What did I learn from Lanzarote?
Some time in the future, I may well do Lanzarote again. So I thought I’d right some things down to help me remember what I learnt:
1. Sun tan cream: Put it on before I put my trisuit on.
2. Read the race plan in the morning: It will reminding me to put sun tan cream on!
3. Training in winter is cold: You will not enjoy going for long ride when it is cold. The turbo trainer was even worse. So learn to like the turbo.
4. Wear tri shoes and no socks on the bike: And practice using them in T1. It’ll save a minute!
5. Take the short-term hurt in T2 as well as T1: A few seconds of extra intensity in T1 and T2 will save a lot of time.
6. Increase the intensity up to Mirador del Rio: There is a lot of downhill after that so I’ll get a break.
7. Increase the intensity after I finish the LZ1: This is the perfect place to start to finish “hard” because there are lots of downhills after.
8. The views around the island are spectacular: Keep enjoying them.
9. Keep the positives in mind: No one wants to hear about the wheel that broke or the hat that got lost. So think about what is going well.
10. What’s important now: This is a fantastic phrase. Use it!
11. Keep running: I walked through the aid stations on two out laps and one in lap to drink coke. Why bother with the walking? Practice running and drinking.
12. Do something about the pins and needles: Try different bike shoes. Try moving the cleats back.
13. Don’t use the same front wheel: Bin it!
14. Coaching: It worked really well.
15. Run the whole last lap “hard”: I did the last 5.25k ”hard” (and a good chunk of the last out lap quicker than normal) but I could, perhaps, have done the whole of the last 10.5k quicker.
16. Don’t do Thursday to Thursday: Try Sunday or Tuesday. I felt under pressure on Thursday with getting to the island and the race briefing.