Brit pros Rachel Joyce (ITU LD World Champion) and Emma Kate Lidbury (IMUK 70.3 winner) are currently putting in some winter miles on the Canary island of Fuerteventura. They’ll be checking in on life at the training camp during their stay at the sports resort, Las Playitas, over the next couple of weeks. We’ll pass you over to Rachel…
Las Playitas: One week in...
“Emma Kate Lidbury and I pitched up at Las Playitas last week looking a bit like a couple of bag ladies. After starting our winter training camp on the familiar roads of Lanzarote, we were delighted to be invited to stay at Las Playitas for a few weeks.
Neither of us had previously been to the island of Fuertaventura, but both of us had heard good things about the set up at Las Playitas and were keen to check it out for ourselves. Pitching up in the Las Playitas reception with our bikes, suitcases and about ten carrier bags we certainly made an entrance!
In the taxi en route I mentioned to EK that in my dreams we’d have someone greeting us and taking care of our rather excessive luggage, while we went to the buffet. I couldn’t believe it when my dreams were answered: after checking in I turned to see our luggage had already been loaded into a car and was on its way to our apartment. It’s the small things that make a big difference after a day of training and travel. All that was left for us was to hit the buffet...
Whilst on training camp life has become pretty simple: sleep, train, eat, train some more, eat some more and repeat. After just a few days in Las Playitas, EK and I had easily slipped into a nice routine and it’s clear that that is no accident. It feels a bit like the “Who’s who” of European triathlon here right now and that’s because the set up and facilities really promote good training. We only have to roll down the hill in the morning to swim in the 50m pool (usually half asleep!), and excellent biking routes and running trails are right on our doorstep. Couple that with the popular half board arrangement and there’s really no excuse for not training hard!
We've tended to head to the pool for 8am where we swim anything from 4-5km, and after that we certainly feel like we’ve earned our entrance to the buffet breakfast. After a few days we realised we had to implement some buffet rules just to avoid the buffet bulge! We’re just about sticking to them. The fact that you are likely to bump into the likes of Javier Gomez, Thomas “Hell on Wheels” Hellreigel or the entire Danish Triathlon squad (is that enough name dropping?!) while eyeing up the pancakes and Nutella is also a tidy reminder to exercise some restraint.
We’re just heading into our second week: we’ve swum a fair few lengths and ridden and run enough to certainly start feeling a little wind battered. We’ll report back in with more news from camp later this week.”
For more information on booking a trip to Las Playitas head to www.trips4fitness.com.
