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

Looking for "La Bola"

This was one of those rides that started way before you step out of the door... On top of the normal stuff going on when you are getting ready to go out I had no idea where I was going..!

What this means? It means that the night before I spent some time getting a route ready.. Making sure that the routes were not that heavy with traffic and the whole issue of creating the route... Downloading the route... And then uploading the route into the +Garmin, mine is an old version, I still own the Edge 500 that helps when you have no idea or where you are going... Maybe one day I'll get my hands on a 800 or since we are wishing in a 1000...!!!

What the ride and routes looked like today? Well I know you come here for the cycling pics.. Some of them are coming..!!!

What would Florida look like if they had hills?? Something like this...

At the start of my ride the route just kept going up and I was going so "fast" that I had time to pull the camera out and take a new form of selfie...

Where was I going? I was going to Alhaurin El Grande, distance on that sign doesn't say much.. But the views made up for the lack of distance..

My destination for the day? Look..

Now what is this? No clue.. But made for a nice view in the distance..

Lets take a closer look..!! Should we??

And here is where the ride turned around... What do I mean? Well lets say that I was riding the wrong bicycle for the conditions that were ahead of me..

What I had ahead of me was a MTB trail park..! I mean seriously..! And me on a road bike..!! Not only the roads were full of big rock they were also steep enough to get hurt or break the bike... But lets see the bright side of it... Beautiful for MTB !!!

After this stop I was standing around a corner and a local person stop by and asked me where I was going..? I told him I wanted to go La Bola.. He looked at me.. Looked at the bike and told me.. You can't make it up there on that bici (bike) So after that i headed home...
But before I got home I had a nature break and while checking the bike I saw this gentleman walking up the route I took for my break and started talking to him.. Reiner (forget my spelling) he is a bike tour guy from Germany and is working here in Andalucia for a tour company that I will check later.. We were talking about this and that exchanged pictures and stories on the side of the route and he might be reading this one day.. (halo Reiner..!!)

Well after the chatting I was ready to head home.. And this was my way back home...

After all the ups and downs of the day +Strava told me THIS WAS DONE not a big ride but would be nice if there was a way to know if the routes you are taking or using to plan your ride are paved or not.. Suited for road biking or MTBiking... 

Hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures from today

Thanks for reading and sharing it..

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Tolox

The beauty of not been able to work at the moment is that I can spend a lot of time with my kids...Yesterday we walked to school with Félix and after I got back home and did some house keeping I decided to head out the door and stop coming up with excuses not to ride...

My destination for the day? Tolox, Málaga-Andalucia

As far as I could see Tolox is a typical town in the middle of the mountains.. All the houses are well taken care off and people is friendly and willing to point you in the right direction if you get lost... As you ride you can say good morning to anyone and chances are you will get a smile and a good morning back...(most of the time)

But where was I heading? Look on the next picture.. You see the peaks in the back? I think over there..

As you keep riding in almost free traffic routes your surroundings look like this..

And I am using this rides to spot different interesting places where you can either take great pictures or stop to fill your water bottles when you come to visit me here in Spain..

Forgot to mention something from the picture on the top.. I think I saw a little chapel there so you can stop by and pray for your legs to be in shape for what is coming next...

As you could see I was getting closer to the town.. It wasn't much open route between me and the start of what +Strava  describes as a cat 2 climb... (7.1 km at 5 % average)

I am looking forward to ride this part of the climb in the Summer... Remember it gets hot here..

Then I found this signs that were a constant reminder of my torture and how much longer will it last..

It had a few steep bits as you can see... Me? I was thinking on jumping in that pool during a Summer ride..!

But at last and at least I could see my destination..!!!  (you might have to zoom this one in)

A few minutes went by and I finally reached the top of the mountain.. Well the top of the paved route.. There were a few MTB routes heading up a bit more..

And after all that time climbing my reward for the day was this great view of the whole valley..

After the last shot I looked at the time and it said it was time to head home as fast as I could since the little man gets out of school at 2 pm.. Luckily for me most of the way home is downhill from here..

If you are a number geek HERE is the Strava link to the ride...If you feel like following me go for it..! And we also have a Weekend Report club over there.. Check my profile and you can see it..

Well once again thanks for reading and sharing this little adventure...

See you next time..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Welcome back to group riding..!

Yes...! I found some people to ride with and also managed to actually get my big behind out of the door and ride with them... So this was a constant for today... Me taking pictures from behind that is..

Yesterday while I was trying to recover from my "solo" adventure I got a message from a gentleman named Francisco that began a conversation really quick.. Went like this more or less...

F: Pablo are you in shape yet to go for a ride?

Me: I think so... Just got back from doing a 60 km ride with 1000 meters of elevation..

F: Great..! Tomorrow we are doing a 90 km ride that will take between 4 and 5 hours... You are more then welcome to come...

Me: (in my head WTF?) Well to be honest I don't know how I will feel tomorrow since it has been a while since I've done a 60 with 1000....

F: Well we are counting with you..!!!! We meet in this place at 9 am... See you tomorrow..!?

Me: I will do my best and will evaluate when I get up in the morning.. Thanks..!!

Now you can guess how I felt this morning right? Well I felt fine but a bit nervous since I didn't know what kind of riders they were or what kind of people for that matter..

So I rode down to a park very close to my house and there they were..!!! Nice to see people on time..!!! We introduce and soon after we were on our way to a great day of riding..!

My companions and our playground for the day....

Going slow up the hills has some benefits... I see everything around me..

Look at the mountains in the back... But don't miss the tiny road on the bottom left..

Mountains.. Blue water at the dams and warm weather... (don't hate me)

More water... More mountains and some human made structures there... Almost blending in..

Last one from the dam... Maybe? But look at that view..! Full of peace..!

Did any of you ever hear about Camino del Rey ??? No? Well I recomend you to +Google Chrome it and find out about it... I heard is a 2 year waiting list.. (????) Here is a piece of it... between the 2 mountains..

But you might be asking... What the roads look like? Well like this..

I can imagine that in the Summer we are going to stop here for a swim...

And there were windmills...!!!!

Lots of them..!

And then they got really big when we were close to them.. This pic is for a friend in the +UK Photography Community that loves them.. TC for you..

At this point we were done with 95% of the climbing and we had a very looooong downhill were the camera went inside my best till we got to Coín.. It was a fast downhill something like 15 km long..Fast but thankfully not too steep...

After we got back into town +Strava told me that I had 90 km and a bit over 1200 meters of elevation.. My companions and my belly told me to sit down and enjoy the refreshments..

And after 3 weeks in Spain I finally had a taste of the famous Paella..

Everything went down very well with some local beer... And a bit of water to re-hydrate after the ride...

While waiting for the check this picturesque character rode by and present himself for this picture...

And that is what my day looked like from the saddle today.. I have to say that I am happy to have find out a group of "gentlemen" I call the like that because that is what they are..

Thank you for reading and sharing

Hope you enjoy today's adventure.. See you next time..!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy