Training Camp: Lanjaron 2010
I’ve not been partial to the idea of killing myself on the bike for a week then sharing a plane back with lots of ill people in a state of reduced immune. This year I decided to break with that tradition for the chance to go to Spain with some of Scotland’s Elite XCers: Andy Barlow, Dave Henderson, and Paul C Smith. We headed to Lanjaron, just north of Motril on the southern Spanish coast, and were staying with Freeride Spain for the week in one of their rented villas.
We rode for six days out of the seven we were there, covering about 500 km and 16,000m of climbing. The rain was non-stop for the most part, but at least it was 10C warmer than the freezing temperatures at home. Spain isn’t really made for the rain, what with exposed electrics on the buildings and road cuttings through sediment that collapsed and created some nice landslides for us to wade through.
The training value was fantastic and apart from the first day, where a 30mile spin turned into a 80mile epic, I felt I managed well, even competing for some of the sprints at the end of the six mile climb home. My results this year have already shown benefit of the extra training both at home and on the trip, so I’ll definitely be considering similar next year.
You can find more pictures of the trip on Flickr, and Paul’s own report on his blog.
