Hey all, I’ve been back in Girona now for a little over a week and am beginning to find the routine again. I must be in winter hibernation mode though because I've been sleeping in unusually late! I think it has to do with the sun rising late right now. It doesn't rise until 8ish, which means it doesn't really get sunny at our house until 8:15/8:30. In any case, I've been in the routine of making my oatmeal and tea/coffee, catching up on the social/news universe a bit, then heading out the door for training. I took a couple days a bit easier after camp, but then had a pretty solid last week of training. I capped off that block of training with a good 5 hours yesterday. It was completely unplanned, too, but I somehow ended up with company the entire ride. Upon departure, I ran into Brent Bookwalter, Dominique Rollin, and Ted King, so we started all together. Brent and Ted were going shorter, so they split off after about an hour, but then Dom joined me for the next 3hrs, at which time I was supposed to be meeting Lisa for a last hour of motorpacing. That however was ruined by untimely rain. I had one daunting hour in the rain remaining, but misery loves company and a chance run in with Tyler Farrar made that last hour rather enjoyable. We chatted about our off seasons at home and our upcoming seasons among other things, and before I knew it, we were back in Girona.
Other than training, Lisa and I have been just enjoying our return to Spain. We’re loving having unlimited cafés to check out, although we ultimately always fall back on our favorites! We had a random adventure last week while on the way to have a coffee with Ally. We’d heard about the old tunnels and bunkers under Girona from the civil war times, but we’d never actually seen them. By chance we walked by while they were offering one of the two free tours during the month, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. They weren’t too expansive, but it was nice to just see a small piece of Girona’s rich history.
On other notes, we’re intensely cooking/baking these days. We’re composing rice cakes of varying flavors for my rides, culturing yogurt on a regular basis, baking granola to top that yogurt, and experimenting with new meals on a nightly basis. Today was no exception! We had a picnic on the coast road followed by a coffee at the beach on a near perfect day. During our coast adventure we had a curry lentil concoction in the crockpot awaiting us at home. I guess to summarize, we’re doing our best to fuel our bodies and activities with healthy, satisfying foods.
My first race of the season will be Tour of Mediterranean starting February 13th. I’m looking forward to getting things going. It will be a great race to start the season because it has a bit of everything, including one shorter uphill finish and a time trial. I don’t have any high expectations going into the race, but I hope I can use it to find a little race rhythm and transition my training from off/pre-season mode into building solid form for the heart of the spring racing. Stay tuned for the updates!
Other than training, Lisa and I have been just enjoying our return to Spain. We’re loving having unlimited cafés to check out, although we ultimately always fall back on our favorites! We had a random adventure last week while on the way to have a coffee with Ally. We’d heard about the old tunnels and bunkers under Girona from the civil war times, but we’d never actually seen them. By chance we walked by while they were offering one of the two free tours during the month, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. They weren’t too expansive, but it was nice to just see a small piece of Girona’s rich history.
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| Lisa and Ally in one of Girona's underground bunkers. |
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| A batch of homemade yogurt :) |
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| Granola just waiting to go on top of some yogurt! |
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| Stop one along our journey of the coast. |
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| The sun was on full display on the coast today! |
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| A nice post lunch coffee stop. |
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| A crossword with our coffee! |
1 comment:
Sounds like a fun training environment. You can't toss a water bottle without hitting a pro in Girona apparently!
In my town I race guys that had to buy Walmart bikes after their DUIs (and I can usually beat them if my sprint train is working well together and listening to me). Good luck at the tour of the med!
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