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Wow it is so freaking awesome to be in Spain again for Strong Like Bull. We got 14 athletes, a record, for the first session and its by far the strongest group we have ever put together in terms of palmares and talent. We have 4 pros, 4 World Champion vets, several strong Ironmen and some serious bike racers.

The first day is mostly travel, jet lag, unpacking, bike building, and a light workout and mostly catching up with old friends who I missed and am excited to see and to train with again. The vibe at each camp is a different as the people who make it. I was expecting this to be a throw down, but interestingly all the people here have enough experience to be patient and their calmness is really helpful to me because I need to train here differently than years past (see previous post).

Nevertheless, there was work to be done. So we did a nice 25 minute run in the am then rode 3 hours, then a second 25 minute run and an hour of yoga and core. Paula Newbie Frasier is quoted as having said “respect the travel” and I agree I could feel it in the legs and REALLY was happy for the yoga which undid much of the travel. When you have 3 weeks to kill yourself no need to do it on day 1. I love training in Spain because an easy day is still 5 hours.

The dinner conversation was the highlight of the day. So much experience and knowledge, you couldn’t help but learn as people covered every topic you could ever want to know about swimming biking and running. For those of you have come here before, Andy, the training center director put in a ton of improvements funded by the fact that the training center has doubled its business in the last year.  Washing and drying machines, serious heat for the hot tub (too HOT), a new hanging out cabin with a flat screen TV and a resident pro who was added to the staff. Ann from the UK is a top Ironman with a 7th place at Ironman Japan last year. So for rides, make that 5 pros.

Me and one of the other pros had a really serious talk today about being pro. I know this sounds sappy, but I train so much solo that having people I can talk to and share the highs and lows of a lifestyle with is really awesome on a whole different level and makes this time here special. But I think that’s true for everyone here. Most people are outsiders if they are triathletes. Most people are freaks to their families, co-workers, and neighbors. But when you put 14 people together that share your passion you realize that any passion for nearly anything, even something as arbitrary as sport, is reason enough to flail yourself against the mountains.

paz y amor!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 5:08 pm and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.