Today I am in Azura. I have 40 km to go to reach Santiago. I am confident I will make it, by Wednesday and my Fight out isn't until Saturday.
I took the trail with my Mountain bike from Pamplona to just past Cirauqui. I crashed big time on a Roman road with my bike and bruised my hip. Then the washed out bridge, which was more like 3-foot block steps down a gulley and the block steps up made getting my bike up really hard. After I got up, I found more Roman road and walked the bike until I got to a park next to the N-111. It was a no-brainer to take the road into Estella. That is when I first abandoned MTB-riding the trail.
Then the weather started to go bad. I tried a short stretch, but the mud was bad. So in the rain I stayed with roads rather than muddy paths. I had a limited amount of Flex/weather/recovery/tourist days. I kept up my schedule (usually 40 to 60 km/day) until I got to Sahagun. At that point the weather just got to me. I took my bike on the train from Sahagun to Leon and took a break to recover and be a tourist in Leon. That really emotionally helped.
I checked the weather forecast, a lot more days of rain. So I did some soul searching as to what I wanted to do. I opted for plan B, another train ticket, but from Leon to Ponferrada. I get my 200+km bike Compestela and I broke the remaining rainy days into much shorter rides, that gave me time to recover, get dry, wash clothes, talk to people, see churches and towns and again enjoy myself.
The weather has recently turned nice again, but I know I made the right decision for me. I understand the Catholic concept of a veil of tears, I can do endurance events, but I wanted something else from my Camino. I wanted "a balance" of religious experiences, physical challenge, comradery and tourism. I think I found it.
Buen Camino!