Mallorca 70.3

I was nervous going into race day.  I don't know if it was simply nerves from the first race of the season, or if it's because I've put more pressure on myself this season to perform well.  Regardless, I felt like I had a lot riding on this race.  Being in Mallorca a week early helped a lot as I was able to swim in the Balearic Sea and remember the salt, jellyfish and waving starfish.  I was able to bike the course and remember the small mountain villages, farms, and cobblestone streets.  I was able to run the run course and know exactly where each landmark was for my pacing.  Even with my nerves I was feeling fit and ready to race, which almost made it scarier.  I was primed to have a great race.  

Game face baby!  Wait, not this one...

Or this one...

Here it is!

My swim was excellent, one of my best splits ever and I knew I was right where I needed to be starting the bike leg.  I love rolling starts where I get to come out of the water right up front.  It makes me look really fast.

My race plan called for me to go out hard on the bike and push hard all the way to the top of the Coll de la Batalla.  I did.  I pushed hard across the causeway, and I pushed hard up the climb.  I remember last year being passed by a ton of strong women cyclists, I didn't want to repeat that this year.  Yet it happened again.  There weren't as many and I held my own a little bit longer, but I was still being passed.  I was a little discouraged because I didn't feel like as much as a powerhouse as I was hoping.  Jeremy biked out to the course and saw me as I was coming out of Campanet.  I was so surprised to see him!  He was surprised to see me too.  He had been practicing to get the perfect bike shot of me cruising past, but I sat up to wave which threw off his groove so he snapped this blooper of a shot instead.  It has a certain charm to it don't you think?

Apparently he had quite the adventure getting out there to meet me, and had to carry his bike across a dirt road for awhile until he found the best road out.  I'm glad he made the journey.  

Towards the end of the bike I started feeling a little weird in my stomach.  I wasn't sure what was going on with my nutrition but I was worried about what it meant for the run.  

I started my run at my new 70.3 pace, 4:20/km, and was feeling ok for the first few kilometers before my stomach started cramping.  I knew I was in trouble unless I could get it to relax, but I never could.  I didn't come off the bike with as much as a lead as I would have liked, but I was still hoping my run would be strong enough to move me up in the ranks.  Not today.  My pace was faltering, my body was cramping, and I just wasn't moving like I had been earlier that week.  

But once I made the shift from needing to win to enjoying the journey I was able to still feel very positive about the whole thing.  

Also from a practical perspective, a seventh place finish meant that I didn't have to change my flight for the next day.  

This is one of the best places for post race recovery.  I can hang out on a beautiful beach and still cheer for the athletes racing.  Jeremy picked up some pizza and while we ate we sat on the course and cheered those full athletes who were finishing their own race.  It was a perfect ending to a not so perfect, but really fabulous race day.

Swim 26:41, T1 4:50, Bike 3:02:34, T2 3:21, Run 1:48:15, Finish time 5:25:40 

Alcudia explorations

The day before a race we like to keep our explorations simple and closer to home base.  I wanted to take Jeremy to Old Town Alcudia and let him experience the charm of the old world European streets with me.  We went souvenir shopping for the kids and enjoyed wandering through the fort.  Looking back through the pictures, I don't know why we didn't stop for gelato at the time.  I'm craving it now just remembering the perfect morning!  

I also wanted Jeremy to see Cap de Formentor.  We drove as far as we could out to the end of the peninsula.  The drive up and down those winding was tight as we were sharing the road with buses and cyclists. 

When we got to the end of the road it was barricaded and we couldn't go beyond the gate, neither could the other dozens of cars who had driven up.  It made turning around the drive back down pretty tricky.  But we did have time to climb out of the car and enjoy the incredible view.  These cliffs are simply stunning!  

Es Colomer

I can't tell which views I prefer though, the dramatic cliffside views, or the very tranquil beach views back by our apartment.  It's a toss up.  I love Mallorca. 

Coastal explorations

After our cave excursion, we ventured up the coast on our way back to Alcudia.  We had no destination in mind, we simply stopped when we found something interesting.  Our first task though was to find a place for a great picnic lunch.  We thought we had found a perfect beach, but as we drove farther down someone's private lane we realized that might not be the perfect beach after all.  A little ways down the road we found another shore access that led us to some awesome cliffs, I think it was near Cala Morlanda.  We walked down a set of stairs that led to the water and ate our lunch there sheltered from the wind.  It felt so private  and I was slightly jealous of those homes that had that view as their backyard. 

 Once we had our fill of peanut butter sandwiches we walked along the cliff to see what we could see.  The surf was high and the waves were big.  The way they crashed against the cliffs mesmerized Jeremy.  For some reason it all reminded me of the Count of Monte Cristo.  Jeremy even found a couple of blowholes that he thought were awesome.  I tried capturing the force of the explosion with my camera but it just didn't do it justice.  

For my part, I really liked watching the tidal pools fill up and then drain looking like dozens of little waterfalls.

Back in the car we drove some more and ended up in the very touristy area of Playa de Cala Millor.  The beach was absolutely beautiful there.  There was a long stretch of white sand that would be a perfect place to spend the day if it wasn't so incredibly windy.  

Jeremy found a palm frond that waved like a dragon.  

Then he discovered these really cool balls.  He thinks the sea coughed up hairballs.  I think they are seed pods of some kind.  The beach was covered with them, and they tumbled across the sand like tumbleweed back home.  

Our final stop on the way back home was at the Cova des Coloms.  Where we parked led us to a hiking trail.  It looks like we could have hiked a long way around the coast.  My legs were feeling pretty walked out by this point so we walked just to a huge overhanging cove/cave and walked the waves crash there for a bit.  

Jeremy was more adventurous and walked down to the very edge of the crashing waves to feel their power.  I hung out up above all of that.  It was great how much of the island we were able to see that day. 

Cuevas del Drach

One of the activities that was on my bucket list last time I visited Mallorca was the Cuevos del Drach. Unfortunately the only way to get there by car as the buses don't run there very easily. When I was there with Jocelyn we relied solely on the buses and our bikes, so it wasn't an option. This time I just bit the bullet and rented a car so that we could explore. I am so glad we did. We took our time getting out there and were expecting something small based on our past experiences with caves. I was very surprised when at the entrance to the cave there was a huge queue of people nearly 200 people long. I couldn't fathom how a cave could support that many visitors. They slowly let us trickle in and we wandered the pathway through the cave. I've seen quite a few caves, but this one was unique. Because of the very porous rock there were a ton of straws from the ceiling. I've never seen so many stalactites in my life. Some were little, some were big, but they covered every inch of the ceiling. This cave also had underground lakes which was unique for me. The color in the lakes was a beautiful blue because of the minerals in the water. And as we wandered through the walkways I kept thinking how awesome of a cave this was. 

At the end of the tour we were led into a giant natural auditorium next to an underground lake. They had built benches and everyone in the tour

 took a seat before they turned out the lights. From off in the distance we could see lights turn on lighting three little row boats and we heard music starting to play. The three glowing row boats rowed slowly towards us as a quartet played classical music. It felt very phantom of the opera-esque, but in a beautiful sort of way. With all of the lights off we could only see the glowing boats and hear the flowing music. The quartet played four songs for us out on the lake. I didn't want them to finish because it was so ethereal. 

After the concert was finished the lights were turned back on, and we were able to hop aboard the boats to row across to the other side of the lake before exiting. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Solo Serra de Tramuntana explorations

I was really lucky to be able to fly out to Mallorca again to race this spring. It was one of the highlights of my year last year, and I couldn't believe that I was able to go again. This year instead of meeting some girlfriends,  Jeremy was going to travel with me. I went out a couple days before he did, and while I was waiting for him to arrive I did a little exploring. My favorite activity is always eating ice cream on the beaches sunset. It's been a long time since I've had a magnum bar, and it was incredible. 

I also decided to drive through the mountains exploring all of the little towns nestled up in there. I didn't stop and get out to explore them all, I just drove through drinking it all in. Each little town had its own little flavor. I loved Soller for its terraces, city living, and walking paths. 

I loved other little towns because the mountain views like Valldemossa. 

I loved others like Banyalbufar because of the views of the sea. 

I stopped at Cala Deia and found a walking path that took me down to a private little cove. I spent my time enjoying the water lapping against the rocks, and laughing at the Instagram couple who were trying so dutifully to take the perfect shot. 

As twilight was falling I headed back to Palma to pick up Jeremy. I had a couple minutes left so I wanted to go see the cathedral. It's difficult to navigate European cities in a car on yours own. One of your eyes has to be on the GPS, and your other eye has to be on the road reading signs in Spanish. There are very, very narrow streets which means you can't take your eye off the road for a second. Well I took my eyes off the road for one wrong second. I was following my GPS to the cathedral and it asked me to turn down a little alley. I didn't think anything of it since all of the streets are basically little alleys. But soon I realized this was taking me through a very narrow labyrinth of residential only streets. I was not supposed to be on those roads. They were so narrow that I was worried about scraping my car on each side. I obviously didn't have anywhere to turn around so I kept creeping forward. With every building I passed I was getting more and more nervous about where I was going to end up. I started passing residents walking by staring at me wondering what I was doing. I started passing shops that had cafe tables set out front, meant more for pedestrian traffic than cars. I was in trouble and I knew it. I didn't know what to do though, so I just kept going. I came around a corner and suddenly found myself in the courtyard of the cathedral! This is definitely not where I was supposed to be! Since I was there anyway, I considered parking the car getting out for a great picture before getting in and driving away, but I knew that wasn't quite right. So I drove around to the back side of the courtyard where I found a parking spot. I parked the car as soon as I could and took a couple moments to compose myself because my heart was racing. I climbed out of the car to go take a proper look at the cathedral. As I walked away a woman walked past my car and glanced at my windshield, pausing to take a double take. Then she pulled out her phone. I was nervous that I had still done something wrong so I went back to check, and sure enough all the other cars had residential parking permits. I decided to go get a picture of the cathedral anyway. Even though it was a perfect evening I couldn't linger and enjoy it because I was so nervous about my car being towed. 

I dashed back to my car and then hopped into keep driving. I found another maze of narrow streets. I passed a wonderful pedestrian walkway that I would have loved to explore any other time, but I just needed out of there. I finally found a parking garage and parked ready to explore the rest of the city on foot. I walked out and found some dinner then realized it was time to go get Jeremy. By now I was so turned around I didn't even know where my car was. It took me two or three tries to find the parking garage, and I decided never to do that again. I picked up Jeremy on the airport and then we were ready to roll for the rest of the week, hopefully with fewer navigation adventures.