As many of you know Sue and I come to Club La Santa (CLS) in Lanzarote each May for ‘relaxation’. 

It is a playground for those who like their exercise and want to try new stuff or just do lots of old stuff. Although I do a reasonable amount of cycling here I also do lots of other stuff – all geared towards all-over fitness. It’s Danish-owned and the majority of guests are from Denmark so between that and sports it has a different feel to the typical resort.

Today kicked off with ‘Morning Gymnastics’ – in the old days I think they called it callisthenics – at 8am by the pool. I estimate there were at least 120 people doing it and it seemed most of the then went for the daily organised runs at 8:15. As I am more focussed  on cycling than running I am only doing 3KM at a 6min per Km pace which is a nice warm up for the day.

Then I went cycling. I have previously brought my own bike here but CLS have Cannondale road and MTB bikes for free use by guests and this time I have used theirs which are decent quality and in good condition. I have a few favourite loops based on routes from the CLS bike route book and I did a 25 mile loop followed by a repeat of the hill up out of La Santa village to Tinajo at the top. Between an appalling 3Km section of road which jarred every part of me the main issue today was the wind which was blowing fairly constantly at around 40Km/25mph which is pretty good fun when it’s behind you but not when you have to climb a hill going directly into it! All that said the stats were 30.62 miles with 2041ft of climbing at an average of 14.5mph which I am pleased with.

However I can’t rest there. After a quick lunch it was off to Aerial Yoga which is surprisingly like Aerial Pilates (tomorrow!) and is not the peaceful, chilling, and calm type of activity one imagines anything called yoga would be and I may well have sweated more during that hour than out cycling. The lesson finished with us all hanging upside down which was definately the most relaxing bit even if blood was definitely rushing to my head.

CLS has 3, yes 3, 50m pools and it would be sacrilege not to use them so after Aerial Yoga I went and had a 500m swim which was really refreshing and enjoyable.

I will try and post pictures of the Morning Gymnastics as it is amazing how many people join including lots of families with 4/5 year old kids, their parents, and grandparents (obviously not British!!) but in the meantime below is the view from our balcony.

More tomorrow after I imagine I will have slept well.