Training week Andalusia ’16 by Gijs
Saturday February 6th very early in the morning at 11 o’clock we, a lucky delegation of FerroMosae, went off to Malaga. Once we arrived at Malaga airport it was already dark but the temperature was still comfortable. After a few slight hurdles at the car rental were professionally cleared away, we drove to Moclinejo. In Moclinejo the owners of our residence, a very nice English couple, awaited us. They guided us the last part to the house, which was quite spectacular because it was a very steep, small and partially gravel track (of course we made a Strava segment for this later on). The house was really nice and was equipped with anything we could possibly need (except toilet paper). In the evening the bus arrived in Moclinejo with the bikes and luggage. After observing a successful mixture of courage and driving skills needed to get the bus to the house, we could unload our bikes.
We started our Sunday with an explorer run around the house. We found out that all roads that didn’t go down did go up, so running was quite intense, but I didn’t really care about that because the surroundings were very pretty and the weather was nice and sunny. In the afternoon we did a small bike ride down to the sea and climbed back up, while Jos was verifying our conclusion about the hilliness of the area.
Monday we did our first long bike ride. I did the “short” route of 75km together with Thomas, Jos and Julian. It was a very nice route with a lot of climbing and beautiful views.
Tuesday the plan was to go for a swim, so we went to the pool in Velez-Malaga. The people in the pool were very helpful and suggested we could have a lane all for ourselves if we came back at siesta time (eventually we even got two lanes). So we went for a run first. To avoid the vertical meters a bit we ran across the beach and over the boulevard, which was very nice, because the weather was still nice and sunny.
Wednesday was bike ride day again. Some of us went for a spectacular 150km, but I didn’t feel too great, so I did a 50km lap together with Thara, who beat me badly on the last climb. But still it was a nice lap.
Thursday the real diehards (not me) did another run over the beach, this time in the other direction.After that we all went to the pool again. In the pool for some people the impact of a week of training became slowly visible. Some of us tried to camouflage this low energy level by practicing flip turns, while others were, according to the pool attendant, “silly”.
Friday was already the last bike ride day (ahww). We did another lap trough the sunny Andalusian hills, including the fearsome climb “el Muro”. Once we were back at the poolside I uploaded my Strava file, and found out I was only 1second away from KOM at “Ferro Mosae EL Mirador climb”. Of course I had no other option than hop on my bike again and try to do it faster, which I did. Unfortunately I couldn’t celebrate my KOM for very long, because Maarten came home from his long bike ride, and was even faster.
Saturday the plan was to go for a run in the national park nearby. Unfortunately a few of us became sick during the night and couldn’t join. The national park was really awesome; the first part was more like hiking than actual running, which was quite cool but a bit tough. Once we reached the highest point of our route the track became more runnable and the view was incredible.
Back at the house it was time to clean a bit and pack the hand luggage and then leave to the airport. On the airport we had a very nice recovery meal at Burger Kingbefore getting in the plane for our 3-hour flight to the cold and rainy Netherlands after our fantastic week in sunny Moclinejo.
Gijs
