A Spanish Adventure

I am stoked to finally be back in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain as it is the perfect training base for us during the Australian winter. Although the weather has been much like the current weather back home, we are making the most of the long days and impeccable training facilities that are on offer here. It has been a little over a week since arriving in Spain and already we have packed so many adventures into our trip.

Ron and I love our morning swim sessions. For a start, the pool doesn’t open until 8am which means we get a sleep in, always a positive for an athlete. And with the pool at Mendizorrotza being of Olympic standard, we are always keen to swim hard in every session. It will even be the venue for the USA swimming team before World’s in Barcelona later this year.

The rides around the lake are always a highlight of the trip and really make us look forward to our aerobic rides. The lake is 60km around, with minimal traffic and beautiful surroundings. I even had my very first snow sighting!!

On Sunday afternoon, we were lucky enough to win some tickets to a local basketball match between Vitoria and Bilbao. Vitoria has just finished building a brand new stadium, with a 15,000 person capacity, and the game was set to be a sell-out. I have never seen so many people in one place, all such avid basketball fans. All I can say is that I am glad we were cheering for Vitoria otherwise I am not sure we would have come out alive. The atmosphere was incredible and, although I am not a huge basketball fan, the game was awesome to watch.

I also received some very exciting news this week, that I have been selected as a member of the Australian junior sqaud. From the squad of 6 girls, 3 will be chosen to compete at the World Junior Champs in October in Auckland.

After a recovery week, I cannot wait to get back into some solid training here in Vitoria in the next couple of weeks.

Ellie xx