March 26, 2012

Day 6

I had a rough time sleeping last night, awake at about 3 until 4. Then on and off for the rest of the night. I heard Erika and Tim head out for breakfast, checked my watch, 8:15, and fell right to sleep for 30 more minutes, now I'm late - great.

At breakfast there was a plate already made up for me: a couple of hard boiled eggs I'd requested and Richard had made me a little bread with cheese. He must be vying for some kind of new reputation from my blog. First he pulls me in yesterday, then fixes me a special breakfast, I don't know what the hell he's up to :)

  

Richard "Old Man Power" climbing out of Conception

 Indian Head rock in the background

 We headed out at 10 for an "easy ride" which took us into Antequera, which was a surprisingly busy little town. Gerrad had a little excitement when his front wheel went into a sewer grate and it threw him over the bars, no injury though, lucky for him. We packed sneakers in the van so we could take a break and walk around. The girls took off right away to do some shopping. 

  

   

 Bull Ring in Antequera

  

Walking through Antequera

The guys found a coffee shop (as if it's hard to find one) and sat down for cafe con leche and churros. Churros are a version of donuts. Deep fried batter that is light and crispy, but we needed to put a little sugar on them. 

 

 Cafe con leche and Churros

  

 and a little beer

  

Erika and Roxanne

  

Bike lane in Antequera

 

Up to this point the ride was pretty easy, but that changed on the way out of town. My computer battery had run out so I don't know how steep it actually was, but with the headwind some of the guys said they were doing 8kph. I was not feeling great, for a while only Rick was behind me, he said to let them charge the hill, the climb is about 12kms. The van pulled in front of us to break the wind a little but Andy drove a little slower than we were going on our own so we lost more ground to the others. When the van pulled away Rick got in front of me and he tried to catch Dan. At some point I had had enough and dropped off and let him go. After cresting the pass it was a descent from the entrance to El Torqual down into the town, the group was all there.

I knew that the next 5 k had a 1km climb at about 17% that I didn't need to do today. So I jumped in the van until after the worst of the climb. Then all of us who were in the van, the 4 girls and I, rode back. We found our own pace and took it easy. No need to charge back to the Inn. I rode with Roxanne, who is one of the strongest women I've ever ridden with and we chatted for a bit. She had said that she would like to try my bike, so when we got to some smooth road we switched. At the end of the next descent she asked to switch back, the seat was too high and she had to get in front of the saddle to pedal, but she loved it going downhill. She has a Specialized Tarmac which seemed very plush compared to my bike.

We got back by 4pm, and lounged around the pool and hot tub. The sun finally came out nice and strong, and the hot tub area is sheltered from the wind. It was actually warm for the first time in days. I could feel a burn starting almost right away so I retreated inside before too long. I finished the day with a real nice nap!

Dinner tonight was very good: Large chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto and filled with stuffing. It was larger than your hand. It came with broccoli, roast potatoes, carrots and gravy. I finished it with some bread, vinegar and oil. Dessert was chocolate cake with ice cream. Tonight's conversation around the dinner table was more animated than usual. We started off talking about the planned climb tomorrow at Sierra Nevada, then it moved on to lactate threshold, current weight vs previous, lifestyle choices affecting weight loss, obesity, gross obesity, insanely grotesque obesity... you get the idea. It was actually a pretty relaxing evening and I had a lot of fun.

  

 Andy has the floor

  

 Supper!

  

Tim and Gerrad relaxing after dinner

 

Tomorrow we head for Grenada a little earlier than we normally head out, but we have to drive for about an hour. Then we'll have a staged start so that we finish up as close together as we can estimate it. I figure I'll do better than last year, but not much. We'll see.