Running in Portugal

During the previous two weeks I have spend my holidays in the Algarve in Portugal and of course....the running gear came along. Coming from Holland where our highest hill is just over 300mtrs (which we have to share with the Germans and the Belgians) and the biggest climb in my surroundings is in the dunes along the sea I can tell you the rolling countryside of the Algarve is a great training environment.
The location
We stayed in a very nice place away from the more crowded coastline called Monte da Bravura. Set on a hill top on a dead end road towards a barrage. 6k to Lagos, in the west Algarve. I don't have shares in the place but as it was a very nice stay, a very good guest house and the owners and staff are very nice people: I can realy recommend it.
Besides running the Algarve offers great opportunities for walking, has great beaches with waves suitable for surfing and a lot of restaurants (I can recommend to stay of the beaten track because the best dinners we had in smaller restaurants outside the crowded touristic towns and off the major roads...)
The runs
I did various runs however all of them were along two routes I entered on mapmyrun. One route is from the hotel to the barage (2k - one way) and the other route is from the hotel, directly downhill turning north on a rolling gradual climb with a steep climb (according to MMR ~70m climb in 800mtrs) in the end (7k one way). Specialy this second one is - for a someone with no hill experience - challenging on the return leg when you climb back to the hotel (again some 70 meters climb in app. 800-900 meters with a very steep bit in the middle). These two routes combined to a 10k training (cutting the long one short by turing around at the 5k point and saving my self one of the very steep climbs), two 14k routes (either the 7k back and forth or the 10k combined with hte 2k run back and forth) and a 18k training (both routes combined).
Below you find the routes on the map. For the elevation go to the MMR site itself and let is show the elevation panel. This is however and indications because if you would believe the panel the run woould have been like on a roller coaster but I can tell you the roads were very nice an smooth and nothing like the jitter that is shown on the panels.
To conclude
For someone with no hills around the Algarve offers very nice running, in perfect weather conditions (early morning starts recommended in warmer periods) on quite roads.



Two other routes in the area:

Luz and Lagos. If you want to find other routes in a wider area...zoom out on the map, click the find button on the map and select 'show public route on map'. Have some nice runs during your stay!