My first Cat 1 climb experience

My getting stronger and fitter journey is involving a lot of different aspects of my life.. The riding around here as I mention in previous posts is very challenging for a heavy rider like me so on top of all the training is time to start watching what I eat as well....(but is another post coming about this topic soon) What do I mean by challenging rides?? Just look at my riding area...

Don't get me wrong..!!! I am not complaining..! I love this..! Is so challenging that every where I go I end up with a few hundred meters of climbing by the time I come back home... Today as an example I used +Strava  to monitor my school run... By the time I got home it was 4.1 km and 100+ meters of elevation!

But this is about the Saturday ride... I know is already Monday but I had a busy weekend with the family (Happy Easter!!!) So my roads on Saturday looked like this most of the time...

Like this going up or down most of the time.. Sometimes a bit more rough...

And 99% of the time my views looked like this...

At points the roads got really rough that the local authorities let you know ahead of time... And by the way can you see those antennas in the back high up? I was heading there.. Just not yet...

But before I got there I had to climb a bit more... And also go down some nice towns in between the mountains...

After making a few wrong turns here and there I was finally on the right track to conquer my first ever category 1 climb... All I had to do was follow this road.

8 km of roads that only kept going up.. And then up some more.. Along the way you could see this kind of views that would be much better on a MTB to explore...

A very narrow road to the top of my first monster climb...

As I was climbing and came out of the trees I saw the Mediterranean see in the distance..

Then it was back at going up... The gradients?? For the curious ones my +Garmin said 12% here... I don't think it ever when under 7% for the whole climb..

As you go up there is painting on the road that tells you how far you have climbed... The painting started at 5 km to go to the top... I tried to take some pics but they didn't come out any good as I was struggling to bread much less to aim at a painting on the route while riding.. Did I ever mention that all my pictures are taken from the bike while riding?? Well almost all of them..
But I was almost there at the top of the climb... But Before getting there lets just demoralize the poor fu**/r with this ramp..

That was something like 100 meters North of 14%.... The cherry on top???

But I think everything is worth it when you get to the top... Dismount your bike and hold to it as you realized that you are dizzy as hell and everything is spinning around you.... Then just then after you catch up your breath and the feeling of puking is leaving your body on that moment when you finally can look at the horizon and see how far you got up..

That I believe is the city of +Benalmadena Unica

And my trusty companion that took me all the way up there... The Mediterranean sea at the back..

For those that would like to follow this route one day here is the Strava link to my ride..

If you are ever in this part of the world drop me a line and hopefully I can take you up here for a spin.

Thanks for reading.. Hope you enjoyed the story.. If you have someone that might enjoy this share it!

See you ate the next update?

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Faster? Stronger?

Semana Santa here in Spain... Holly week that means... Most of the people already at their favorite holiday destination or at home relaxing and enjoying each others company... You know what this means for us cyclists???? ALMOST traffic free routes all over the place... I don't think I crossed 100 cars today in my 3+ hour ride...

Using this unique conditions I set out with a plan in my head... I was going to actually train..!! My plan? Since is almost impossible to ride around here without hitting a climb and this is great for me since I really suck at it I picked this climb to be my playground today..

According to +Strava this is a 14.5 km long climb with a 4% average gradient... Some places had more..

And some others has less....

But is a rewarding climb... As you heading for the top you can soak in this views around you..

And I could keep posting views like this for hours...

You wondering what the routes look like?

Nature and man made structures made up for a nice picture here...

This one was standing alone at the top of a rise in the distance.. A silo? A windmill? Great view..!

Don't we all hate those skinny, young and stronger riders?? This one was a gentleman and said Buenos Días as went by... OH..!!! This was the top of the climb.. Right there is the highest point.

After the las picture it was a downhill... I was trying to catch the guy that passed me at the top but I never saw him again... I am not a good bike handler so I use my breaks a lot coming down the mountains... So I got down to the town of Burgos.. There I decided to turn around and head home again.... Following the same route and trying to do better in this segment.. 35 km till we get home.

The routes offer a variety of bars and restaurants where one could stop for a refreshment, snack or even a full meal..!!

Other riders are polite as well most of the time so don't forget to wave or say Hola..!

Specially if you see this big guy suffering up a climb... Hola..! Hello..!

And getting back up to the Puerto the las Abejas... Port of the bees...Actually saw a few around...

After cresting over Las Abejas for second time started the loong downhill home... And I was in a mission to cut my time on the segment mentioned above.. Camera went in my jersey and didn't come out till I got home....

The ride home? fast downhills with lots of little leg breakers and some others that are categorized as category 4 climbs... Lots of sections that are flat or false flats.. I was trying to hold a steady heart rate at a tempo or high tempo pace.. (for me that is) I was doing well and could it be a bit faster if it wasn't for the head wind coming at me...

So by the time I got home what did I have? I had a lots of PR that are easy to get when you are new in an area.. So Strava told me my final numbers look like this.

And my legs where beat and tanned..!

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Tres Cruces Trip

The story about today revolves about this climb according to +Strava is a category 2 climb that extends over 8 km at an average of 6%... Is a climb that is fun to do... Where you have to pace yourself at the start where the hard part is...

Lots of ramps..!! Where the average goes to 10% 12% and some more..

The first couple of km are the hardest ones (to me)

Along the way you have paintings on the route... Telling you distance and gradient

My riding partners where ahead of me most of the time....

Then I got into a climbing cadence that was comfortable to me and started catching people...!!! Woohoo..!!! Looking back at some riders...

Then the route turned interesting to my taste... There were big ramps of over 14% and where I could not take any pictures since I was climbing at a nice pace... Between this ramps there were some flat sections and even some downhill ones... This are the ones I used to keep my pace high and not to rest.. and caught up with my buddies....

Got to the top second from our group and then I had the chance to take some pictures after crossing the finish line... "meta"

The view at the top was short of amazing..!!!

After this picture was time to turn around and hit the flattish routes where I like to have both hands on the bike so there were only a few more pictures of nothing in particular...

At the end of the day for those that like numbers and ride profiles +Strava  said I did THIS

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you next time

Pablo 

The Weekend Report Guy

Looking for my climbing legs

As the title says I am in the process of trying to get my climbing legs up to speed with all the mountains around here.. Lets face it you can't go for a ride and come back home with at least a few hundred meters of climbing... If you don't believe me look around..

I am so much not used to all this that I am taking it easy getting to the point where I am comfortable climbing all this ups and down.. Trying to to pace my self.. And looking constantly at my +Garmin to see how my body reacts to stuff like this..

But I am a competitive guy like most of the cyclists out there.. So I did the first climb at slow easy pace keeping my heart rate not higher then tempo...
Then when I was half way up the second climb I remember there was a +Strava segment running there and I couldn't help myself the moment the route stopped going up in a steep way I pushed up a little... ;)

But I stopped when I hit the 3rd climb... And started going at a more comfortable pace... I eve took a picture

But as I was climbing I saw something in the distance...

As a good cyclist I was on a mission to catch them... Come on!! Don't tell me you never done it..?? So I started climbing faster.. But keeping an eye at the effort..
And I got closer to them..

Then I got really close to so low clouds... That is MTB territory...

Always good to see that the authorities are concern about our safety... And try to let others know we are around..

Oh remember the guys I was chasing??? Forgot to mention them.. Or take a pic as I went by...

Then I finally got to the top of my final climb where I had this view waiting for me...

It wasn't a big ride but if you are interested in numbers and looking a bit at the profile here is the ride feel free to send me a request... Or even join our Weekend Report Club

This is it for today..! Hope you enjoyed..!

As usual thanks for reading and sharing

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

My legs are dead... Long live my legs..!!

To close a busy weekend we had another group ride.. Remember last week when I went out for the first time with some local guys? No? Then go and read the post about it.. and look at the pictures as well.. There is some good ones there..

Yesterday they had in mind a ride a little harder then the one we did last the Sunday before.. If you look at STRAVA you will get an idea of the profile of the ride and the great speed I achieved.. (ha ha ha) can't say that with a straight face..!

The routes for the day?

And as you can see we are getting closer to it..

You ride across some really nice towns... These towns were founded by the Moros during the invasions to Europe hundreds of year ago...

And half way up the first climb I looked back and the view...

The route up... Some switchbacks...

And after dying once getting there... I finally reached the top of the first climb.. My reward???

The view at the top were great..! The peace and quiet was something really nice to enjoy... They made you forgot all the pain and suffering that involved getting up there..

But soon enough my vision turned all blurry again when the routes started to kick back up... Even if it was only a temporary not long raise on the route..

And this became a constant for the rest of the ride... Not so much the blurry vision but me looking at my buddies from behind...

After that rise above we started a downhill where the routes were not great.. The authorities in charge of fixing these are suffering with the rest of |Spain the crisis and their budget was cut.. Since this are secondary routes they do not receive proper maintenance... On the other hand still great because there was 2 cars over 10 km or something like that... Camera went away during this part of the ride that remind me that my father was raise in very similar situations more then 60 years ago... Lots of sheep and olive trees.. Typical for the are..

Camera came back out at the start of the second big climb of the day...

As you could see my riding partners were off the front right away.. I told the go.. I would climb at my own speed.. Sloooowwwwww....!!!!

Some kids coming down the hill from the other way...

And I finally made it to the top..!!!! The sign says is the TOP..!!!

And now was all downhill and some flats... a few bumps before home but fast most of the way..!!
That is what the way home looked like..

It was a great day out.. died twice but I made it home... With a great story to tell and soon after taking a shower and eating something I was ready to go and try to do it all over again.. OK maybe next week..

Now it was time to sit outside and enjoy the family and a well deserved earned drink...

Cheers...!!! Salute..! Salud..!!

Thanks for reading and sharing this story

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy