Pro Cycling Dairy - March

Easy days are always welcomed with open arms in my training schedule. Last week my boyfriend Tao’s easy day coincided with mine so we rolled out together.  Like most ‘recovery days’, we stopped at a cafe in a small Catalan village for breakfast. It’s one we ride through often, but had never ventured in to any further than the main road. Coming in to a beautiful small square, we were spoilt for choice. Which cafe would we like to spend our lazy Friday morning at? In the end we decided both! First being for the savoury choice of a Bocadillo El Camino. As we walked in, there were two old men having a coffee along side a bottle of red wine (it was 10am), the perfect metaphor for the relaxed village scene perhaps? The second cafe was for the sugar hit before we slowly pedalled our way home. Total ride time 2 hours, Elapsed time? 4 hours.

Once home we spend the afternoon wondering around the cobbled streets of Girona, steadily making our way through the ‘things to do’ list that had accumulated over the past few days. We have our own names for a number of the shops here. Mainly due to my inability to remember the real, sometimes confusing, Catalan names. 

The ‘Coconut shop’, more commonly known as A la Menuda is one of our most visited shops. They sell delicious desiccated Coconut (hence the name), nuts, dried fruit and oats. You name it, they have it. Then there is our favourite shop, known to most as Colmado L’estuca. We joke that the owners have almost taken the roles of our Girona parents we see them so much. Conversation is limited due to the language barrier but we always feel very welcomed each time we walk in. And they have the best produce in town.

Once home I normally have plenty of extravagant ideas for ride food to make for the upcoming days, or a crazy recipe I want to make for dinner. Unfortunately I take the term ‘easy day’ to the extreme, so it can be dangerous when my bum hits the sofa. My legs seemingly losing the ability to lift me from it’s comfy depths. More often than not, no baking has happened and dinner isn’t quite as extravagant as I had earlier planned.

Before heading to bed I have a quick look over my training diary, seeing what my coach has in store for the next week’s training. And seemingly just like that, the day is over - recovery done, time to train again!