Day One
6.30am Up, wetsuit on
7am Sea Swim while the sun comes up
8am Breakfast, then Bike.
81km, 1000m ascent : Over the vineyards and today we did the El Golfo loop which is a 10 mile TT to get our times for the handicapped TT later in the week.
Run – 30 min 6km run
Day Two
7am Sea Swim
8am Breakfast, then Bike
130km, 1800m ascent : quite a chunk of the IM course in reverse, up to the north end of Lanza.
Day Three
6.45am Aquathlon – Sea Swim, 4.6km run
8am Breakfast, then Bike
107km, 1500m ascent : Teguise, Fire mountain and up Femes
Day Four
7am Sea Swim, IM course
8am Breakfast, then Bike
93km, 1400m ascent : Today we did a time trial up the side of the mountain at Tabeyesco. Us girlies have an annual tradition of doing it in our superhero pants. All adds to the general good humour/ banter of camp.
Day Five
7am Sea Swim – the handicapped swim race based on times gained from the aquathlon on day 3.
8am Breakfast, then Bike
71km, 1000m ascent : Over the vineyards again down to Playa Blanca and then up Femes.
Much like the girls have a superhero pants TT up Tabby, the boys (or some of them) appear to have developed a tradition of their own – doing Femes in the big chain ring. We have witnessed it from the cafe above and the zig zagging across the road bringing all cars to a standstill and people standing cheering them on from the balcony is a testimony to not only the stupidness of the people on this camp but the need to sate some deep desire to rise to a challenge that will not achieve anything in life but bragging rights from year to year on this camp alone.
Day Six
No sea Swim, we all swam an extra 30 mins yesterday to get out of swimming today. This also gives us an extra 30 mins in bed 😉
8am Breakfast, then Bike – FULL LANZA IM COURSE !!!
180km, 2500m ascent : So on legs already tired and pushed to the edge, some people already beyond their limits and into new ones, we all start the IM bike course. We’re split into different speed groups with one group opting to add on another 20km to make it a nice round 200km ride.
Much as it’s been all week, the wind is horrendous, it’s unseasonably cold, these are the worst conditions this ride has ever been undertaken in. But we make it round. And in a new all time record, the slowest ever!! I hope the wind is never like this on race day.
This last day is the epitome of everything the EDT camp is about. We have strong leaders, we have banter, we have jokes at the top of mountains and we have pints in the pub at night. We get up in the dark to swim, ride for hours every day and we don’t groan about it. We are all like minded people who appear to love doing Ironman and we are brought together for one week every year to a wind swept, barren island in the Canaries that looks like you could have landed on the moon.
And we love it 😉
Thanks EDT Camp