Ascending to Heaven

Distance: 46.8km
Duration: 3:17:22
Calories: 2621
Terrain: Uphill for more than half the way on loose gravel track
June Mileage: 197.5km

As you can see by the heading I certainly enjoyed yesterdays climbing. We climbed and climbed for what seemed like hours. My legs were feeling yesterday's practice a bit but after spinning the legs a while they were ready for the days exertion. The gradients got up there in the high twenty's at times but the granny gear came out and I just kept going strong. Great feeling this last week while climbing. What used to be tough climbs are now much easier and I find myself simply gliding up the hill's. All good and the ankle was not a worry the whole time.
We started the day in Gilon, a small communal village where Erez stays. It's situated on a hill so we descended from there and then headed east toward Carmiel from where we would make our way up to Kharashim, a village similar to Gilon. I will keep the route in mind becasue we climbed for a long time before reaching our destination so this makes it a great route to get some climbing done. From there you over look the entire area and the valley bellow, full of olive tree's and in the distance the ancient city of Akko.
On the way down we hit a bit of tarmac where I managed to hit a top speed of 63.7km/h. Great day out and really looking forward to the next weeks training.

Climb to the castle of Yehiam

Distance: 34.1km
Time: 2:02:00
Calories: 1591
Terrain: Jeep track with some meaty climbs saved solely for us mountain goats
June mileage: 114.9km

The great thing I have to say about staying in Israel is being able to hop on the bike and travel back in time. Decided to do a long/historic/exploratory ride this morning with some serious saddle time, 3 hours or more. The reason I'm able to squeeze this in on a Monday is becasue we're celebrating Shavuot here in Israel but more on that after the ride, you need to earn those calories. I woke up early feeling a bit crabby and rusty from yesterday's ride, pushed it a bit harder than I thought by the feeling of it. Took me a while to get the legs turning without the squeeling noises coming from my body. First thing I realized was that I had not eaten well yesterday and the tanks were empty, amazing how quickly you feel it. I had some gel in the back pocket but decided to keep them there for the bonk that never came. Glad about that as burned some more calories. I was not feeling well and by the time I reached the castle sitting half way up the climb I was not keen to continue, I had the added calculation that the grass needed cutting before the family came over. So after an hour of climbing I made my turn and was a bit disappointed that I would not be able to put in the full hours I wanted or get the kilometers under the belt. What goes up must come down and boy was it fun. Yet another puncture when I arrived home so it'll be off to the shop tomorrow to convert it to tubeless again. Need to fill up the back tire in anyway, the amount of thorns fighting their way into your path here makes some form of anti-puncture treatment there, solid rubber is not unheard of.
Back to the delicious part of the blog. Shavuot is a day of cheeses,more cheese and then just to top it off some more for good measure. We had white cheese, blue cheese, yellow cheese, cottage cheese, broccoli cheese pie, cheese and mushroom pie, cheese and zatar borekas, greek salad and finally a dessert of cheese cake. It was cheese all round and definitely my favorite holiday.

Beach ride with Mirit

Kilometers: 17.1km
Duration: 1:22
Calories: 379
Terrain: Asphalt
May Mileage: 215.3km

Really easy ride with Mirit today. We went along the beach, my regular easy morning ride up to Rosh Ha'Nikra. Early out of bed this morning and into an old shirt and pants. I can't say the pace was exhiliranting but it was great fun spending time with Mirit on the bike. We were talking the whole way enjoying each others companies on a brilliant morning. Saw someone actually pull out a fish so there is still some left on our side of the Mediterranean. Stopped just before Kziv beach were there are some old ruins to make some tea. We took the herbs from the garden, mint, zuta and verbena. Lovely sweet tea but looks alarmingly like watered down urine with its yellow tint.
Got back to the house and decided to mow the lawn and work in the garden. Spent about two hours sweeting in the sun so sure it counts as a bit of cross training on top of the easy ride this morning. I'm thinking about taking a ride after the Giro this afternoon. I realized the sun is setting closer to eight in the evening so with a six 'o clock finish I could still get in a descent ride.

Museo del Ciclismo

If you haven't noticed the first grand tour is underway in Italy. The weather is often unpredictable and we have already been riddled with big crashes and early exists. These guys should have visited the shrine. I'm a keen reader of the Italian Cycling Journal and Angelo has posted some great pictures of his ride to the Madoona del Ghisallo. This is the patroness of cyclists, and actually got the nod from Pope Pius XII himself during the 1949 Giro d'Italia. So we do have someone looking out for us. Apparently the museum has old jersey's, bikes and plenty of pictures. Check out his site for some more pictures. Each photo will take you to the separate entries he has of his ride to the shrine and well worth a visit if you have any sort of passion for cycling:

All images are property of Angelo from Italian Cycling Journal

Return

On my bike for the first time since getting back from the trip. Been six days since I've been on a bike and more than two weeks since I've been on a bike weighing race weight. We were carrying an extra twenty kilograms around on our touring and the bike was an old beater which added another five kilograms to the tally. The achilles has still, excuse the pun, been my weak spot for the week. I've been limping around trying to save them from as much action as possible. Quite difficult when that basically means I would need to be off my legs. Well I made sure to take it easy this ride and did a ride with Ofir and Omri so they were also still fresh off the long ride. Decided that hills would be detrimental to an quick recovery but still wanted to get back on the bike. We went up to Ein Tamir, translated as Tamir's Spring. You go up a canyon that has a old crusader castle protecting the way. Montfort basically means strong mountain and is one of the old crusader relic's left in the region. A beautiful castle built of white stone and nestled inside the oak forest's endemic to this area. We rode here because the road is pretty flat with a gentle rise to the spring although there is one kicker but I really took it easy up the hill and rode as slow as possible in the lowest gear. So the round trip was about 30km, I didn't have my heart rate monitor with me because I still haven't transfered everything from. Was a bit of a blessing, one less thing to worry about. We got to the spring without any problems and Ofir's girlfriend Orli had joined us. Glad she came along because the pace was more manageable for me. We had some coffee, sandwiches and then a dip in the ice cold mountain water. Quite unimaginable that there would be a place like this in a dry country like Israel but these places exist and its amazing to find them hidden away. Like jewels where in other countries they lie scattered all over. I hope to show more of these gems as I find them. The racing has taken me away from the fun part of riding and to get back to these roots is brilliant.