Well after Nationals, it seemed as though my body had finally cottoned on to the punishment I had made it endure leading up to Nationals and had decided quite abruptly that enough was enough. I had to have some time off the bike to let myself recover both physically and mentally. There was a lot of pressure leading into Nationals (I have to admit, most of it was self inflicted) as a good result there would pretty much set me up for most of the year, or at least open up a few opportunities and give my 2010 season a good kick start!
Recovery days soon turned into weeks and I still wasn’t getting any better. By this stage I’d had blood tests for every virus/deficiency known to man and was still with no concrete answers to justify the reason I was feeling so cr@ppy. Frustrating to say the least.
I decided to go on a little holiday to get my mind off things and had a generous offer from my sister’s Godmother and my mother’s long-time friend, to come and stay at their beach houses in Adelaide. An offer which proved too good to refuse! I was also fortunate that a few of my closet friends in cycling would be down there during the same time that I would be! Carlee Taylor lives in SA and Lauren Kitchen was going to be staying with her to train before heading to New Zealand and Chloe Hosking was going to be down there also! I was staying right on the waterfront at Henley Beach for the first few days then moved down the road to another beach front house at the Grange. The houses were both at least 4 bedrooms with the house at the Grange being 5 stories, so I had plenty of room to move!! The master bedroom was on the top floor but it was definitely worth getting lactic during the walk up there! The view from the room was amazing; it opened up onto a balcony overlooking the beach and at night you could actually fall asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing down below... remind me why I came home??
Perfect locations, great company, awesome riding and probably most importantly, good coffee!! Most of the days were spent accompanying Chloe for parts of her epic rides preparing for her up and coming season with HTC-Columbia, riding along the beach or through the hills. It was probably one of the most enjoyable bike riding trips i’ve had for a long time. Cruising through the hills overlooking the city and riding with a great bunch of people made for a welcome relief from everything back home and most importantly, I was able to reflect on the months passed and reassess my goals in cycling. I realised that cycling is still my main passion and it is what motivates me to keep ploughing on when the going gets tough. I am still determined to make my passion my ‘job’ and make a career as a professional cyclist; and for this to happen, things need to change.
I am now back with my former coach MaryAnn Simpson and doing things old school, going back to basics and what I know works for me. I learnt a lot during my time at ACTAS and am grateful for all the support they have provided me with over the past year; however I realised that it is their job to provide champion athletes and I am unable to meet these standards in my current state. I hope that I will soon be in a position where I can work with them again in the future.
So what’s next for me you say?? Well when I stop making a career of contracting every virus known to man, which unfortunately doesn’t pay very well and does not have a World Championship, I plan on heading over to Europe to race. I am still working out finer details however I plan on heading over at the end of May and staying there until the end of August. I feel that in order to continue to race at the level I have been and to achieve my goals, Europe is where I need to be. After my experiences last year, I am looking forward to going into the 2010 season knowing what I need to improve on and using this year to make myself a confident and strong rider in the European peloton.
In the meantime I am working hard as a personal trainer with A'hern Fitness and at the Uni Pub to fund my trip and am slowly but surely chipping away at my Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science with the University of Central Queensland.
Oh, and did I mention I got a new ride?? That's right, I am now the proud owner of a Cervelo r3SL thanks to the BikeShed. The Trek is still with us, just taking a hard earned rest :D
Life is forever changing its course so no one knows what tomorrow will bring...all I know is that as long as I am racing my bike, I’ll be happy :)
Until next time.
Take care xx
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