COVID lockdown in March 2020 brought upheaval and challenges to our whole civilization. But for me personally this enforced stay at home directive opened up a whole new world of joy, pain, suffering, tears, elation and feeling of achievement, usually all experienced in the space of an hour. I found cycling.
My husband is a great cyclist and has achieved so much in the sport. His work ethic and results are closely related and I am always in awe of how hard he works for small gains in the pursuit of excellence. To watch someone push themselves to the outer limits of physical and mental boundaries is a fascinating and humbling past time. It is not until you try to imitate that commitment do you truly understand how it will take you to the dark side of your soul and beyond at times.
I am prone to being impulsive at times, and one warm day in March I suggested to Gary that I would like to learn how to ride a bike. Within 12 hours a shiny new bike arrived via contactless delivery along with the necessary accessories from our local bike shop.
Great, this is going to be fun. We can ride for coffee and travel the country exploring it on our bikes.
I mean - how hard can it be? I am fit and I have a good mindset. Lies, all lies.
I learned very quickly that I was woeful. Embarrassingly so. And I cried and squealed in primal tones as this pretty blue piece of speedy engineering destroyed my body, mind and spirit. But from that moment of sitting on our garage floor in exhaustion the spark of motivation ignited. And I have barely missed a ride since.
Progress has been slow, I have crashed, fallen off while stationary and earned a few scars of initiation. But day by day I grow stronger, set myself goals. Often times these goals have been too lofty. Gary rides with me with incredible patience and support, giggling at times at what must look like an octopus trying to ride its bike up a hill.
My goal up until about a month ago was to be able to ride with Gary in a bunch and enjoy the pure bliss that is the freedom of being on the road. I was gradually getting there, going from 30-40km rides which felt like a million km at the time, to tapping out 300km a week. Goal achieved. Done.
Until I thought I might like to know what it would be like to race. And from that moment my goals shifted. I want to race. My goal had evolved.
This is where my next effort in my glittering career as a pro rider (cue sarcasm) is going to step up a notch or six.
And this is where I will embark on a multi layer challenge for myself. I am writing all of this out because for me, it is confronting to share what I fear will bore others with my mediocrity. Yet if one person who may stumble across my ramblings may realise that all of our goals and achievements, which are often over shadowed by insecurities or low self confidence, are as important as any one else's. We are all unique beings and many of us do not do enough to celebrate that in ourselves. For the next eight weeks I will document my challenge to get to the National Age Group Championship in April. This is a goal for which I am grossly under prepared for. I think I understand how tough it is going to be to train as hard as I am going to need to to have half a chance of not looking like a fool come race day. The reality is I really have no clue what is ahead of me. There will be ugly photos, rants, more tears, and dark moments inside my own head. Fortunately Gary will be my trainer, butt kicker, gym buddy and tear wiper through this, and for that I am very lucky.
Thank you for reading this far, and I will keep you all updated as I go. This will be fun and a bit scary.
Nice work on and off the bike 👍
Your website is going so well mum I can't wait to here more about your cycling XXX 💋😝😘