So, back to good old England it is then. Pity that. Spain was rather nice, around 25degrees most of the time, which I'll be honest with you here, I can cope with. Phil, Ali, Neil Withington (Anderson Racing) and I have just spent seven days in Estopona, on the South Coast of Spain.
My main objective for the week was to do base training, just riding easy and having plenty of time for rest and recovery. I had been advised to do no more than 3hours a day, as the road season is still a long way off, but this was actually quite difficult to manage, it was such a joy to ride over there, so easy to get out and stay out, that I didn't want to stop riding. Having other people to ride with was also a huge benefit, not only did it mean there was always someone to hide behind if it got windy, but it made the time just fly by too. Having only ever trained on my own before this was a revelation!
Having done very little research on the area we were going to be riding in, it was a little suprising to find that the only non-major road that took us away from our apartment was a 15km long pass, which lead to...more passes. I personally love riding in the hills, so this was all good with me. If we wanted to do easy miles on the flat then we went along the main coast road which was rolling and had very tolerant drivers. It can be all to easy in this area to look at the map and take a 'short-cut' which turns out to have about 2000metres of climbing.
One of my major downfalls is my lack of ability to eat and drink the amount I should while riding, so this is something else I was really concentrating on 8while in Spain, Torq bars and gels along with Sports Beans were all the order of the day, just need to actually drink something along with them now...
At the end of every ride we all had the joy of riding back up the road to the apartment, a 'lovely' sweeping, extremely steep, hill which I'm sure on a number of occasions we could have done without.
All in all, a really good week, and definately an excellent oppurtunity to get some miles in while the weather has been so dreary in England. Perhaps the most important thing of all about the whole trip? My bike survived the two flights without being crushed, dented, chipped or otherwise harmed, wohooo!
Weeeell, most of the time (Gibraltar in the background).
My main objective for the week was to do base training, just riding easy and having plenty of time for rest and recovery. I had been advised to do no more than 3hours a day, as the road season is still a long way off, but this was actually quite difficult to manage, it was such a joy to ride over there, so easy to get out and stay out, that I didn't want to stop riding. Having other people to ride with was also a huge benefit, not only did it mean there was always someone to hide behind if it got windy, but it made the time just fly by too. Having only ever trained on my own before this was a revelation!
Having done very little research on the area we were going to be riding in, it was a little suprising to find that the only non-major road that took us away from our apartment was a 15km long pass, which lead to...more passes. I personally love riding in the hills, so this was all good with me. If we wanted to do easy miles on the flat then we went along the main coast road which was rolling and had very tolerant drivers. It can be all to easy in this area to look at the map and take a 'short-cut' which turns out to have about 2000metres of climbing.
One of my major downfalls is my lack of ability to eat and drink the amount I should while riding, so this is something else I was really concentrating on 8while in Spain, Torq bars and gels along with Sports Beans were all the order of the day, just need to actually drink something along with them now...
At the end of every ride we all had the joy of riding back up the road to the apartment, a 'lovely' sweeping, extremely steep, hill which I'm sure on a number of occasions we could have done without.
All in all, a really good week, and definately an excellent oppurtunity to get some miles in while the weather has been so dreary in England. Perhaps the most important thing of all about the whole trip? My bike survived the two flights without being crushed, dented, chipped or otherwise harmed, wohooo!
The views while riding were pretty good.
Weeeell, most of the time (Gibraltar in the background).
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