To cut a long story short:
You will find more appropriate areas for running. On the other hand, you keep your jogging to limited amount anyway attending a bicycle training camp. You will find a course for running though its distance is only 250 m about 18 miles away in Castelbuono. The location is very pretty, though the floor covering only consists of asphalt, but is painted nicely in red and white.
As mentioned above, you will find the coastal road more or less flat but well-suited for a warm-up, but the mountainous range of Madonie makes the other terrrain in the hinterland mountainous. (1,500 meters of altitude)
It is very remarkable that the Sicilians obviously prefer to build their towns on mountain tops. Often times you can only cross those towns by going over the peak! The amount of very steep ascents is limited, but you will find a lot of roads which have an five to six percent grade. Good news: you will not be bothered by a lot of motor traffic! Sometimes you might encounter some cracks in the road which are a reminder the Mount Etna is still an active volcano. Usually, these spots will be either repaired immediately or blocked. You will have the opportunity to climb uphill for about 30 km, this is very useful to invigorate your fitness and endurance!
If you want to avoid a steep ascent, you can take to coastal road to Palermo for 15 to 25 miles and then turn off in the hinterland. You will find some nice hilly stretches there!
Advice No 2: Do not forget a warm jacket or long trousers for your down-hill as it can get cold. If you forget these in the hotel, you might use an old newspaper that you can ask for at the local bar while having a cappuccino break. If you want to avoid your hands getting sunburned, you should wear gloves at least temporarily.
The triathletes who stayed at Hotel Kalura preferred the pool for the training which was heated up to 26 ° degrees. Some hard-boiled athletes (Christoph Wandratsch & Co) used the Adriatic sea for their training which had only 15 ° degrees. However, the scenery is very pitturesque! The training camp's organizers supplied us with neopren wet-suits, very convenient to enjoy the sea!
We did not indulge in much sight-seeing besides our bicycle tours. Instead we choose to include as many pretty sights as possible in our tours. We got acquainted to nearly all mountainous villages and towns of Madonie and enjoyed some wonderful panoramic views over the blossoming landscape all in spring colours on sunny days. Pollina (764 m above sea-level) was one of our favourite towns, two guys of our groups explored it already on the second day. However, their performance in town (for example visiting the local theatre) was considerably limited by their cycling shoes which are generally not very suitable for walks on cobbles!
We could take refuge at the local bar In St. Mauro Castelverde before we were caught by a shower. No panoramic views were available that morning! But the sun started to shine again soon afterwards and and finally, on the last stretch, nobody was suffering from cold feet any longer!
We used our first day of rest to climb the Rocca. This local rock is about 300 meters tall. It towers over Cefalů and provides a very nice view of the town. The panoramic view was worth the effort, for sure. Our first days of training had not been so hard anyway, therefore we enjoyed the exercise. Later we tried out the hotel's tennis court by playing doubles. We finished our day by doing some stretching and gymnastics at the pool.
we had spotted this impressive mountain from the plane and from the bus when we arrived on the island. Although Cefalů is located at a different corner of Sicily, we wanted to have a closer view of Mount Etna during one of our tours. On Easter Sunday, we set off to our "Tour of the Champions" which can be between 195 and 225 km depending on the route you choose.
Starting from the coast, we had to manage over 1,500 meters of altitude in order to cruise through snow up there. (the roads were clear but the rest was covered by a thick blanket of snow). Still, it was a unique experience! Later we went down 900 meters of altitude and another 600 up again, there we could finally enjoy a clear view of Mount Etna, a very impressive sight. This extensive Tour of the Champs ended with a deserved pizza and ice-cream break in Mistretta and a refreshing high-speed down-hill which went over an extremely high bridge. We enjoyed that stretch so much that we included Mistretta once again in our programme, not just because of the ice-cream!
The Italian cuisine is extremely popular among athletes. However, the Sicilian cuisine is even more varied with its delicious fish dishes. Even breakfast at Hotel Kalura was rich and left nothing left to be desired. Half-boared at the hotel is recommended, please do not underestimate that the way to the next supermarket is arduous if you choose to be a self-caterer. Dinner at Hotel Kalura comprised of soup, salad, pasta or risotto, meat and fish-dishes and delicious desserts of cakes and ice-creams. The training camp's management organized snacks and drinks for us for in between meals: paninis (sandwiches), fruit and mineral drinks or spring water. Perfect!
Here are the conclusions we drew out of this experience:
Sicily is a very suitable destination for a bicycle training camp, if the participants like to cruise through the mountains and had some training beforehand at home. If you had no time to exercise at home, this event might be too tough and painful. The training camp takes place from the beginning of February till the middle of April. You will find a very well organized training camp here in Cefalů, well-suited for bicyclists, biathletes and triathletes and swimmers. You will find guided bicycle tours available as well as an excellent bicycle service base at the hotel.
Unfortunately, at lot of people link Sicily immediately with Mafia, but the experiences we have made here with locals were only positive ones, without exception. Here is one episode which illustrates the hospitality of the Sicilians very well: Stephen, one of our group members, ordered some pastries at a bakery in Castelbuono. Obviously, the baker there gained the impression that Stephen was starving as he gave him all the requested pastry for free and even added a few more!