Racing and Training 2023

  Thursday 30 November 2023 Weather Today has started out nice and bright. Max temperature predicted to be 18C Barcelona yesterday was grey and driech in the morning but it brightened up through the day. I went out late (after mid-day) so I didn’t encounter any rain. I wore my GB Masters weatherproof. It did start to get a little bit chilly as the sun went down, late afternoon. I had 6 and a quarter hour’s sleep and my body battery is quite low at 68% and by evening it had dropped to 29%. My plan for today was to visit Park Güell and Montjuic.. Park Güell I booked my ticket for Park Güell on-line before I left the hotel. I got an e-mail with a QR code which would provide access to the park. I chose an entry time of 12:30. I was half an hour early but they let me in anyway. I left the hotel and walked for about 5 min, 300 m to Bogatell Metro L4 (direction Trinitad Nova) (8 stops) to Joanic and then walked for 2 mins and to get the V19 Bus at Pi i Margall - Pl Joani...

Wednesday 29 November 2023 Weather Barcelona – It was grey and driech in the morning but it brightened up through the day. I went out late (after mid-day) so I didn’t encounter any rain. I wore my GB Masters weatherproof. It did start to get a little bit chilly as the sun went down, late afternoon. I had a hotel breakfast. It was very nice, typical of a posh (ish) large hotel. It was a buffet breakfast with just about everything anyone would want, including a Nutella dispenser (obviously 😀 ) I just go for a "fry up" with a large pot of English Breakfast Tea. Bread & butter is my high-carb treat but it does me no favours, I may skip the bread tomorrow. I had café con leche (dos largas) for afters.  A note, that when I set out in the morning I was in real pain in my left hip. It persisted until I had walked for a couple of miles and then it eased. Before I set out, back in my room, I pottered around and tried to plan for the day. I decided to head for th...

Tuesday 28 November 2023 Weather It was a grey day in San Sebastian, it was raining while on the bus to Bilbao. It was sunny in Barcelona   I had 7 and a half hours sleep but my body battery was still quite low at 48%. I decided to get the 7am bus from San Sebastián. So, I set my alarms for 5:30. I let them snooze once. I had packed the previous night so it was a smooth getaway. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the bus station. I bought a ticket from the ticket office and had some time to kill so I had a café con leche. The bus ran pretty much to time which meant that I had an hour to spare landside at Bilbao Airport. I had a coffee and a croissant. The flight was on time too. At Barcelona Airport Metro station, I bought an L9S metro ticket with cash because the card payment slot wasn’t working. I used a €20 note so I got lots of change. I had to change to L1 at Torrassa. I also had to get a ticket for the onwards journey. I decided to get a T-Casual 10 ticket card. ...

Monday 27 November 2023 Weather San Sebastián – It was raining   AF I went to my usual breakfast place. I went back to my digs and programmed a new training programme on my Garmin. I did a benchmark run and then an easy run. Later, I went for some Tapas and I had some red wine and three cañas. I had some Tapas and Albondigas (the latter at Juantxo). I had an early night as I had to pack ready for an early start tomorrow.

  Sunday 26 November 2023 Weather Sunny day starting out at 8C and getting a couple of degrees warmer.   I had 7 hours sleep. I thought about doing 10K of the marathon course but I was still tired so I went back to sleep for maybe another hour and a half. I went to Maiatza for breakfast (bacon toastie) and then walked up to watch the marathon. I saw Tall Christopher Taggart from Teddington go through halfway and then watched the leader finishing the marathon. I walked over the bridge towards the Kursaal and headed South. I found a tapas bar and had a tortilla and a coffee. I carried on and crossed the river to roughly the 24-mile mark where I saw Tall Christopher again. I walked back to my digs. Later I went out and had a tapa (jamon iberico) and a Coca zero (pronounced “thero”) at the Irish bar on the corner. I wandered around the old town. I then had two tapas (Black pudding and Chorizo) and a red wine at a bar in the centre of town. I then went to Casa Alcalde and h...

  Saturday 25 November 2023 Weather San Sebastián – we had some overnight rain then some light drizzle in the morning. It was warm drizzle.   I was happy in my Cardiff 5K technical “T” shirt when I emerged in the morning to do the Gosaria 7K breakfast run. I had a decent night’s sleep and my body battery was well charged. However, I was very stiff and sore when I woke up and when I ventured out I decided that I needed to go back to Almeda and take some Paracetamol and Ibuprofen. I did a lot of stretching before the start of the run and that helped. The run was in a group doing 10 mm. I coped with it OK. We had a pause at half way by the w ind sculpture for group photos. I ran back with Chris Taggart (from Teddington), the conversation helped to pass the metres by. After the run I had coffee and pain au chocolate (free). Then I collected my Marathon race number and “T” Shirt. I had a late breakfast at Bar Maiatza, I had two English Teas with my Bacon Focaccia, I als...

  Friday 24 November 2023 Weather Cloudy with some rain – but I missed all the rain. I managed 7 and a half hours sleep and charged my body battery up to 91. After breakfast at Maiatza (I paid cash) I went for a walk up and around the local hill. I had some tapas at Casa Alcalde. I went back to my digs for a while and ventured out later for two cokes and some tapas at Loretxu Gastrotaberna (Empanada and a queso pintxo. I then had Albondigas and a coke at Juantxo Taberna and a coffee at a burger shop which faces on to the boulevard.