Training Log: Sludo

knee not great at work

tenerife day 3

down from refuge. terrible nights sleep, woke up a few times with a headache and the room in the refuge was so poorly ventilated it was like a humid co2 party. so just took it easy today.

walk was rather uneventful and a bit of a slog given could see the end pretty much the whole way.

big toe R really painful, I'm a bit stuck as I've only brought one pair of shoes...
knee seems okish. no pain as such but didn't push it.

tenerife day 2 up El teide

nice and early start meant I was not sweating buckets from the off. nice Pootle through pine forest before up and over a 2500M col before dropping down to the parador hotel for lunch (as used by Wiggins and er, Armstrong for their tenerife training camps).

decision point whether to go for teide today (3718m) and drop down to refuge (3300m) or just head up to refuge leaving teide for Sunday. committed to the former so headed up the west side... nice and gradual to begin with but gradient and altitude beginning to bite from c2500m. bit rough underfoot and pumice / rocks trashing innovates. flattened out c3000m before the hardest part of the climb up an old steep lava flow - was basically boulder hopping with the path intermittently appearing as scuffs on rocks In sections. really tiring at this altitude and was v wary given this was the area an adventure runner went missing last year.

from 3400m theyd paved the paths for the tourists spewing out from the cable car. so much easier going to top. thankfully too windy for cable car today so I had the whole of spains highest summit completely to my self. bit eery with all the sulphur coming out the vents on one side with the wind battering the other side. quick summit phone call then down to the refuge for a headache inducing humid sleepover with 15 other smelly mountaineers at altitude.

really pleased.

the body front....
knee much better than yesterday, could feel it on the descent but not painful.
have developed quite sharp pain on my right big toe ball joint - think it's to do with new shoes and the crease in the footbox bending at this point.

day 1 of tenerife adventure.

Costa adeje sea level > vilaflor 1500m

Landed at lunchtime and by 1pm feet were in the sea ready for the off. 24 degrees at ground level so sweating buckets and was only pleasant from c600m high. first 7k was following the gr 131 that was on my German map but the cartographer was clearly a chancer as the marked gr 131 route on the ground started about 7 km in to his markings. anyhow I got the joys of wandering round a water treatment plant and a quarry.

Once up onto proper route was lovely ascending gradually through shrub to the pines.

knee was variable throughout, a bit of pain on the downhills (bbodes well) but okish on the uphill.

then tried to find the closest thing to mcdonalds in vilaflor and settled on a goat Burger.

feet bit mashed up afterwards. legs tired.