Spain Training 101

Well Colleen’s gone now. It was good times…really fun to show her what I’ve been up to over here, have her meet my friends, Ireland—despite travel troubles—was really really fun, and we both learned good lessons about traveling.

Now I need to focus all my efforts on Spain. I still have to figure out how I’m going to carry all my stuff around, still need to put a deposit down on the language course, still need to plan my route from Faro to Huelva, still need to book hostels, send emails, pack up my room… the list goes on. And what have I done, you ask? Nada. I’ve sent a couple emails, looked at panniers, checked the results (and read the race report) from my favorite race, Paris Roubaix. I’ll get around to it though, not ta worry.

I did, however, get out on what will probably be my one and only training ride yesterday. I took off from my flat, and after being pulled over by the police for running my first (and now only) UK red light, I cranked south of town to the Pentland hills. I wound my way through farms and valleys, then hit the dirt and climbed, scrambled, decended, and generally navigated my way east until I popped out onto the road again, just a half mile from a cool organic farm. Stopped and had a great lunch, then painfully pedaled my sore self home. Five hours later, and I was sitting on my couch tired and sore, but with the biggest smile on my face. Going out for a hard five-hour ride probably wasn’t the best thing to do training-wise, but it was good to prove to myself that I still know how to pull through a hard ride, and now I have no worries about being able to at least do the riding portion of this trip.

Back to work today for the first time in over a week. It’s a bit rough getting into the grind again, but it’s great knowing that I’m only there for another few days. It’s so weird; it really hasn’t sunk in that I am going to be leaving here for good. Really crazy. I’ll keep y’all posted on further developments, for now it’s back to work for me!