Day 7 – Camino
A good day… it was mostly on asphalt and mostly going up for a long time and then down very fast. Spain has so many back roads and great shoulder space. Drivers are very safe and it is rare to see cars.
I set a new personal record today!!! I climbed 1,153m on my bike in one session. My previous record was on July 11th, 2020 on my long ride in Mazemet (a beautiful ride I highly recommend).
Ourense is in the bottom of a collapsed Volcano so getting out of that was HARD. I left around 9 am and didn’t really escape that “hill” until almost 11 am… I had to walk about half of it as the gradients were just too much and I was soaked with sweat by the time I got to the top. I took a little breather and had breakfast while my clothes dried a bit in the sun.
Stats…
53km over 3 hours and 48 minutes of moving time. Elevation gain of 1,153m. Total time was four hours and 47 minutes as I took some breaks, plus I walked a good chunk in that early stage to escape Ourense.
Pictures…
Tomorrow…
I should arrive in Santiago tomorrow. I am going to stay there a few days as I need to do some work and want some chill time. I am especially looking forward to having a kitchen. I grow tired of road food and looking forward to eating a bag of broccoli and other delicious things.
Thoughts…
Biking is always nice as the first 5 or 6 days your mind is still going, but around day 6 or 7 it just clears and you are left with a bit of a void. You are hit with a different kind of mental and emotional energy, it is hard to describe. It can also be just “zapped” if you over-extend your rides but I feel pretty good there.
Random notes…
- For this ride and the 82km one, I did a really good job hydrating. Glad to see that as I haven’t done so well with that in the past :)
- Spain and Portugal don’t really have near the number of picnic tables like France did. Everywhere in France has picnic tables and I really miss that. Every church seemed to have them as well as small city parks. Spain has a weird workout area, but usually no picnic tables. Often hard stone benches though.
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