A winter of discontent...

... with shares in Kleenex and Bronchostop!

It's been a while since the last post so there's a lot to catch up on, not much of it cycling related though! I struggled to title this with something that I felt was apt so the current reference may well get updated at some point soon.

Staffordshire Sunset 

So, the 2016 season ended with much disappointment in Thruxton and with it nine long months of racing. A short break from pedalling was in order to recharge the batteries after what I can only describe as my most successful season yet. It sounds good doesn't it, but after only two full seasons of racing and three years of riding the trajectory is still on the up!

Proudly taking home The Most Improved Rider Bowl

I was thrilled to take home the Most Improved Rider Trophy and to finish a close 2nd in the Midland Women's TT Series as well as be shortlisted for The Staffordshire Sports Performer of the Year (Female) accolade in December. It was an honour to meet Rio Gold Medallist Joe Clarke, from Stone, who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. I can report that Olympic Gold medals really are very heavy!!

Meeting Rio Gold Medallist Joe Clarke

The end of the season marks the opportunity to regain some work-life balance for me; spending some, mostly overdue, quality time with friends and family rather than constantly feeling like I'm fighting to squeeze normal activities around structured training. I love the opportunity to just ride my bike for fun, explore some new routes, spend longer in the saddle and simply enjoy pedalling in the outdoors. That's not to say that training for racing isn't enjoyable but it's a whole different focus and after ten months of intently studying my Garmin for live data it's always nice to take in your surroundings instead.

Everything was going swimmingly, the easy miles were wracking up, my motivation to pedal hadn't faltered even when the only opportunity to train was often at crazy o'clock before work in the dark and cold (the 04:45 date with the same stretch of tarmac became a ritual I was far too well acquainted with). Nothing wrong with this set up so far you might think, other than minor sleep deprivation but given I'm always extolling the virtues of being a morning person I'm struggling for anything to hang this 'excuse' on!

Enter house buying saga...!! Continuing with all the all too familiar pattern in general life that I would appear to attract the more difficult path in any given scenario, moving house was, unfortunately, no different! Not much of a newsworthy statement for anyone who has experienced the recent (or otherwise) pain of packing up your belongings and relocating them to another abode. Ironically that part, although time consuming is most definitely the most straightforward task (as long as you painstakingly label the boxes). Throughout December I felt like I had acquired another full time job - that of perpetually if not continuously chasing the Developer, our Solicitor, the Estate Agent, the Building Society for the mortgage and quite frankly anyone else who it would appear might have a hand in enabling this process to progress at anything resembling a respectable pace! Before the pair of us had a nervous breakdown and after a week of sleepless nights and multi-tasking like I've not experienced before (and never want to again) we somehow managed to get to the point where we started to move in to a partially finished house on December 23rd/24th!! Having been asked so many times why we wanted to move at this time of year, I feel I should clarify at this point that our offer was accepted on the property in early AUGUST with a view to completing in late OCTOBER!!!

I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say that in some ways this was just the beginning of the house related issues and perhaps we should have heeded the warning signs exhibited by an extremely lackadaisical developer and walked away... However, neither of us are in the habit of quitting and we will have a stunning house... eventually! Unsurprisingly with everything going on and the stress that this was causing not only was I struggling to justify the time to train it was perhaps no surprise that I eventually succumbed to what later transpired as a viral infection that I couldn't shake off. I spent the next six weeks going around in circles - full of cold, feeling too poorly to train... six days later - think I'm feeling better, let's go for an easy ride... next day back to square one... and so on and so forth. The simplest of tasks were exhausting and not being one to take time off work (or training) lightly, I started to feel somewhat despondent. All the effort I'd put in at the end of last year appeared to be to no avail as my fitness scores were in my boots, I didn't have the energy to do much about it and the new season was fast approaching. Meanwhile the National Champs appeared to have started on Strava!! Cue, stop looking at what other people are doing and concentrate on getting better.

Finally with a hint of some better weather and the recognition that I'm not invincible, things are looking up. Ultimately, for some on the amateur circuit, cycling is about win at all costs. For me family, work-life balance and making our new house into a home are bigger priorities this year. That doesn't mean I have any less desire to train hard, focus on some key events, to better myself as a rider or make the new team sponsors proud. It simply means that this year is about trying to achieve a better balance. A new location does mean new roads to explore though...!