This morning I really started to feel the build up of training in these mountains. My legs were starting to feel heavy... in the hurt so good way. I'm doing what I came here to do. The people here are all very intelligent about their training and the general effort has been easily kept at a base pace. To start today's long ride, a new one called Fuente de la Reina, I was lucky enough to be joined by the CCB Escort Service. Sean and Dylan rode with our group and offered me some really helpful tips about climbing and descending. I got to test their advice and it made a difference in my technique. We had some seriously strong crosswinds, so it was awesome to have these guys teaching me how to avoid being thrown off the mountain. Over the first few miles it was taking my heavy legs longer to juice up and I started to fall back from the group, so I took Dylan up on his offer for a "hillevator" ride. He put his hand on my back and gave me a push while I still had to pedal hard against the wind. He's pretty dreamy so... that part was fun ;)
Once we got to the "start" the descent was 19k of twists and turns in the wind. The view overlooked the Mediterranean, which was a great distraction from the thought that we would have to come back up that unforgiving 19k hill. When it was time to start the climb I tuned into my "suffer and hurt" music, Tool. I love Tool for climbing because its the perfect amount of aggression at the perfect tempo for turning the gears over and keeping it steady. Another trick that I use for hard training is to summon my inner Phil. Phil is such an optimistic and awesome training partner and he seems to always say "this is just awesome" at the perfect time. I try to remember to focus on the beauty as I train, whether it be in the scenery or in the company, by taking a second to be present and appreciate where I am. This is VERY easy in a gorgeous place like Spain.
So with my mind away from the suffering and onto the positive, Sean comes up next to me and points out that someone has spray painted on the road in front of us "que dolor?" which means "what suffering?". It was too perfect. That phrase will definitely be added to my endurance bank.
That is when I glanced over, almost to the top of an evil mean climb, to see an actual spine on the dirt in the shoulder of the road...
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