Another travel day, this one with an early start. We got up around 3:30, packed up, ate breakfast, did a final cleaning, and walked over to the train stop nearby. I misjudged our leaving time so we got there early, but better early than late. Bought our tickets on the train to the main station, then we made a quick connection to the actual airport destination train. It was a little stressful but successful. Lots of people at the airport, we got through security smoothly, it was well run without to much waiting. Had a coffee we bought with our last zlotys, then got in line at the gate. We were flying Wizz Air, which has a baggage size limit, so I ended up taking my shoes out of my backpack and putting them in my rain jacket, which has big interior pockets. Got through and then just put my shoes back in the backpack. Not too much trouble. The flight from Krakow to Barcelona was smooth and uneventful, and we arrived early. We waited in the terminal until a little before 10:30, when we had our rental car reservation. Turns out it was with the same rental company, OK Mobility, that we rented the car from in Seville. It was an Opel Corsa, a manual shift. That turned out to be an issue, since we didn't get instructions on how to pass through the parking lot exit gate. I got there, couldn't get through, and decided to back up. But I couldn't figure out how to engage the car in reverse. Ann came to the rescue by googling it, and we circled back to the car rental pick-up spot, with some difficulty, to find out the secret. Turns out you need to press the intercom button and let them know your rental car company. Success! We got on the road, and after a short bit while leaving the airport, I realized how to pay attention to the speed limit, since I didn't want another ticket like last time. The speed limit changes a lot on Spanish roads, I discovered. Ann did a good job navigating to get us out of town (some traffic but not too much) and on the way to Girona. We stopped at a bike store on the way to Mark and Karmi's place and picked up the bike that Mark had reserved for me. Maria helped get me set up. It was a little challenging to locate the store, since it was on the upper deck of a local strip mall. That led to me carrying the bike down an escalator after picking it up. Had to take the front wheel off to fit it in the car, but Ann had dropped the back seats, and we made it work. Then it was another 20 minutes or so to their place, which is off a gravel road out in the country. Karmi greeted us when we got there, and we chatted for a bit until Mark finished his phone calls. We went into the local town, la Bisbol d'Emporda, and had lunch at this nice place. I drank a lot of water and some wine, gave my bladder a workout the rest of the afternoon. When we got back, Mark and I went out for a shakedown ride. The bike is a Giant TCR with Shimano 105 mechanical shifting and disc brakes. It was its maiden voyage. I had a little trouble finding the right seat height, but putting the pedals and head unit holder on was easy. The bike has 28 mm tires, and that turned out to be a good thing. We rode on a gravel stretch not too far from their place, and it took some getting used to. Then we were on country roads winding through farmland and small villages. Apparently, a number of pros live in the area and ride some of these roads. We got to another gravel section, which Mark hadn't planned for. This one was much longer and had some dicey downhill winding sections where I was riding the brakes and dealing with wheels slipping in the dirt. The climbing sections were better, since my speed was slower and they never got so steep that I couldn't make headway. Got through the gravel stretch and onto nice roads again, and we then rode up to and past a little village, Madremanya, with a medieval castle. This ended up being our turnaround spot, and we headed back on smooth roads, some nice down hills and lots of sweeping turns. A little bit of climbing but nothing serious. We got back before Ann and Karmi returned from their trip to the town, had a satisfying beer. The weather was gray and wind less on the ride, and it stayed that way while we sat outside. We met the homeowner, Lillian, she's from Belgium and very nice. I grabbed a shower later, then we chatted more and had a late, light dinner of salad, cheese, and fruit. It turned out to be a long day but a very good one. The riding was welcome, since I'd been off a bike (not counting the Amsterdam rides) for about 2 weeks. I felt good on the ride, legs and cardio held up. We'll see how it goes on longer rides.
Avg speed = 13.9 mph. Total mileage = 18.2 mi
Avg power = 122 W. Weighted avg power = 160 W
Total elevation gain = 1340'
Avg heartrate = 121 bpm
I started Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, by Antonio Padilla. It's an explanation of some key physics concepts through the description of esoteric numbers. So far, it's pretty good. Graham's Number is an interesting concept, as is the idea that black holes represent the maximum amount of entropy or information that can be compressed into a physical space. Watched movie about Philippa Langley and her search for the corpse of Richard III.
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