Altea municipal pool

With the power of Google I track down the municipal swimming pool in Altea and found an opening time that fitted in with the day's activities. It was a clean and tidy 25m pool arranged in lanes with few swimmers. The only drawback was that lockers were not available. Swimmers either left bags in the changing room or took them poolside.

I didn't have the Big Buoy with me and  found the supplied pull buoys to be worse than useless so most of my 1200m was done with  leg kicks. My legs really do act as anchors but with some effort I managed 100m sets in 2:40min and 2:35min which I was satisfied with. It's clear that I am finding the sizeable pull buoy to be a 'crutch', as is so often stated online, but equally my endurance and stroke style and power is improving through being able to maintain an effort for an hour without a rest. I'll have to discuss this further with Julian at my next session,

Inland of Altea

After a day strolling from Altea to Albir on a pleasant day I needed to exert myself a bit more. I scanned OpenCycleMap and found some tracks inland of the A7 towards the Riu Algar. I did my best to memorise the route beyond the urban streets and set off at a gentle run.

The first route was obvious but after taking a few forks that path had gone from a a well-made dirt road to true 'single track'.

I was working from memory and could also tell that the paths on the ground were more plentiful than those mapped. Basically I didn't know which way was my chosen route. After reaching a gated dead end I turned back and completed the route clockwise instead of my hoped for anti-clockwise. There wasn't really anything wrong with this choice, just that I'd hoped to go the other way.

On my return I reviewed the route (just under 9km) and spotted my error and route options that I could have taken. That's fine as now I can plan runs for our next trip to Altea.