Mini Camp in Alicante, Spain!
I teamed up with an ultra running friend, Tara who knows her way around Costa Blanca, so I trusted her to book our accommodation in the heart of the Foot hills which avoids any major roads and traffic lights! You literally leave the villa, and start riding up into to La Serrella mountains.
Despite picking the cold spell weekend and actually starting the day at 6 degrees, within an hour the sun warmed up the mountains and it felt like late spring! Not a cloud in the sky and the ratio of world tour pro peletons is higher than cars, I couldn’t stop smiling and waving at people!
“Days when you just feel you’re winning at life”.
Day one consisted of a lie in, building the bike, a leisurely breakfast where I cooked a 4 egg pancake with oats, banana, nuts and dried fruits and went out for a 70km spin to loosen the legs from travels.
en route I crossed paths with a bunch of friendly Spanish men riding a pretty decent pace and seemed to know the area really well. It Turned out they’d be riding there for 8 years! I asked them what their plans were for the next couple of days and they said they were doing 2 monster back to back days so I invited myself to join them!
One significant issue was that only one of them could speak any English but it just made the whole Spanish adventure that bit more authentic while zoning out the the continuum of foreign chat.
Day 3 we were joined by a rather Boisorous lad that sat at the back shouting Spanish to the front of the peloton from the start of the ride and I thought ‘This is going to be a very long day’ but it didn’t take long for him to get tired and persisted to claim the windsock of the 2 main guys at the front of the pack pulling us along whilst not leaving any space for anyone else to sit in! In other words – No Draft for me. Instead of feeling sorry for myself I had to keep reminding myself that all along it was ME that was gatecrashing THEIR ride!!
Day 4 it rained and rained to the point where it was actually dangerous to ride. Tara and I drove down to Calpe for the best brunch in town and met up with a friend of mine that had been living their in the winter months. We literally just sat ordering more food and coffee until we had to leave for the flight home. It was a great way to finish off a holiday and come back well recovered. Unfortunate to miss a whole day of training but sometimes forced rest is a blessing and you just have to take your lemons and make lemonade.