Almost 3 weeks off is a long time...

As my wife and daughter came back from the U.S yesterday I was ready to head out of the door for a ride today.. But let me tell you this.. 3 weeks or almost is waay too long off the bike.. I was suffering in many different way today... as the post progresses I will explain this a bit more..

Let me tell you that my route selection for the day was a bit challenging... Even if I was in great shape for it..! Never a good sign when you start your ride like this..

If you can't make the gradient marked there it says 9%... No is not for the whole 15 km climb.. I believe is at 4% the average since it has a few downhill sections in it..

Jose was loving it today..! If he spoke English the best way to translate the way he was feeling would be... Pay back bitch..! Since most of the time I am putting the pain into him.. He loved the route..!!!
How can you not love this views??

Andalucia is full of picturesque little towns.. El Burgo is one of them...

Before we headed out of town we had to stop and take a pic of the monument of it.. I am guessing that high in the mountains you can find this ones running in the wild..

From El Burgo we started heading to the next town in between mountains and valleys.. Something that I came to value a lot is the shaded roads.. There is not many around here..

This road was extremely rough, but since we were going up the hill it didn't really matter... There was a good 15 km of almost no traffic...  Seriously we saw 2 cars, a scooter and one tractor... Almost perfect to soak under the sun surrounded by this views... Can you see Jose there??

Remember the traffic? It was heavy traffic for sure...

After the last picture I went into a stage were all I wanted to do was to get home... I was exhausted.. In pain ( my bad knee doesn't like breaks in my riding) so I put the camera away and just pushed all the way home.. By push I mean I dragged my butt on the roads...

By the end of the day +Strava says we did 93 km.. and 1700 meters of climbing..

And this is me at home showing my new jersey.. Thanks to Joy and Pieter from Pittsburgh, PA for the present.. Loved it..! And it passed a good test today..

Look..!!!

Thanks for reading and giving us a thumbs up in +Facebook here is the link

Pablo

The Weekend Report and Retreat Guy

The two halves ride

My Sunday started like most of the Sundays of the year.. Getting up.. Having breakfast.. Using the toilet.. Filling my water bottle.. Pumping the tires..Taking a quick look at the bike.. All good time to set off..!

Sunday Traditional ride.. I mentioned this one before.. (check previous post for full description) but like every Sunday this one had to have something different right? Well whenever things need to spiced up leave it up to me..!

So how can we make this ride unique? I been riding the CX bike for a few days (month) already and certainly can't hold on to the wheel of the fast guys and end up somewhere like 5 minutes behind them on the normal loop.. And slowing them down a lot.. So What to do?? I know..! After Saturday I saw a lot of tired faces.. So decided to set an earlier group to leave before the main bunch..

So sent an e-mail letting everyone else know and that I would meet anyone else at the start point to leave 10 minutes before the big, main and mean bunch...
So here I was and another guy showed up and we left knowing that the bunch will be on our heals in no time..!

We were off and set a pace that we could hold.. Bah the other guy was setting the pace.. I was having a hard time holding his wheel.. We were doing some 28 km/h for the whole loop and I am guessing the mean main peloton left later then usual or was having an off day because I never saw them.. Woohoo...! One for the rabbit..!! We got away..!!

Left my riding partner and headed home. Not before saying thanks for the towing services.. The CX bike is going to kill me..!

As I got home asked my lovely wife if she was serious the night before about starting to ride with me.. For my surprise she was..!!! She run upstairs change clothes and was ready to leave..!
Hey hold on..! I have to set the bike for you..! So took some quick measurements and set the bike for her... Dropped the saddle... Move the sit forward.. All those little things and she was ready to go..! She even started her +Strava app on her phone to track the ride..!!!

So here she is going a bump on the path..! She seems to be smiling..!

The weather and views were very nice..! Specially the weather, remember we are in Belfast..

We had to deal with bad traffic... ;-) (no we didn't)

We had the opportunity to see an alien riding its bike as well..! +NASA should look here on earth :)

And we made it home in time to cook lunch for the family as a family..!

Proud of her..! She did very well for the first time on a road bike..! She is also looking forward to our next ride.. and so am I..!

By the end of the day my +Strava said I had 75 km and like 600 meters done for the day.. But to be honest I didn't really care.. I had the best 23 km of riding at the end and to top it off with my best buddy...!!

Thanks for reading my blog and hope you come back for more stories like this..

Suggestions and advice is always welcome, I am new at this writing stuff..

Pablo

The Weekend report Guy

Not just a Saturday ride.

It was a special day today, you could feel it at the start of our "traditional" Saturday run.. People smiling.. lots of people showing up, so many that we had to split the groups in order to have a safe ride..

Half the bunch in this shot.. close to 20 (?)

As you noticed all the shots I take are from the back of the bunch.. As I am fat and slow and to add dilemma I am riding my CX bike, like I am not slow enough on my own.. But oh well..

This pics were taken after the mist was gone.. I could not see much since my glasses kept foggin up so the first hour or so I rode without them... Then I could see the route and take clear shots of my companions for the day..

So after 2 hours chasing those guys around at a (thanks boys) civilized pace was time to stop to have a cup of coffee and perhaps a little something to refuel the system for the way home...

The little something + coffee

Up to here we all were riding together.. But I wanted to have a little head start after the coffee stop and I took off on my own expecting the slower riders to follow but that never happened and I ended up riding the whole way back to Scrabo on my own.. No boys and girls I wasn't super strong.. Someone had a flat so they all waited for it and them took off...It was really estrange not to be caught by the bunch.. Now I know why...

So after we regroup at Scrabo it was time for a picture session... Yes we had to poss for pictures for a great event that the guys are putting together and unfortunately I won't be able to do for more then one reason..

The event? L2L500 is a 3 day event that my buddies are putting together to ride 500 km in 3 days around Northern Ireland... Tough guys..!
But the part I really want to mention to you all is that on the side they started running a charity for different organizations and collecting donations and working hard to help others.. If you want to help them to help others follow this LINK, is for a good cause!

Thanks for donating..!!!

So it was picture time..!!! A few pics I took?
The boys getting ready for the shooting..

Look at the happy faces for a good cause..!

And may this day be remembered as the day that the 0745 Rouleurs took over Scrabo (tower)

After the session was time to head home and enjoy the rest of the day with the family and some friends that were coming over.. It was a great day all around..

The ride itself? Does it matter? Ok just for those that like numbers and maps I will leave you a link to the +Strava LINK HERE

I could post here pics of the BBQ we had and the beer I am drinking but I have the recipes part for this stuff...

Hope you guys are having a great weekend as I am..!! We Still have tomorrow..! 

Maybe I will have something good to write about and some decent pictures as well..!!!

Till next adventure..!

Pablo

P.S: Go Rouleurs!

A B-Day Weekend..

No, not my B-Day... So hold your thoughts there for a minute, I didn't have the opportunity to go and ride a monster ride or an epic day on the saddle... But I had the pleasure of spending the whole weekend with some of the most important people in my life...

This is us

As the title says this was a b-day weekend.. The little man became 7 and we decided to do stuff that makes him happy... We looked around during the week for possible alternatives on what to do..
don't forget we live in Belfast, Northern Ireland so we decided for an indoor fun and active place..

On our way to this place we passed this:

You see this and think of? Belfast..!

Our option was at the end W5 and it was a great decision..! Glad we picked this place.. The kids and also us grown ups had a great time with the different games, experiments, facts, exploring and puzzles to mention a few of the activities..

Some climbing? Not sure how this is called..

We made some music..!!

We completed puzzles..!

We learned some physics laws..!

Made and watched hot air balloons rise..!

- First you filled them with hot air, then when they got full or reached the pressure needed they went up..!

Another view..!?

The little one enjoying some indoors climbing. (This looked really cool!! I wanted to go in!)

After a nice day out with the kids was time to come home and start cooking for the hungry family.. Katja and I decided to make an Argentinian BBQ for dinner for us and some friends that were coming... (salads, bread and other stuff too)

Here is a pic of the main dish... Obviously before grilling it... (Asado, Short ribs, beef)

The cook, having fun by the grill.. Noticed the matching clothes with the food? ;-)

In Argentinian tradition Asado and Vino goes together (BBQ and Wine)

And we found some tasty wine from back home.

And after 2 to 3 hours of slow cooking and drinking some German beer while doing it..

Dinner was ready..!!

We all sat together at the table, inside by this time since the weather got cold really quick when the sun started to go down..

We ate, we drunk, we sang happy b-day to Felix and had cake..(by the way the cake was made by Savannah from scratch.. Our daughter)

The B-Day boy had a great time and made it all worth it..!

The only problem with this is that I didn't ride the bike at all..! Ate a lot..! Drank a lot ! and gained some weight that I have to try to burn during the week..

Thanks for reading my blog.

Till next adventure.

Pablo Alves.

A not so traditional Sunday ride.

Hello friends..! 

As part of a club I am member here in Belfast, Northern Ireland we have what we call "Traditional" rides. For example here is a pic of what we normally ride on Sunday's morning:

We do this same loop every Sunday morning.. Every Sunday there is something new, someone new or something that makes the ride to be unique..

Is a nice loop with a few ups and downs...Around 40 km. Most of the ride can be done on the big chain ring (I ride a compac so there!) if not you can always use your small chain ring right..?

Well today's ride had it's own character.. Wondering what was special this time around?

Do you realize this is open roads so is road biking right?

Well to break the routine and also because my road bike is at the shop waiting to know if it can be fix or not.. I took my CX bike out to do this ride.. 

The Trekross handled it well..! The down hills were smooth, it also helped that it was dry this time.. You have to enjoy this days around this part of the world, sunny and dry is a very good day here..!

I also have the legs to to the original loop at a nice pace.. The extra part was another story...

So what did I do today?

Since I was riding the Trekross I sent an e-mail out last night letting everyone know that i was going to leave 10 minutes earlier to try to stay away of the main bunch or get caught by the coffee stop or close to it..

To my surprise when I got to the start point there were 3 other guys waiting for me and they wanted to take it easy so they joined me on my early start of the loop.

We left at 7:36 from the church where we meet.. The faster, bigger bunch usually leaves at 7:45 or something like that.. Usually a few minutes later since is a thing for fun we don't like to be too strict with the start times.

Here is a picture of my bike for the day and a hill right at my door steps.. You can see the city of Belfast in the horizon..

Some of the view we rode by today..?

I went by here twice today

Stormont Park, Official building at the top of that hill

Then rode to the top of this local hill, Strabo Tower.

And from the top...Of Strabo..

 And this is very much what my Sunday looked like riding ways,,

So that was my Sunday on the bike.. Later on we might go hiking with the kids to a local park where is a nice trail... (hmm... trail....)

Oh for those that like Strava and would like to look a bit deeper into the data of the ride I leave you a link to my profile HERE

Till next adventure..

Pablo Alves.

The Zwift Effect

Before you say another review about this let me tell you something.. "has nothing to do with it" OK maybe a little but is all part of the game...

Lets see in order to understand what is coming you should know that I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the weather here is well.... lets put it this way, is a good reason for everything to look so green, plenty of rain...
On top of that I did a lot of indoor training due to recovery from an accident, now that that is explained here is a picture of my numbers on the Zwift:

Is that a lot? Well there is others that did a lot more then I do some others less but let me tell you something this is or was enough for what happened next..

As every Saturday I decided to show up for my club traditional Saturday run, I woke up, had breakfast, went to the bathroom, pump my tires/tyres (will never get the difference on that one) filled my water bottles, kissed the kids, kissed the wife told the dog to get out of the door and said good bye to her too.. (spoiled little rat..!)

So I got on my trusted horse (Le Trek) she likes how she sounds in French go figures even my bikes have a personality..! Here is a pic of her:

As soon as i started to ride I noticed I was on the small chain ring, no big deal since when i come out of my house I have a 200 meter at 8% before I can hit the flats and jump to the big chain ring.. 

So I reached the flat part and it was time to get some speed up to be on time to the start of the ride, I am one of those that really dislike people that is late, but also understand that we do this for fun and we have to have some tolerance.. As I was saying... Time to hit some speed this means to jump to the BIG chain ring and start smashing the pedals.. OK here it comes, one click!, nothing..Uh? OK another click... What a ...? Nothing again... Is ok is only 3 km to the meeting place, high cadence and it will be a nice warm up by the time I get there..

So I made it to the church were we meet and right away started looking at what could possibly wrong??

As I was looking one of the guys told me from the other side.."Pablo!! Look at your cable..! What do you mean? I asked.. Look he said again.. Is way too loose.. Oooh that must be the problem..!! Easy fix..! lets tight it up..!

Now as I reach down to start making a bit more tight the cable I noticed that this is completely loose..Now this is not a normal sort of loose cable..

What was wrong you are asking by now? Look...:

The cable stopper snapped off the frame..!

How often you see this happening?

The guys at the shop never saw anything like it..!

So as any normal person would do I was getting ready to turn around and come home... I was upset at the fact that my bike was broken and I couldn't ride that morning.. I was not thinking clear..

good thing that others were :) one of the guys told me "just use the the screws and make it jump to the big chain ring with the regulation system..Great idea..!!!

How do you do that again? Remember I am upset, not thinking clear and I am not very mechanical oriented. 

Another jumps off the bike grabs a multi tool and regulates the screws till the chain jumped to the big chain ring.. Wet tighten the cables together with a rubber band and off we went for a nice flat 100 km and 700 meters of elevation..

I know I am not a normal person and my friends either right?

Now you want to know why I called this the "other" Zwift effect? I tell you..!

It was just to catch your eye and remind you that those little cable stoppers need to be clean and lube as well every so often if you are an indoor rider, learn from my experience or inexperience and keep them in mind.

Now fingers crossed I am waiting for Trek to call me back or the bike shop and see what they offer me, what would my options be? Is not a normal thing to break and they usually back their brand very well..

Till next time or adventure, 

Pablo Alves.