Stubbington Green Runners

By Mark Le Gassick

If, in the early part of the year, the cold, grey English weather is holding you back and de-motivating you, then a spell of warm weather training may be just what the doctor ordered.

Last month, four Stubbies - Mark Le Gassick, Tor Duffin, Mike Harper and Andy Simpson headed south, to Lanzarote, in search of sunshine, tough multi-sport competition and drop-dead gorgeous, scantily-clad, Scandinavian babes with long legs and perfect tans (well, I guess two out of three ain't bad!).

The Canary Islands are situated just off the coast of Africa and with warm sunshine and high temperatures guaranteed virtually all year round, they make an ideal late winter/early spring training destination. However, it can be quite breezy with the warm Sirocco winds blowing in from the Sahara Desert .

Situated on the north west coast of the island, Club La Santa is a dedicated healthy holiday resort with an "Olympic Village" atmosphere. The club has extensive facilities and offers a diverse range of sporting activities including; aerobics and spinning classes, athletics, windsurfing and scuba diving. Fully qualified, specialist instructors are on hand to provide advice and instruction as and when you need it.

For us, a typical day started with gentle stretching and aerobics, a 5km run around the lagoon, followed by a cooling soak of the legs in the pool. To avoid the heat of the day, races started at 7.45am (apart from the 5k and 10k on Saturday evening) which meant setting the alarm clock for breakfast at the unearthly time of 5.30am .

Each day we headed to the 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool to hone our aquatic skills in time for the aquathlon and mini triathlon. A hard day of training and racing, was often followed by either an Ashtanga yoga class or a stretch and relax session in order to sooth away our aches and pains.

In the multi-sport events, we faced some pretty stiff opposition with seasoned duathletes and triathletes, from Wales, Great Britain, Denmark and Germany providing high quality competition. However, we put in strong performances ourselves and produced some excellent results with virtually all our times significantly quicker than those posted during our last trip, two years ago, in 2004.

Mike Harper did particularly well, successfully completing both the duathlon and mini triathlon despite his aversion to cycling!

During the last two days, a cloudless, blue sky, wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures nudging the early eighties allowed us to top up our tans. And, on the final day, after a tiring week of training and multi-sport racing, the couple of hours spent in the club's brand new Wellness Centre, luxuriating in the spa bath, Jacuzzi and sauna was absolute heaven!

Results

5k Road Race - Saturday 18.3.06

2 Mark - 15.49
5 Tor - 16.56
7 Mike - 18.20
*19 runners

10k Road Race - Saturday 18.3.06

2 Andy - 37.37
*10 runners

Concept II 2000m Rowing Challenge - Sunday 19.3.06

1 Andy - 7.08

Duathlon (2.5km run/14.8km cycle/2.5km rub)- Monday 20.3.06

4 Mark 46.33 (8.34/28.28/9.31)
5 Tor 47.46 (9.07/28.57/9.42)
8 Andy 52.30 (9.33/32.39/10.18)
18 Mike 62.50 (10.01/42.07/10.42)
*24 finishers

Aquathlon (200m swim/3km run) - Monday 20.3.06

1 Mark 15.04 (4.55/10.09)
3 Mike 16.18 (5.05/11.13)
5 Tor 16.48 (6.30/10.18)
7 Andy 17.56 (6.29/11.27)
*15 finishers

Half Marathon - Tuesday 21.3.06

7 Andy - 1.29.59
*23 finishers

Mini Triathlon (400m swim/15.2km cycle/4.4 km run) - Wednesday 22.3.06

6 Mark 55.23 (9.29/29.49/16.05)
8 Tor 56.54 (11.13/29.16/16.25)
13 Mike 66.07 (9.08/39.06/17.53)
*24 finishers

The Ice Cold Plunge Pool Challenge - Thursday 23.3.06

 Andy - 5 minutes
Mark - 13 minutes 40 seconds
Mike - less than a minute!
Tor - 14 minutes

Click here for photos