Welcome to Southern Spain..!

It was so hot that we had to change out original plans… (150 km and 3000 meters) for something a bit more modest… 120 km and 2000 meters 
The average temperature for the ride? 35 C..!!! AVERAGE!! The max hit 46 according to Garmin..!! Yep it was that hot..

As per usual the routes were great..! This one is from the first climb a cat 2 of 15 km … To el Puerto de las Abejas..

The start of the second cat 2 of the day… This climb was like 9 km long of great twisting roads that went up and down.

Jose trying to catch up with me after I attacked a bump..

And he passed me..

My 3 companions for the day.. I might actually frame this one..

Wind mills to create a postcard view..

Time for the reward… I had two of those before heading home..

Some tapas (small food or snacks) chips… not very salty and jamon crudo

Oh and look..!!! It was new kit day.. (finally I got mine..!!!)

Looking forward to have you over here...If you want to contact us use this blog or you can reach me/us at our Facebook page

Thanks for reading and sharing it..

Pablo 

The Weekend Report and Retreat Guy

We are OPEN for business..!!!

You knew it was coming for a while if you are a regular of this place... If you are not don't worry you will catch up as the post progresses..

So as I finally consider that I know enough of the routes around me to offer YOU a few days of great cycling when you come I decided to create and open The Weekend Retreat !!

What is this? here is where I offer my services, local knowledge and support the day you come here to ride your bike...

Do you need me if you decide to come? Absolutely not..! Would it be helpful to have me next to you as you ride..??? Definitely..!!!

Why? Simple knowledge.. I have it.. I know where the water filling spots are.... Where to eat.. What routes have a bit more of shade... What times the routes have more traffic... Where the flat roads are... Where the mountains are.. You know what I mean.. I know the details to make you remember this trip forever.. And I want to make sure that you come back a second time..!! Or third..!

We are starting small.. I am not offering anyone to stay with me because the house is small.. Unless you are a close friend and don't mind 2 dogs and kids running up and down...
I do offer you my interpreter services to help you book a room in a local hostel.. After all you are coming here to ride a bike not for the 5 stars hotels.. (you see? I am already making this cheap for you)
The eating and drinking around here are just great pick any bar and you will leave happy and full for no much money spent...

If you want to know more...  Here is the +Facebook page where you can ask any questions or just ask in the comments below...

If you are a long term friend just let me know when are you coming and what would you like to do...

Questions and suggestions are always welcome..

Remember we are starting really small..

Thanks for reading and see you soon..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Returning to Tolox

Katja is traveling to the US to bring Savannah and I am staying home with Felix and the puppies… (so if you want to send me something from the US now is the time..!) So I headed out today to see what I could do…

After all I had this playground…

Was my first ride since last Sunday and my legs were not happy for the first 2 hours of the ride.. Here is us entering the town of Tolox..

Is not a very long climb itself… 3.2 km and has some shade..

The gradients? Well…. 13% on the bents… If I remember it right

Remember my legs were not happy? So I told Jose to go..

I still had a way to go…

Jose while I was cresting looking at me like… What is wrong with you..?? (no strength today)

And this is how we got to the top.. Same way to go down..

The strava link for the ones that care.. Nothing impressive there.. This little loop put me at 3299 km and 50.000 meters..

Thanks for reading and really hope you like it..

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Expanding my local knowledge...

So a tiny Colombian guy I met here in my new town took me out to a climby route... WTF was I thinking? After all have you see me??? No? Look at me..!!! I am not built like a climber...

98 kilos of whatever I am built with... Spanish food is too good to go on a diet.. But I am trying to lose some weight... And did I mention I like my recovery drinks???

So we left Coín in the direction of Marbella... Is a bit bumpy heading that way... And as expected when the routes started heading up..... my riding partner was ahead...

We were heading for a little town in the middle of the mountains called Istán, this little beauty of town is in the middle of all this...

My friend was sort of worry about me getting drop in the middle of all this climbs... Look forward..! I am here..!!! (still)

But when I was able to put the big chain ring and push the pedals a bit harder.... Look what happened..

And when the roads headed back up?? We were playing like that all the way into town...

Once we got to the center of town was time to refill bottles at the local fountain... A nice place to stop and take a picture while refreshing.. Not far from this were bars where you can have some food and drinks before you head back down the mountain...

If you are wondering how hot it was here? I mean by the time we got to the top.. Pushing your bike over all those bumps... Well my +Garmin says 25 C average for the whole ride.. But there? Well I think this image gives you an idea of how people reach the top...

We came down the mountain flying... There is a nice view of a dam but I could not take any nice pictures while descending.. Maybe next time.. Once we reached the flat lands our roads looked like this before we headed up the mountain again to get home..

Of the last climb I did not take any shots as I was busy managing my effort to not get drop.. I was lucky enough that my companion started cramping while climbing and I didn't get drop... But to give you an idea is a loooong constant climb that Strava says is a category 2 climb... 52 minutes climbing...!!! On the bright side I am in the top 100 in this segment (only 64 did it) The whole ride if you like to see the route..

Hope you enjoyed the reading.. Hope to see you around here one of these days..

Thanks for reading and sharing... 

Thanks to everyone that is supporting the blog via Paypal Link every little helps to keep bringing you stories and images of Spain.

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Looking for the climbing legs..

I had a quiet weekend when it comes to riding.. I did not ride much.. All I did was was this ride where I was curious to see how fast I could do it and what kind of power I could produce while at it..

So FTP territory right? But please tell me... FTP means??  I came up with my own definition.. F*ck That Pablo..!! But what did I actually did??

I headed out on Saturday without much of a clue on what I wanted to do.. Then I run into a guy I know that was doing this loop I know where I can push a bit since is rolling terrain for a bit over the first half... Here is where I wanted to test my legs and power... The result??? 240W... Not a big number... But a number to work with from now on.. The ride? Strava says.... This are rolling terrains..

Today?? I went looking for my climbing legs...

My playground for the day looked like this..

And I was riding with this guy...

And we did this ride... not bad for a Tuesday... If you are too lazy to click on the link it says 52 km and over 1000 meters of climbing in two hours...

So That was it for today... See you next time..Thanks for reading and sharing..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

One more off road adventure!

Yesterday I started exploring the dirt routes around here... Now when I say dirt is dirt, gravel, sand or whatever the terrain looks like...
Today's adventure was lots of big rocks... The kind that makes your wheel jumps all over the road or trail... Want to see what I am talking about??

At the start of my off road trip..

I know for your skills this might be nothing but for mine they were horrific boulders coming at me... At this point I got scared.. Put a foot down and lost grip so great opportunity to take a picture right??

Here was the turn around point.... Too many too big rocks..Loose rocks.. Many big loose rocks for the CX wheels to handle and not to mention my abilities off road... And it was steep..!! And hot !!! And I could hear dogs barking in the distance.. I was scared.. I turned around..

Someone that knows this route told me that behind that next bend on the trail it gets worst so good thing I turned when I did..

Here is one more image that kind  of work as a signature of me riding into the unknown  trails...

You have no idea how happy I was when I reached the pavement again....!!! But that is the beauty of a CX bike.. You can venture off road for a bit as long as you don't mind walking in the very technical bits.. Me personally I don't mind at all... I like to be back home in one piece..!

The way back home...

 And that's all for today boys and girls... Thanks for reading it..See you next time..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

What did 2015 look like?

Yes is that time of the year when we come to look back and see what this year left us... In my case it was a year full of ups and downs but where I want to remember that I finish better that the way I started..

You remember how my year began?

At the end of 2014 they just removed the cast of my leg and at the start of this year I wasn't even allowed to step on this leg...

After a few weeks the doctors gave me the OK to start doing some "light" cycling indoors... Light cycling hahahaha...!!!! But so it began the route back to be on my feet...

It wasn't long after I got back on the trainer or turbo trainer like my friends here in the UK called it that someone recommended me certain indoor product to keep me motivated during my rehab period.. That was the start of a new friendship with the program..The developers and a whole new lot of other people riding indoors for different reasons.... That was the start of Zwift and me...

And the picture from the top explains how much time I spent on the bike when I wasn't able to do anything else basically.. 4305 km indoors..! That is a lot of time on the saddle..!!! But it really helped me to get back on my feet and walk almost normal now... Funny memory?? after a few sessions with the physio they told me "Keep doing whatever you are doing at home" that is much better then anything else they could do for me....

But to me was easy to spend that amount of time on the bike.. I had the support of my family and friends from all over the world.. And that made the whole rehab process much easier..

The key moments of the year? Let me think for a minute... If I had to pick one... YES..!!! Has to be the +Giro d'Italia +Discover Northern Ireland  you know the event to remember the time that the Giro started here in Belfast..

What was this all about? It was somewhere around 200 km of misery, rain, wind and cold weather that lasted over 7:30 hours... Where I had the pleasure of meeting a cycling legend like Stephen Roche...

Where Richie Porte was riding as well but I could not take a shot of him.. (he missed it)

There was lots of people, the organization was very good but I hope they do better with the rest stops and the food that they give there... Gels and whatever the other stuff was is not enough.. But they know they messed that part up...

But after all the hard hours on the saddle it was all worth it when I finally got home to get the kiss of my personal podium girl...

The +Strava link to the route of that event?? Giro di Italia Northern Ireland 2015

After June the weather was up and down... We didn't have a real Summer and that truly bothered me.. I never got into a real rhythm where I was comfortable on the bike.. So my fitness was on and off as well...

Had good months and bad months...

So now that we hit the end of the year I look at my numbers and see:

DISTANCE: 9536 KM

TIME ON THE SADDLE: 362.5 HOURS funny.. Almost 1 hour a day in average..

It was a great year if you considered where I was coming from... Now that we reached the end of it all I can do is look back and say THANKS to everyone involved in my getting back on the bike and almost at 100 % in everyday activities...

Thanks for reading and sharing

Pablo

The Report Guy

The Weekend Report Club Strava

Happy "windy" Monday commute..!

Monday here and with it comes the routine of going to work and the biking commute.. Do not get me wrong..! I really enjoy my commute or for the most part I do..

How not to like it when you have this kind of views to reward you on your way to work?

This is Belfast at sunrise time for you.. it was a bit cloudy... Extremely windy..! for my luck most of it was on my back while going to work.. Some sections was a strong cross wind, you know when you are riding in between buildings or trees and come to an opening.. For sure I felt like the bike was going to do her own thing..

But it was worth it..! And it was surprisingly warm..! I was sweating a lot by the time I got to work.. Good thing there is a changing room at work where I can hang my clothes to dry for the ride back home..

My STRAVA ride looked like this.. Easy enough right?

My view at the time I got to work? A very nice one..!!!

That is Cave Hill, maybe when the weather turns for better or the days get longer I take a trip up there with the bike to show you the view from up there..

On my way home I had less fun since it was dark, windy, head wind to be more precise and had to stay focus on not to lose the bike to the wind and the coming traffic... (no pictures) And to top it all out my light run out of battery with like 10 blocks to go...!!! Charging it now...

Took a few pics of people parked on the bike path or lane but they came out too dark and hard to see... I am starting a hashtag #isnotok to tag people parked like excrement on places that create a hazardous problem for cyclists and people walking..

Thanks for reading and sharing (?)

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy

And a year after...

How to start this is a bit of work for me.. I was going over notes and pictures from almost a year ago and is a bit of mixed feelings about it...
So what about I open it with a picture of that day that for sure changed the course of my life in more then one aspect..

Yes that is me sitting on the side walk and on the back you can see my bike laying on the floor... MY BIKE LAYING ON THE FLOOR..!!!! As you can see also my pants are ripped.. This sure looks like a bad combination for a picture...

Yes!! I got hit by a car..!! Now please don't panic this was a year ago and this is part of the story of how it happened.. Where and how far I came along since that day...

Soon after the top picture was taken I got my first and hope last ever ambulance ride...

People tells me that I look very cheerful for what had just happened to me... My answer to all of them? "I just got hit by a car and I am talking to you" Do you see how lucky I am? Come on..! A car turn into me from the opposite side of the route as I was riding on the bike lane ... The lady didn't see me and run right into me..

What did I get? How much damage to my body? After the paramedics took a look at me and asked me all the traditional questions I told them all I have is something wrong with my right knee..

And the bike? Well the bike didn't look too bad at that moment...

Later on after a few months of resting in my garage and finally a visit to the local bike shop for full examination gave me the full story of how much (£) damage was done to my poor bike..!! By the way it was a brand new bike with less then 200 km on it when this happened... But £500+ later the bike works well now.. Too long to list all the parts that were changed..

Me? I had a bit more work and longer rehab time then the bike..

So what happened? What did I break on my leg? What was next?
To be honest I knew something was wrong with the knee because it hurt when I was trying to make it straight or bend it... But I could never guess it was this bad..

Doctors words that day: Well you have a tibia plateau fracture, you have to stay with us till Tuesday when we going to operate to fix your leg... This was a Friday afternoon...!!!! And to me they were speaking Chinese I had no idea what a tibia plateau fracture was... Or how could this affect me.. Now I am sort of an expert in the subject..

From that Friday to the Tuesday before entering the surgery room I had a lot in my mind, I am almost 40 and never went under the knife before... I never had a broken bone before.. I never even got a stitch on me before this time.. I was really scared.. You never know how you are going to react to the anesthesia.. So a lot of weird ideas went on and on in my head.. I was extremely emotional before the surgery and even asked my wife and kids to leave because i was crying like a baby.. Didn't want the kids to see me that way... The little man still remembers that day and says...: Papi i was sad for you.. I never saw you crying before.. (hold on I feel another nut in my stomach)

The moment arrived..! Went to surgery...! They put me to sleep.. 3 hours later I woke up and asked one of the nurses there... "Was everything OK?" Yes..!! Uffff...!!! Relieve finally..!! My leg was there and I was ready to be moved back to the room..

 
And most likely i have a big smile because of all the morphine I was taking.. I really didn't like that stuff..! Made me so sick that I preferred to deal with the pain of the after surgery instead of feeling like puking and light headed all the time..

now it was time to get the new cast on it.. My daughter asked me to get a pink one so Why not?

After all I told one of the male nurses I am man enough to carry it without a second thought in my head... "What about you?" He just smiled...

This was Wednesday already and they were planning to keep me there till the following Tuesday at least... I told them what do I have to be able to do for you people to let me go home??
Physio people said " If you are able to go up and down the stair on crutches you can go"
Me: Give me the crutches...(Thursday) I was hopping around the room and going to the bathroom..
Friday around noon I gave it a try to go up and down the stairs.. Friday night I was home reunited with my family..

Kids and I really happy..!!!

All this situation showed me that there is some really good people out there.. Around me and some others that I didn't even know I could count with...

I got lots of presents from local people... And some others came from far away..

And some more kept coming in the mail...

Got tons of e-mails from others wishing me well.. Some local visits.. My club stopped by a few times to check on me during the rides..

they picked me up and took me out for coffee and lunch... Seriously in this bad situations is when you know who you can really count on..

People from USA a former cycling club of mine got worry and asked what they could do.. My online friends also offer help.. (even monetary help, Thank you!)

My local club? They deserve a post of their own and I will get to it eventually.. But this far all I have to say to all of them is thank you sooooo much..!!

Now you can see the damage done by the lack of exercise when you are hurt at this level...

You see when they got that cast on me it was tight to my leg... I lost 10 kilos during my time in bed..Most of it was muscle and I was extremely scared of gaining weight that I was eating only like 1500 calories a day.. Or not even..

Finally after 6 weeks of the surgery the cast came out and I could finally see my leg and take a proper shower or bath or at least was that leg..

I know not a pretty sight but believe me it was so nice to get that thing off my leg and start some sort of rehab..!!

Now they took the cast off and they put a hinged knee braise that allowed me to start bending the leg to certain degree... But not allow to put any weight on it yet.. but at least I could start doing some movement with the leg and start getting some mobility back in it..

Beginning of December the doctors allowed me to start putting partial weight on it while still on the crutches.. This was another mile stone for me as this gave me a bit, just a little bit more of stability to move around the house and not been confined to the first floor all the time.. Still had to be extremely careful with each step and think my every move before taking it..

Finally the New Year and Christmas and my birthday passed.. Really not the best holidays ever but still managed to have it nice for us... My wife deserves a monument..! All the stuff that she went through is amazing..!! I have it good with her..!

And January was when they allowed me to start doing some little cycling again.. Little and no pressure.. But that was one of the happiest moments as I put my leg over the bike and did a few pedal strokes to see how it felt..

Since that day till yesterday was a none stop rehab program on the bike... I came a long way since last year this time around.. A lot of work was involved in getting back on my feet.. It wasn't easy, not for me or my family... Again have to say thanks to my wife for carrying with almost all the weight of having a family..

Besides the sweat tears and even some blood (cut my self cooking, smile life is beautiful) I can say that yesterday when I went to the hospital and they answer all my questions and told me that I basically have to learn how to live with all the feelings I have (pain, numbness, tightness, cramps, a little limp and more pain... Did I mention pain?)

I was finally discharged..!!!

I am free to keep going with my life as normal as it will get.. lots of limitations but that is not the point..! 

Life is like riding a bicycle.. If you stop moving forward you will fall or get stuck in the same place...

So keep pedaling, keep moving forward, keep riding the bicycle of life no matter how hard it gets..

Thanks for reading 

See you at the next post..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy