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GB Triathletes in Cuevas del Almanzora

28 Jan

You will notice that I haven’t been posting much recently – the minute the family left after Christmas, I started cooking for the triathletes at the Kinetic PB training camp  and just finished last night!   It was fantastic fun, if a little tiring – 6 nights a week for girls and boys who had been training virtually all day long and therefore came back hungry and looking forward to some home cooking.

The camp has really taking off with triathlon teams from Manchester and Scotland choosing to train here, mainly because of the dry, sunny weather.  It can be chilly first and last thing, but during the day you can get 5 or 6 hours of lovely warm weather- a little different from theUK!

The latest athletes to make it out here are the GB Triathlete team who are manically training for their busy season ahead and what is after all an Olympic year.

We have high hopes for medals at the event which is to be held at Hyde Park this summer and so shall be watching out for any familiar faces!

I, too, felt like an athlete, but of the culinary kind – racing to shop, cook and serve substantial and tasty meals that I thought they would enjoy – they were an amazing bunch to cook for – no complaints and hardly anything they didn’t eat and so made life very easy from that perspective.

They had a gruelling but enjoyable time here – the roads are amazing for cycling (they went up to Seron – twice -an hour away by CAR!) – I think they loved the rugged scenery, the blue skies and the great location of their camp.  They even swam in the man-made lake at the camp – freezing at this time of year, the sea at Garrucha (crazy), but mainly used the indoor swimming pool in our local town of Cuevas.

Running, of course, is made easy, due to the lack of traffic, endless hill and mountain.

In the next weeks, they are all off to various parts ofSouth America– I can’t pretend that I am not envious, but only of the travel part – I am no athlete really!  We wish them all the best and hope they will be back again.

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Trialthon training in Almeria

20 Sep

Up by the dam at Cuevas del Almanzora is a huge man made lake and clubhouse which was built in 2004 for the rowing and canoeing events of the 2005 Mediterranean games. The thought of rowing and canoeing in the desert has always made us chuckle.

After the Games it just sat unused –we couldn’t believe what a waste it was – until earlier this year Kinetic PB run by Oliver Watts took it over to launch a very impressive triathlon training camp. We met Oli when some friends came to stay and one of them wanted to hire a bike and found him on the internet.  So we thought we would get in touch with him too as we thought it may be of interest to people who stay with us.

The Tri Lodge (10 minutes from here) is at the centre of all training activities – obviously it is ideal for winter training when the UK is pretty grim so makes a brilliant base for athletes.

The lake (or swimming channel) is pretty impressive at 1,150m long and 115m wide offering controlled environment swimming right next to the camp HQ and Kinetic also have their own indoor swimming pool.

Cycling in Almeria is already recognised as one of the best places to train, again particularly during the autumn and winter months as we get so much sunshine during the days.

Oliver is very helpful and obviously enjoys what he does and has a great atmosphere going up at the Tri Lodge along with the equipment and facilities.

Several top coaches work up there during the year but you’ll have to visit the website for a full schedule or just call Oli direct at Kinetic PB.

For those of you who live nearby, do go up and take a look – it is so great to see this structure being used for something sporty!  It is only around 10 minutes drive from Cuevas itself.

Kinetic PB telephone number: +44 (0)7976275503