Everyone in my universe has heard me go on and on about taking on the BC Bike Race this summer. While many people in my circle could do it off the couch, it’s a daunting endeavour for me. I’ve been training diligently since October, and still, I’m uncertain that it will be enough. My race […]
Category: Training
Thoughts on Training
Internal Dialogue
“Alone” on the bike, I’m left to the mercy of the never ending internal dialogue. Here’s a snippet of the ridiculous. I should really have started earlier – why do I always go out so late – was nice to see Carrie though – I think I’m going to be too hot – how can […]
Falling in love with South Africa
Having grown up in Johannesburg, coming back to South Africa may seem like coming home. But my growing love affair with this beautiful country has little to do with being born here. This is an entirely new relationship, taking root in an completely different part of the country, that I never knew as a child. […]
Rambling on about racing
A friend called me out this summer when I said that doing the BC Bike Race (BCBR) is too difficult for me. After much contemplation and excessive amounts of overthinking as I tend to do, I have signed up to do the race next summer. The commitment is in place; working through the self-doubt is […]
The stages of racing
The pre-race crazy stage I’m less than two weeks out from racing Moab Rocks for the second – and final – time. The current conversation in my head goes something like this. How can I work so hard and still be so shit – maybe I didn’t work hard enough – ugh – I should […]
Racing is mostly about Human Connection
SBT GRVL Recap Most of us arrived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Thursday evening having never really met before. We’d been on zoom calls once a month since we were selected for the All Bodies on Bikes team, but few of us had actually met in person. We were all signed up for different courses […]
20 days to go …..
There’s a big gap between “I should do that race next year, it sounds like fun” and the reality of “How can it be less than 3 weeks to the race?” Last November when I applied to join the All Bodies on Bikes team at SBT GRVL it seemed like a reasonably achievable goal. It […]
Getting Stronger
Training can in turn be so empowering – and then also so demoralizing. I lamented to a friend a few weeks ago about not seeing any progress from my training. She came back with, “What would getting stronger look like to you?” I’m not sure if I love it or hate it when friends ask […]
But what if I fail ….
How many of us are afraid to try new things because they’re hard and we’ll be shit at it, or worse, we won’t be able to do them! Whether it’s piano or a complex knitting pattern or learning a new sport. I could tell you a story about skate skiing and I, but there is […]
5 weeks to go!
I’m five weeks out from doing my first race. Moab Rocks is a 3-day mountain bike stage race happening the first week of April. There are moments of regret about making poor choices but lately, there have been far more moments of entertaining the possibility of actually pulling this off. To be clear, I will […]