This is the last Tenerife blog I promise (I’ve so much more to write about but I don’t want to repeat myself).
On the 14th January, the Friday of Tenerife and the 5th day of bike riding we went for the hill the second time.
Mount Teide is a volcano that sits in the centre of Tenerife (it’s the reason that the island is there) and its summit sits about 2,100 off the shore.
Cyclists go there to climb Teide, to see if they can or see how fast they can or even just (as I did in 2017) to see if I could survive cycling at that height.
When I was there in 2017, we started halfway up the mountain and it was still a trek, this time Louis and I started at the little apartment we were staying in, in Costa Adeje.
We were basically on the beach and set off through the busy tourist sections and a terrible motorway interchange to reach the first part of the hill for the second time up to that height in 48 hours.
The first bit’s hard and it’s early in the morning but you’re full of breakfast and you can overtake some slow riders and imagine that things would be easier than they seem.
I was accounting for something like 4 hours of climbing but in the end, it was 4 hours and 45 minutes and in the second stage after about the first 45 minutes – 1 hour we were travelling sideways across the hill and round some amazing views and the world seemed great and we were eating to make sure we’d got enough fuel for the next step.
On our route you reach a village called Granadilla and then you switch back left and then the first stage of the proper hill begins.
This is the road to Villa Flor which is about the halfway point up the hill.
This stage goes on forever and my back begins to hurt but worse, my left shoulder is now hurting.
It turns out I’ve got the legs it’s just the rest of my body that’s broken and the last time we rode up from halfway up the hill we stopped at Villa Flor for lunch before we made the second ascent but not this time and not with louis and we cruised right past the café and onto the next stage which is even more brutal than the last.
I had vision of riding up the hill non-stop this time (I had 1 stop 2 days before) but in the end I had to ask Louis if I could get off my bike somewhere like 1 ½ hours from the top and just sit for a few minutes, nursing my aching back and my aching shoulder and wondering how much longer I can carry on.
By the time I asked Louis to stop again I’m thinking I’m going to roll down the hill without getting to the top and let him finish on his own.
To his credit and to my inspiration he does nothing but keep me going (this is not difficult for him at his stage of fitness) and in the end we cross the sign to the national park and it’s downhill all the way to the crater and the surface of the moon.
That ride was terrible and awful and so hard and difficult that it’s hard to express.
It’s a window into where you are and into how hard you’re prepared to suffer to get what you want.
It’s a metaphor isn’t it?
For me to be better at this I have to eat better (a lot better), for me to be better at this I have to sleep better (a lot better).
For me to be better at this I have to push some of my work to the side and to train a little bit more and I have to take care of myself and take responsibility for taking care of myself (much better than I’ve done before).
In short, to be better at this I need to be less good at something else and that’s a decision I have to make.
We can pretend that we’re all brilliant at everything (or even half good at anything) but the truth is that the most important thing we can find are focus and balance and the second time up the hill taught me that my focus and balance is really out of sync.
Blog Post Number - 2980
Leave a comment