Strava QOM challenges helping Lucy Charles-Barclay find that “extra 10%” as she zones in on Kona

Lucy Charles-Barclay continues her build-up to Kona – and in her latest YouTube video shows how having a goal in a training block can help squeeze out that extra bit of effort, whether you’re an age-grouper or a top-level pro.

Building in an added challenge can be a great motivational tool and in LCB’s case last month that was a Strava QOM [Queen of the Mountain] crown she was determined to better.

“Sometimes having a small fun goal within a training block can really make you push that extra 10%,” says the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion before going all in on the attempt.

‘Favourite climb in the world’

Lanzarote has been a base for much of her training in 2023 – so much so that she was impacted by new Brexit rules earlier in the summer – and her latest spell in the Canary Islands saw her tackle what she calls her “favourite climb in the world”.

That’s the ‘Tabeyesco’ ascent – 9.59km, featuring 527 metres of climbing for an average gradient of 5.5%. And on a day where she collected an incredible amount of Strava bling, that was the segment she wanted to focus on above all others.

She has actually held the crown since 2018 and given triathlon’s strong links to the island it’s no surprise that the other names just below her on the Strava podium come from swim-bike-run – Sif Bendix Madsen and Lucy Gossage.

But LCB’s target was not just going under her previous best of 26:16 but also trying to dip under 26 minutes.

And there were pros and cons in terms of her bid. On the plus side she was using her new Cube Litening Air bike, a far lighter set up than her TT bike from five years previously. But she was tackling it in the heat of summer rather than January and also on the back of a heavy training day 24 hours earlier.

One better at Kona?

You’ll have to watch the video above to find out how she got on but, either way, preparations for the IRONMAN World Championship look nicely on course.

This season she’s again had to battle injury (a fractured third metatarsal) but has collected podium places at the PTO European Open and 70.3 Kraichgau and is currently #4 in the PTO world rankings.

But there’s no doubt it’s that Kona title she craves above all else after four successive runner-up spots on the Big Island.