I can see the finish line..

As we are on the straight away I can see it already.. Yes the finish line..!

The year is coming to an end soon and with the weather changing I don't see my numbers taking a huge drop or a huge increase..

As I woke up this morning I felt sort of melancholic and went reading old posts and a lot of comments from them, till I got to the post that give me the idea for this one.. Do you remember the What your goals are? Well if you don't, just follow the link and it will bring you to it..

So mine were extremely ambitious and involved huge changes in my life and my family life.. Did I accomplish any of them? Did anything change from the day I wrote them to now? Lets find out..!

My goals for 2016:

- Moving to Malaga with the family. DONE!
- Get a job that allows me to follow my dream. (wait for iit is coming) Working on it.
- Buy a nice BIG house in Malaga. Discarded, at least for now
- Start our own B&B. Discarded
- Start offering my cycling guide services in Malaga. I started..!!
- Go back to Argentina to get my older son, Pablito. Leaving on the 25th for Argentina
- Ride 15.000 Km for the year. Have you seen where I live? Not this year..!
- Climb 150.000 meters in a year. Will be close..! Stay tuned for this one
- Lower my weight to 85 kilos. Ha..! Not even close..!
- Write more in my blog. And better should I add. Ons and offs.. I like interaction and the blog doesn't give me that
- Become financially independent. Working on it every day

- Meet more PdC members. Yes..! Yeehoo, thebongolian, maratsafin and Paul from Scotland

-And the most important one….. TO BE AND MAKE MAKE FAMILY HAPPIER..!!! We are HAPPIER!

So to me has been a nice mix of yes and nos but I will take it as us (family and me) finishing ahead with all the changes that we faced..

The Pablo's Cycling Tours Facebook page is running and I am looking forward to this business to take off.. by the way if you didn't like the page yet please do.. If you already did.. Thank you very much..! Feel free to suggest anything that might help.. Good and bad critics are the only way to move forward.

But enough about me.. Tell me, tell us...

What your finish line looks like?

And what about Sunday?

I felt like poop this morning.. Stuffy nose, hard to breath, was awake till 2:30 in the morning and had a few beers while cooking and with the people we had over.. When the alarm went off this morning I wanted to stay in bed so bad but I managed to drag myself out of bed to join my Sunday group ride and I think they are my friends.. Or at least there is a friendship.. Well it was a good day as I pedaled I felt better..

It looked like this when we started..

The guy in green was his first road group ride.. He is a mtbiker so has plenty of stamina..

We were heading over that bump ahead..

The view as we climbed the first part…

This other guy got the visit of the man with the hammer… He was beat..!

After the long climb we stopped to fill the water bottles at Carratraca’s water fountain, it comes straight from the mountains.

And after a long downhill and some assistance to the guy that blew up… My well earned reward..

After that stop for beer and some chips with jamon serrano I headed for another few km since no one was home and I forgot my keys… At the end of the day my ride looked like THIS

I am starting to offer these kind of experience to anyone coming to Málaga.. If you would like to join me for one of my rides feel free to contact.. Comments will be the first step and we take it from there..

Hope you like this report and 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

Goals? Plans? Dreams? Bring 2016..!!

We all have them right? So do I...!!! But this is why I wasn't sure on how to name the post... We should start by knowing the difference between them...

Using my own words to define each one..

Goals: list of things I would like to achieve over a determinate period of time.. They have to be real, easy or hard to accomplish is up to us.

Plan:  they are more like a structured way of accomplishing a pre-determinate idea. Is making a way to reach this plans.

Dreams: anything that comes to your mind real or not... Fiction or reality... Everything that you would like to reach or do in life... Just remember sometimes you can reach them and make them your reality..!!

Lets start by naming what I consider goals for this year:

- I am riding 15.000 km.
- Climbing 150.000 meters.
- I am going to weight 85 kilos, and STAY THERE...!!!
- Write more often in my blog... and better should I say...

What about the plans? 

- We are moving to Málaga, Spain.
- Find a job that allows me to follow my dreams.. Is coming...
- Rent a nice big house for the family... And future guests.
- Go to Argentina to bring my older son, time for him to join the family.
- Start offering my cycling guide services to people in Málaga.
- Start a B&B business to go with the cycling services.

And the dreams??

- Buying a nice BIG HOUSE..!!!
- Have the B&B running in our big house... Did I mention it has a pool?
- Promote the already established cycling guide services all over the world.
- Meet thousands of new friends while enjoying the mountains and the Mediterranean sea.
- And last but not least... Make sure my family and I are as happy as possible..!!

Bring on the 2016 and lets start working on all those goals, plans and dreams..!!!

As soon as we are there you all will know about it..!!! 

And as soon as we are ready we will be waiting for you all...!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Pablo & Family

See you soon

Thanks for reading and sharing

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

My Strava

Our Strava Club, join us..!!!

Friends & Family

We are opening the weekend with a nice early and balmy Saturday ride, after all the name of the blog is the Weekend Report right?

We met at our Saturday spot of start at the usual 07:45 am, hence the name of the riding group is called the 0745 Rouleurs.. After a little talk and funny comments and sharing a few news and info the guys decided to leave for ride..

This time we broke the routine of our traditional Saturday run to Harrison's and headed in another direction.. We went to Lisburn, we headed for a lot of ups and downs on the country side..

The profile of the ride today looked like this:

Well at least mine look this way, I see that some of the guys went different ways after the coffee stop, I missed a few more climbs but to be honest I glad I did.. :)

Speaking of coffee stop... Look at what we found at the place...:

The country side looked nice under the clouds and fog in the distance today, but unfortunately I was very busy trying to keep up with the others to take pictures of our landscape for the day.. You will have to trust me when I tell you that the routes were great..! Almost traffic free and a constant rolling terrain where the CX bike and my legs had a lot of "FUN" 

Where were we? Here look...

And if you want to take a closer look at where we were here is the link from Strava. Speaking of +Strava don't forget to join us there... Our club The Weekend Report

So basically that was my morning with my riding buddies and friends, great morning..! Thanks..!

The afternoon was a different story, wife and daughter wanted to go to some sort exposition by the Titanic Center and the little man wanted to ride his bike... So we combined everything..

Daughter and wife to the expo thingui... Have fun..!!!

Little man, dog and me for a bike ride... Well Felix on his bike and the dog and me chasing him from behind..

Where did we go? Is a path that runs by the Lagan river that is ideal for everyone that likes jogging, cycling or plain and simple walk in peace... But you know what.. Let me show you our afternoon..

Felix having his first taste of cobble stones..

After a short while riding on them... He started picking the easier line.. Smart kid..!!

Where is this place? Maybe the +Titanic word will help you understand?

It is an impressive building and example of modern architecture 

After a spin around the building and watching some kids pull out a few tricks on some BMX's we headed back to meet the rest of the family...

Felix already knew his way back, easier way back..

While waiting for the family Felix was trying to pull some of the moves he saw from the kids earlier.. Me? I just sat back relax and enjoy the views...

And this one has to be one of my best shots of the day.. I give you the Titanic Center from Belfast.

So that was our Saturday.. Now is just sitting and enjoying the peace of home after a nice home made meal and dinner together...

Hope you like this mini adventures that we take around Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland.

As usual thanks for reading and see you at the next update..!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Looong busy weekend

Lets start by saying that it was busy because of my own ideas..I didn't really have to do what I tried to do over a 3 day period.. But come on..! Anyone that has a cyclist friend or family member is used to us going after goals that on the eyes of normal human beings are completely out of reach and even a bit crazy at times..

So I spent my weekend riding a lot... Not as much as I wanted to get done but still a lot you can ask my +Strava friends about it.. Or my family that was going to the garage to check on me on regular bases.... While I was doing this...

So I spent a lot of time riding the trainer on Friday and a bit more on Saturday.. On Friday I did like 130 km on it and Saturday just 50 because family was hungry for some "empanadas" (will make a full recipe and add it to that page)

How I manage to spend so many hours on the trainer without going out of my mind? You can say thanks to Zwift for that.. Very fun and I fully recommend it. One of these days I write my view of it..

On Sunday I went out to meet the local heroes... What do I mean? Remember the 0745 Rouleurs?

Well this guys went out in a 500 km, 3 day adventure around Northern Ireland and part of the Republic of Ireland (I bet if it wasn't a ferry ride involved they would go to Scotland as well) and during the days coming to this event they put together a charity and raised £43.000 for 4 different ones..!!! 

The event was great and everything went great, they had fair weather, kind of excellent for this part of the world.. They had great people supporting them (family and friends)

So we set out to go and meet them on the last day, we is the ones that stayed behind for different reasons.. Sunday morning 9:30 am we left Belfast heading North to receive the guys and help the tired legs on the last stretch coming home...

We rode up the coast for about 65 km or something like that to meet them and score them into Belfast.. It was a great thing to see like 50 riders all together riding into the city for a great cause..

Picture not from this event since I was busy talking with the boys... or busy doing whatever I was doing..  But you get the idea..

Coming into Belfast was great and the families and friends were waiting at a local place to welcome everyone... Was very nice to see... I would say was easy over a 100 people there welcoming, cheering and clapping as the riders rolled in..

So by the end of my 3 or 4 days of riding I had 369 km ridden.. felt short on my quest of conquering the 500 km but I can tell you that it was a great weekend..!

Thanks for reading and stay close..! More stories coming soon

Pablo Alves

The Weekend Report Guy

Thanks for the coffee..!!!

The Saturday morning started like every other weekend.. Getting up and getting ready to head out in search of the next adventure... The main difference is that I had an idea of what was ahead of me this day...

The ride for the day? (notice is still dark? #winter)

We agreed with the boys to have a bit of an earlier start due to an appointment we all had to attend later on this morning. Start time? 7:00 AM, left the house a few minutes after 6:30 and took my time to get to the start of the ride.. After all I am riding the CX bike and I know it will be a hard long day on the bike..

As we started the ride, I noticed that I was over dressed and too warm but i would find a chance to loose the vest as we ride..
Not much longer passed when one of the boys had a mechanical and I pull to the side to remove the vest finally.. I was steaming.. An I mean really steaming..!! And since we were standing and the sky started to open before our eyes.

Had to take a pic of this Fall morning sky, open sky..

After that stop was a bit of a hammer fest going up and down the rolling country roads that bring Belfast and Stangford together here is where we were going to take the ferry to get to the other side of the Strangford lake...

While waiting everyone had the chance to take some pics and and socialize a bit.. Pics? Me too..!!!

Ships, bikes and great view..

And one more because pictures are nice..!

Finally the ferry got there and we got on.. Here is some of the guys and a lot of bikes...LOTS of them..!

Another reason if you needed to ride your bike... Friends and smiles to fill the experience.

Others opted for taking all of it in.. 

After the ferry ride was a bit of a hard hammering to reach our appointment.. Remember? Well the place for it was our coffee stop of almost every Saturday..

Why I don't just call it the coffee stop? Hold on I am getting there..

As you remember from last week we are all doing a charity to come up with some money to help the ones that a a bit less lucky then us.. or just having a hard time in life and might need a little help getting back on their feet..

Well today we had an appointment because Mrs Harrison's was our good soul of the day and donate to us the coffee and scone of the day for all the cyclists that stopped by.. We alone had a group of over 20 people.. 

In exchange for her donation each person donated £5 on her name to the charity fund.

Here she is with our group..

After this pic was taken it was time to head home.. Another hour of hard riding where I felt like my soul was taken away from me...

At the end of the day the ride looked like this:

That is what 110 km of riding with 800 meters of climbing... How long it took? 3: 40 minutes at 30.5 km/h... Fun right? And on a CX bike with wide tires more..! 

It was a great day where a lot of people came together to help others and have fun while doing it.. 

Read more about this challenge: HERE

If you care to help others and can obviously click: HERE

Special thanks to Harrison's for the donation..!!!

Thanks for reading..!

See you at the next adventure..!

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!

Remember that one?

Do you ever think about that time on the bike? What do I mean? That time when you knew you wanted to do this riding stuff for the rest of your life..

Well this post is about that day.. That summer evening in Hillsborough, NJ somewhere in September or August of the year 2011.. At a local Club race event..

The race itself is a well organized event for a small amount of people, during the 3 years i was riding with this group I can't recall seen more then 40 of 50 people at the time during the peek of this races. yes 40 or 50 people racing together in open roads with traffic can be dangerous but here is where the "handicap" starts playing a great effect in splitting the groups for various reasons:

1- Safety..! Is much easier for cars to go around 4 or 6 riders at the time then 40.. Right?
2- Competition..! everyone has more fun if they know they have chance of getting away and winning.

At any given event of this Club CRCofA will be any amounts of groups set to go at 6 pm from the Woodfern Elementary School..
Between each group will be a time gap of 2 minutes, sometimes 3 according to the level of the riders that start after each group..

With the slower riders starting at 6 and the faster ones following after them in intervals of 2 minutes like was mentioned above..
The course is very much the same every Thursday... A loop around 8 miles long with a little bit of everything, OK we are missing a proper climb here but believe me there is a few short steep hills that I learned to hate on the beginning of my racing days with them..

So you understand a bit of what is coming this is me (already lost a ton of weight here! I was bigger when the ride itself took place)

So after the introduction now you are ready to know what the race, Well to me was more like an introduction to racing looked like right?

Summer evening in NJ, hot and humid...  Remember this was my beginning.. I was set to go with the slower group..! No wait..! I left by my self 1 minute before the slower group..!! because I knew the first part of the course... On the first group was the older riders and the new riders.. And not this is not offensive I am saying older riders with lots of respect for them..!  Specially after they passed me in the first part of the course like I was standing on the side of the route.. I kind off held their wheel for a few minutes... To me holding a wheel meant I could see them for a while...

The fun didn't last long at all as we hit the rail road bridge.. Man I hated that bridge a little more after each lap..!! Not long but steep.. I was still getting used to the gear changing stuff.. So quiet often I was on the wrong gear going up that thing.. suffering and I think I walked up to it once or twice (and that's all you are getting from me)

By the second lap around this circuit when we were going "again" over this bridge and after hitting a lot of other rollers and going as fast as I ever went on the bike I was cooked..! Done! Finito! Kaput! and still had to finish 1 and 1/2 lap more..!?? Here was coming the bridge again.. When Mr Frank pulls next to me and grabs me by my gym shorts and t-shirt and pulls me over the bridge..

Now at that moment I felt a lot of different feeling in me.. Shame! Lets face it, no one likes to be slower and weaker then the old man. I did my best to finish the second lap, didn't even try to go for the third one rolled quiet and deep in my thoughts about what just happened to me...

Stayed by the finish line still thinking about what happened and watch everyone crossing the line.. net to Mr Frank since he is the one keeping track of all the results and points and all that.. I was quiet.. Clapping as everyone was crossing the line..

Now you read Mr Frank here a few times right? He is close to 70 if not there already (sorry if I am wrong Mr F) cancer survivor, at that point he was going for treatment 2 times a week if I remember correctly... And this was the guy pushing me from behind on every little bump on the route and waiting for me and trying to pace me on the flats..

Here is a pic of him with Felix and his 2 granddaughters

Like him there was is a lot of people at the CRCofA.. And that is the ride I remember, the people I remember and you know what? This day after everything was done and I was home showered and trying to understand all of it.. If to continue or not...

That day..Yes that day I decided to become a cyclist..! 

Just to be one of those old guys riding their bikes if i get there..

Do you remember yours?

Thanks for reading..

Till next time.

Pablo Alves