XXI Subida al Veleta

[johnb]

Antiono
I'm nursing a slight injury at the moment (nothing serious; a bit of a strain in my hip area. I think I did it stretching!!), so I went out yesterday on my bike. The bike has been much neglected since I started running so I took it up a hill (via Monachil, for anyone who knows the outskirts of Granada). It was hard, hard work. I suspect your bike ride up Veleta was probably harder than the run (in answer to Riazor Blue's post) . Sometimes when I'm out training (running) I'll overtake someone on their bike - now I see why... The good news is that I really enjoyed it, so I think I'll be keeping this bit of cross training once or twice a week. As you and others have already mentioned, the best bit was coming down (though these hills are steep - my little speedometer clocked nearly 60km per hour. Frightening or exhilarating, I don't know).

I reckon cycling is good for base fitness - my guess is riding up Veleta once a week will get your time below 2hrs in the Granada half....

BB (?Simon) I agree re Antonio's account - it should have been in La Marca. I suppose it is good that they carried an account of a normal person actually doing something - most of the paper is aimed at armchair sportsmen. Have you done any of Zegama-Aizkorri? Maraton alpino madrileño? Galarleiz?. I'd love to do one or more of these, and my partner Alisha and I are keen to visit the northern reaches again.

Well it's true, this is a friendly and encouraging forum. Maybe I will go for today's run after all...

John