My foot problem put pay to my plans for some serious training. When it happened I almost cancelled the holiday. However, it was well enough by the weekend and everyone was relying on me to drive whilst on the Island. At the last minute I decided to pack my trail shoes and my rucksack, just in case it felt any better.
We arrived on Friday night and had a nice meal as Kasbah then bed. Saturday was warm (29c) but cloudy. We had a nice meal at Savannah at lunch, then a spectacular meal at Bambudha Grove, and another early night to bed. My foot still wasn't good enough to risk on Sunday morning. We had lunch at Ses Eufabies in Cala Tarida. THis is one of my favourite restuarants. It's perched on a small on the beach. It's not expensive and I always eat the same thing. The Advacado prawns starter, and the sizzling garlic shrimp main meal. It's always excellent! I think i've had it eveyr time I have visited for about 7 years! We went to Space on Sunday afternoon, but left at 10:30pm and headed back to the hotel.
On Monday we went to Cala Vedella and ate another fantastic meal at Can Sofia. Cala Vedella is well known for excellent seafood and it certainly did not disappoint.
I decided that I would at least try and run, so I gave my lunch an hour to digest (not long enough really) and got dressed to run whilst everyone else lay on the beach. It was around, or just over 30C. I only packed a 2kg rucksack and 800ml of water in my shoulder holster bottle. I ran up the twisting road out of Cala Vedella. This is a typical Ibiza panorama, the whole island looks like this (Well, that's not strictly true, but the hilly bits do!)
It's a steep climb for a full mile, then a gradual climb for the next 2 with only very short descents to mix it up. I ran along the road towards a neighbouring cove; Cala D'hort. This is actually my favourite beach on the island because of the spectacular view of the Island Es Vedra (Dragon) a couple of k off the coast.
I took this one of it, from further away from the coast.
The climbs were steep, but I didn't consider stopping. I just took short strides and kept a manageable pace. It was hot with no shade for much of the route, and where there was shade I tried my best to avoid it.
I had decided to run only 10k so turned around when I reached the hill at the top of Cala D'Hort. These photo's taken from that point.
I ran the return a little quicker as you would expect, being mostly downhill. My foot did ache at times, and played up a little on the descent.
I was certainly wise not to have pushed my luck and run further. I'm not sure how many hundred feet of ascent were included in the route, but I would guess at about 700-1000. After 40 minutes I had run out of water. I had roughly estimated that 800ml might last me about that length of time, so that was a useful exercise. I decided to run the last 2.5 miles 'dry', not that I was really dehydrated. I just decided it might be useful practice in case that happens in Morocco. I averaged 5.5mph for the session. I was hot afterwards and enjoyed tipping a couple of hundred mil of water over my head afterwards. I read this lowers your core temperature, but I assume this is only advisable if you have water to spare, otherwise I guess you should drink it!
This is me hot and bothered en-route.
In the evening we ate at Sa Punta, a restaurant owned by the club Pacha and afterwards we went to Pacha itself for the night to see Roger Sanchez. This was our only late night. As you can tell, we are more into our nice meals than the clubbing!
On Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel, did a little shopping and went to a beach called Cala Salada. I only had the opportunity to run for 45 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, so I put on my rucksack and headed up yet another twisty road out of Cala Salada.
This climb was shorter, but steeper, but I didn't stop at all. At the top I turned right and headed steeply downhill to the next beach Cala Gracio. Great views on the way down.
At the bottom of the hill, about 2 miles in, I turned around climb up and out of Cala Gracio, then back down the twisty road and into Cala Salda again.
This was only a short run, but I was pleased just to do a little running. My foot still played up on the descent so I don't think I can take part in the 20 mile even in Pendle that I was going to do this weekend. It needs more time to heal properly.
I found out a lot of things I already knew.
Running in the heat isn't pleasurable, but it's manageable
My heart rate was 20bpm higher than usual
You get through a lot more water
You sweat more, and so lose more salt
Acclimatising in the week before the big event would be invaluable
As I said, these are all common knowledge, but at least I have had a taste of heat, even if it is 10 degrees short of Sahara temperatures.
Finally, I couldn't leave Ibiza without catching a sunset from the famous Sunset strip in San Antonio, so here it is for you to enjoy too.
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