LaraLoves a Granola Tour.

Sweat dripped silently from my nose onto my handlebars, I begrudgingly dropped a gear  and forced myself to lift my head as the road lifted again and switched back on itself. With the begginings of lactate buzzing through my legs my mind rushed through a slideshow of the year to this point pausing on a single phrase... “Granola is a gateway drug”.

Saying yes to that first delicious, sugary, crunchy spoonful can very rapidly descend into a shaking the final crumbs from the bottom of the box straight into your (my) mouth, this had fast become a Granola cycling tour. 

A motorbike with an overweight leather-clad couple overtook with an angry engine rev. “Granola junkies right there” Yeah, cereal has made us soft (round the edges). Its comfort and convenience clouds our judgement, have you ever looked at an actual recommended serving size of granola in a bowl; it’s nothing! 

I squinted sun and sweat out of my eyes. I have a habit of throwing caution (and recommended serving sizes) to the wind and going four box deep in granola, as in life (any doctors reading this, I do not have a granola binge eating problem, mostly, its a metaphor.) Frustration coursed through me. You’re impulsive and it’s going to get you into trouble. My hair caught between the back of my neck and my helmet, I flicked my head in irritation.

The slideshow rushed through my mind again, throwing caution to the wind is what got you here. Here, happened to be a mountain in Mallorca, I’d booked flights two weeks before when some pals had mentioned they were going to ride some mountains and do an Ironman and I thought, fuck it…GRANOLA…. I mean MALLORCA! In that moment of trying to distract myself from the suffering I realised the trip was the culmination of a series of “fuck it yes” decisions which had come to define twenty sixteen thus far and that being impulsive and just saying yes had resulted in a new job, meeting some amazing new people, visting some incredible places, and learning more about myself in 9 months than I had in probably all the years since leaving university.

Another switch, left this time. GET UP and use your legs. I was begginging to understand the obsession with climbing that I heard tales told about for the three months since joining Rapha. I hated the burning in my lungs and the heat trapped in my helmet, but with every twist of the road I climbed on, feeling the hill sap at my energy. 

Real growth in life is usually triggered by some kind of trauma. Loss. Uncontrollable change. Suffering. It forces us to step back and evaluate our motivations and decisions, what do we truly value. The low level lactate buzz had developed into a vice like grip on my quads. The thought that maybe I was incapable of climbing a mountain had never actually crossed my mind. Had my typical jump and think later impulsive attitude meant I'd completely underestimated the task at hand? Bernard Hinault said of climbing “Tant que je respire, j' attaque!" - As long as I breathe, I attack!

Over the top. I rounded the next corner and without warning the road twisted away before my front wheel, azure water as far as I could see melting into bright clear blue sky. A wave of endorphins  and relief rushed up my body.

There were car and coach loads of tourists at the viewpoint all snapping away at the panoramic scenes. I rolled to a stop off the road and sank onto my crossbar, right foot still clipped in, surveying the crowd. Why suffer the climb when you could get in a car? Why strive for something that could could be a crushing failure when theres always an easy way up. 

A friend with more life, and cycling, experience than me recently warned “Soon you’ll realise Lara, that mostly life is just a bit shit.” At the time my heart sank, and in cycling terms I pulled over to the side of the road and climbed off my bike. Then I remembered how i'd come to meet that friend in the first place, a thousand tiny coincidences, clicking into place through the daily grind, and a fuck it Granola! attitude, screw the consequences. 

Yep. Most of the time life is just grinding up a massive hill with no idea what's round the next bend.  But, if you surrender to the road, accept that the grind is what helps you grow and fail to think of the chances of failing, occasssionally you’ll round a corner and unexpectedly life rewards you with an incredible view.