week 2

well, week 2 its over now, it was essencially the same as last week with a few longer workouts and harder intervals.

Today we went for a 180 km ride that in the mao looks like this

i miss some spots because the actual riding was 180km no more no less :D

It was a great course, tough, loooooong climb ending with around 3km at 11%, add to that the over 2000 meters (the top was at 2408) and it sure is a challenge to get up there with a bit less oxigen avaliable...

i took my camera...

Early shot while leaving behing bourg madame, those are not UFO's they are hot air baloons

Andorra La vella down there

Houses in umbelievable spots, really cool sightseeing

the best is still to come...already over 2000m

the photos dont make it apear that steep but the col is right there, can you see the lack of oxigen in the photo?

2408m and a photo/coke/newspaper for the downhill stop

Pas de la Casa, trying to shoot a photo at 65km/h is not easy

The final downhill, from Col de Puymorens to UR and then the already traditional final climb home

not much to add, it was a great 2 Weeks of hard training :D

climb to the top, the real thing

this one is for Jonnyo....

his take

our version

PS: yes we did stop for the photo but that was because we wanted a coke and newspaper for the downhill

ok done

more

yes im trying to figure out this picasa posting thing

a few photos from todays Long ride

the course





 
 
 
 

it was another tough course, we had some company for the climb to Col de Jau, and as you can see, there was a old guy trying to kick our butts, WOW the grandpa was good (with all the respect of course)

the course was also beautiful, i took some shots but ovbiously im not here as a tourist, no time for tourist stops :P

it was another good workout and i felt good

day 4 5 6 7...lost count

Its friday right?

well, lots of training of course, what did i miss... sunday Long ride + t-run was nice, i basically did an out and back to La Seul Durgell and ran around the CNEA complex.

-Monday i ran for around an hour, rode about 2:40 trying to avoid hills (impossible) and swam 4km

-tuesday went for a 1:50 run with 18X400 and another 4km swim

-wednesday i went for a 3:50 ride with 10X3min after a 5km swim in the morning, late in the day another 1:20 run at 2100 m high

-thursday we rode for 5:30 in a brutal course with really bad weather, in some parts temperature went to almost 0º....yes zero. going down col de pailheres was really really cold. it was done anyway, here is what the course looked like

and today it was another 2:10 run with 15X800 and 4km swim

Weather has been quite bad for July, chilly especially yesterday and it has been raining every day except today actually, we have been lucky and had dry runs and rides but it could be a lot better :P

I have been feeling very well and every workout is a good one, of course... still a lot of kms to log here.

day 2 and 3

first of all this is not a training log :D i had bad "experiences" when i gave too much details about my training :P

Having said that, tomorrow is the day that things get serious around here, till now it has been easy, getting used to the fresh air (or absence of it) around here. yesterday another short 2h ride witch basically was going down the mountain/climb back and 3500 swim. Today i ran in 2100m of altitude (nice) and swam 4000 with 7X200 as main set. tomorrow is a long ride with uphill hard intervals and a t-run

So far im enjoying my time here, its always nice to leave the Base in lisbon and train in a new place (i have been here already in 2004). I really dont have much to do here other than focus on training so enjoying every piece of it is fun...for me, awesome trails to run a great pool and tough riding always with a spetacular and unique landscape. Besides at this time of the year its really tough to ride in lisbon as the beaches are getting full of stressed people and roads are crowded at the coast.

some not so good pictures, ill try harder

Going downhill

climbing up and obviously my camera lens protections is damaged :P

start of the 2100m high run, you go left but you end up to the right

there in the right side of the picture, thats where 2100m run trails are :P

more goodies from trek

i would prefer it orange but it looks good neverthless :P

the trek new 6 series madone

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/first-look-trek-madone-6-series-22246

font romeu - day one

Its day one in Font Romeu, i got here yesterday night after 1350km of driving, I came with mister Krep that helped a lot during the 13h with a few stops of driving, here are some good examples of good entertainment i had (taking photos of Krep while he was sleeping), i think he slept half of the way here...

Early morning

Mid day

mid afternoon

Anyway we got here alright but krep is defenetely sharing the driving on the way back in around 3 weeks :D

Today was very calm, just a short ride and short swim to get the feel of the altitude, the rest of the week isnt very tough as well but week 2 and 3 will kick my butt.

i was glad to wake up in the morning and looking at the window with a great day...

my window view

Of course at the time im writing this im having severe thunderstorms alert but i think its just a few hours :P

The last month or so where spent at a maintenance threshold, fast workouts to try find some extra gear and indeed i found one. 3 sprint races from the national cup and a kind of 24h MTB race kept me busy and at racing speed.

I starded with an out of the first result page at the sprint in Peniche, got an 7th in the sprint of Oeiras, got 9th at the 24h race with no night riding and ended up in 5th at the sprint of abrantes last weekend, thats a good curve of improovement in speed, although speed and Sergio doesnt quite match.

more soon