Last few days in Mountains

Back again. We are down to the home stretch of training camp in the mountains as we have one more weights session and practice tonight followed by weights and pool conditioning in the morning.  After that we will head back to Murcia for a day off and a few more weeks training camp practices I believe. Tuesday was an interesting day as we took part in a cycling class at a local gym for conditioning. This class was a pretty wild experience for me as a I would describe it as a mix between Cosmic Bowling, the upstairs dance floor at the Summit bar in Iowa City and the Tour De France.  Our instructor was a small blonde woman who had more energy than my mother (which is a lot of energy for anybody who hasn’t seen her teach a water aerobics class, epic!) and also was part time DJ and strobe light operator throughout the workout.  She would whistle loudly and shout things in spanish, but I had no clue what she was saying or attempting to say so I just followed everyone else and did what they did.  Was an interesting and quality conditioning workout. After the spinning workout we went to a local pool outside for some running that is easier on our bodies. This was a good time and a bit refreshing but of course I got sun burnt… One of the players on the younger team that is here with us who is from Montenegro said, “I thought I was white until I saw you”…ouch. Still a proud red neck Iowan though.  ANF!

Today we got the morning off to relax and sleep in a bit. I went for a walk up a mountain side close by to see the view and get an up close sight of this gigantic statue of Jesus Christ you can see all the way down in the village. The statue is named “Sagrado Corazón de Jesús” (holy Heart of Jesus) monument, by Nicolás Martínez (1954).I was very happy I decided to get up and do it because the views on the way up and at the top were breath taking. I’m going to try and take my family up here when they are here if we have time because the views are like something I have never seen before. The hike up the mountain took  20 minutes from our hotel and was a nice little workout in the morning sun. I am going to post a few pictures on the bottom of this blog from it. The interesting thing was on the way up the mountain there were smaller statues depicting the crusifixion of Jesus every   hundred yards (or METERS i should say) all culminating at the top with the gigantic statue of Jesus arisen overlooking all the villages below.  I thought it was a pretty cool experience and I’m glad I wasn’t attacked by a mountain lion as i was by myself…whoops mom.

I’m excited to get back to Murcia and get in my home for the next 9 months and get a car. The language barrier is difficult in practice as our head coach doesn’t speak too much english so the assistants and some of the other players help out as much as possible.  Just makes simple drills, such as layups, difficult to understand at first but hopefully my vocabulary and listening skills grow in Spanish. Hope all is well in Iowa and the States!

View of villages below. This is what the statue of Jesus overlooks.

 This is a view of the hotel we are at. I was about halfway up the hike here.

 Up close shot of Statue. Can see this statue for miles.