After an easier week at home and a quick weekend trip to
Tampere I decided to go back to Spain to get another good training week before the
season start. It was a last-minute decision to go there but I’m very pleased
that I made the trip. Not did I only get plenty of training in good weather,
decent amount of orienteering, and more than enough of hills, but also a nice tan, several
CR:s, and ridiculously easy completion of the Strava March Climbing Challenge within
only a few days. Mission accomplished.
I spent first some time in Barbate and then a few days in Fuengirola.
On the way to Barbate my first stop was in Playa de Bolonia on a map called El Lentiscal. Grassy meadows, detailed hillside, and endless beach. What a paradise! I finished the training on the beach and couldn’t
resist temptation to jump to the sea after the run. Just a perfect start for a
week!
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| El Lentiscal |
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| Playa de Barbate |
First day in Barbate included a morning run, an easy introductory session and hill reps followed by downhill orienteering with the Finnish
team in the afternoon. I was slightly worried whether I could keep up with the
girls in the national team but luckily I was able to hang in there (skipping
over the recoveries helped a bit). It was good fun and it was great to meet up
with the girls again. Next day I did long distance in the morning and sprint in
the evening on my own. Somehow the climbs felt a lot tougher than the day
before. Afternoon sprint I ran in Vejer de la Frontera, a cute little village on the top of a hill. Definitively worth a visit!
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| Hill training, Le Brena |
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| Sprinting in Vejer de la Frontera |
On Saturday I had planned to do a
sprint training together with the Finnish team but I woke up with some soreness
in my foot. It was the very same spot that had bothered me over two months
before Christmas so I chose to play safe immediately and rented a bike instead.
To rent a bike was a funny little story itself but when I finally got one we
had a wonderful time together and I had no regrets skipping over the planned
trainings that day.
I had googled and found a bike rental in Conil, half an hour
drive away from Barbate. So I drove there first thing in the morning but the
hotel complex, by which the rental was supposed to be, was closed. I tried to
search around and got help by some local people, none of whom spoke any English
though. I tried words like ‘bike’, ‘bicycle’, and ‘cyclo’ while trying to
animate cycling at the same time. First gentleman I met nodded “si, si” and offered to show me the way.
We walked a long way in silence until we came to a some kind of outdoor
gym. Muchas gracias,
but it wasn’t really kind of cycling that I had in mind. Luckily a woman who
was passing by stopped and understood the word ‘bicycle’ and guided me further until we met a next person who could walk with me to the bike rental. So finally, with
the help of three enormously friendly local people, I found my way to the bike
rental. It wasn’t anywhere near the hotel where I had left my car but it seemed like a
good bike shop and I got a nice road bike for only 15€ per day and went off for a wonderful
ride in the sun. My route was Conil – Canos de Meca – Barbate – Vejer – and back to Conil
via El Palmar. Fairly easy route but with a few nice climbs, first one up
from Canos de Meca and another up to Vejer de la Frontera. Vejer was also a
perfect spot for a coffee stop with numerous of cafés on either sides of the
road. I just picked randomly one that I liked and enjoyed my coffee there in
the sun. Life was smiling. I continued my ride through the town and descended
on the other side of the hill towards A-2230. Views that opened up on the way
down were quite beautiful.
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| Pure enjoyment! |
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| Nice views over Atlantic |
Surprisingly my ankle felt a lot better when I woke up next
morning and I went for an early morning run to test whether I could actually run
with it. Amazingly I didn’t feel a thing. I did just a short jog to spare the
foot for the main training, which was O-intervals on the map just a few
kilometers away. Funny coincidence that there was a trail race going on and the
runners were passing the start point of my first interval right there and then
when I came to the start. They had a drink station and a spectator point there so
I got my share of the cheering when I passed by. What a nice race feeling at
the start of my intervals! In the afternoon I did an easier session focusing on
some technical elements. It went well and it was only at the end of the session
that I could feel some mild discomfort in my foot.
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| Start of the intervals |
Next day I did only one run in the morning before I went back
to Fuengirola to meet up with my father. The day after we went to Mijas, a
lovely small white-washed village on the mountainside between Costa del Sol and
Sierra de Mijas. It was a beautiful village and the views from there were gorgeous.
But obviously it wasn’t enough for me, I wanted to get to the top of the
mountains. There were some trekking routes starting just above the village and I
followed a nice marked route up to the saddle between Pico Mijas and Mendoza.
From there my plan was to follow a line or a border that looked like a path on
the map but in reality it was something else. There was no path, just endless stone
field. But since I had already come that far there was no way I would go down
without actually reaching the summit. After climbing just a little bit further
I was able to see the mountaintop. There was still a kilometer to go and about
a billion stones. But I didn’t mind, I was determined to go there no matter
what. It was a good adventure but I chose to follow a path down.
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| Morning in Costa del Sol |
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| Pico Mijas |
I came back to Sweden just in time for season opening in Nyköping. First
a long distance race on Saturday and then Måsenstafetten on Sunday. I won the individual race and did solid
runs in both days but wasn’t really up for racing twice in the same weekend
and felt extremely tired on Sunday. It was first time I got to run last leg for
Linné and even if I was slightly horrified when I heard about it I really appreciated to get the chance. Hilda and Lisa did brilliant job
on the first two legs, giving me the best possible starting point. I had almost
forgotten how exciting it is to go out in the lead! IFK Lidingö with Anna
Bachman and OK Ravinen with Helena Jansson gave me some hard time on the last
leg but I was still proud to bring us home as third. Two podium places was an excellent way to start the season!
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| Nice way to start the season |
