I woke up last Saturday with a hangover from hell, I had been drinking copious amount of beer the night before and some strange blue gin in celebration of my birthday. The headache was like a heard of thunderous elephants stampeding through a very large hallway with fantastic acoustics and a sub woofer. However I had not ventured out of Vic for a long time so was determined to have a day out in Barcelona, not because I wanted to see any works of art or architecture you understand, there was a huge sale on at Decathlon and Primark at Diagonal Mar, a shopping centre in the suburbs of Barcelona.
I needed some clothes as I have left most of them in the UK and I needed some equipment for my bike and walks around my local area. I had only seen these shops and this suburb once last year when Jesus and I had visited a fair at the Forum, but I was sure I could find my way....... Yeah right!
Two hours later and a 12km walk I arrived. I can’t actually say I was disappointed, the walk along the seafront in the fresh February air was refreshing and the smell of the sea always takes me back to my childhood, where I can day dream about adventures I had with my friends. Needless to say, after I finished my shopping I took the bus back to the city centre.... What was my point in this story....? Oh yes! Getting fit.
It’s been a nice winter, but the warm weather will be on its way in the next couple of months and as soon as it is I plan to spend the majority of my weekends exploring the Pyrenees and the rest of Catalonia by foot but, to do this I want to be a little fitter. So my plan was to hit the training full on!
For the first few days it was a nightmare, so I pulled up off the gas for a couple of days then, last week I went to climb a hill close by called Creu de Gurb, it’s a small hill close by my town about twice the size of Roseberry Topping (for my English friends). It was a blisteringly cold Sunday afternoon but undeterred I mounted my bike and set off.
So I took my mountain bike across town and through various footpaths (to give myself a challenge) and up to the hill, tied my bike to the gate of a farm and off I went scampering up the rock face (not thinking about the decent).
When I arrived at the top I was greeted by a huge Catalan flag and a nativity scene. No I don’t mean there was a woman giving birth to the second coming, I mean there was a nativity scene left up there from the Christmas day tradition of climbing the hill. At the top I was greeted by a great view of El Plana De Vic.
I was also greeted by the arrival of a snow storm, but luckily I spotted a footpath because that rock face decent would have been tricky in my trainers. So I set off for a run down the hill, something I have enjoyed since sprinting down from Nuria last summer to evade a rainstorm. Considerably shattered and with the arrival of the snowstorm, my sight distance was down to a couple of meters by the time I reached my bike, the ride back to Vic was freezing and with a few wrong turns (my arms were so cold snow was actually settling on them :D )
The reward when I arrived home??? I realised that I am at least 200% fitter than I was when I arrived, and I’m really looking forward to tackling those mountains in the summer.
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