Recently, my brother and I made a last minute decision to take a trip to Girona to enjoy some warm weather training and attempt to acclimatise to the heat. Personally, I haven't struggled with the heat much this season but am aware that the high's of training in low 20 degree weather won't faire well against me when given the opportunity to race internationally. In addition to this it felt like a good idea to have a break from living at home and enjoy a holiday as this would be our first time travelling abroad
for a reason other than racing since the start of the pandemic.
We had some troubles on the travel to Girona, but eventually arrived and were greeted by our friendly airBnB hosts at the Girona train station at roughly 11pm on Tuesday night. I took it relatively easy for the first few days as I got used to the heat, recovered from a long day of travelling and wanted the opportunity to explore the area. During this time I managed to meet up with some friends which I would end up riding with later in the week.
Once I had settled in, I started upping my training intensity and load resulting in a really solid block of training which has benefited me hugely. My day-to-day routine would be to head out on the bike at roughly 9am, complete the ride (with a few stops of course), get back and make some lunch and either chill out or look around the area for the rest of the day. This may seem quite laid back but often we would not get back until 3pm and in the evening have to get some food for tea and make routes for the next day.
I did nearly all my riding with my brother (Max) and also did some rides with Lukas and Sam who we know from racing against and being part of the same team. Having company really made the rides seem a lot quicker and kept morale high. My favourite spot to ride was on the outskirts of Girona, up the els Angels climb; although all the roads seemed surreal to me after being on the Isle of Man for so long. Other highlights were the coast road close to Barcelona and the rocacorba climb.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Girona and definitely will return; I was there for a period of 8 days and still feel I have so much to do. Whether that is swimming in Banyoles lake or having a more in-depth explore of Girona, I don't know. One thing for sure is I would love to do some more of the big climbs around the area and hire out a gravel bike as seeing the sheer amount of gravel paths make it such an attractive
prospect.
My stats from the week:
8 days
32hrs
950km
Lots of TSS
And lots of Coca cola consumed.
Comments