
tailwind and our 16kph headwind speed turned suddenly to +40kph without an
effort.
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| Roads like velvet |
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| Lovely café worth a stop in Antigua |
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| Beauty that took me around January Gran Fondo |
I also
enjoyed having a full-length pool just on our doorstep and used swimming to
flush my tired legs after long rides and runs. The only downside was that the resort
was full of professional swimmers and triathletes, which meant that I got to
share a lane with some serious swimmers. I like to use swimming as easy recovery
workout but it didn’t really fit in in the picture. Even with my swimming
background and decent technique (for a runner) I felt like the slowest swimmer in
the pool with my 2min/100m pace. Sure I can swim faster than that but then I’m
out of breath quite soon. So I felt a bit pressure sharing the pool with some
serious swimmers but maybe it’s only good to get out of your comfort zone once
in a while and push a bit harder. I didn’t drown and I felt great afterwards.
All in all
what a great week!
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| Fancy a swim with pros? Absolutely! |
