Chasing the sun.

 

At the end of August I decided to finish racing for the season and took some time for a good old rest. I’ve had a lot of fun racing this year and am happy to have stepped it up a level, but I was oh so ready to make dog walking the peak of physical activity for a short while.

After 3 weeks with no bike riding whatsoever it was time to get back on the bike refreshed and ready to train. Or so I thought. A further 4 weeks of lugging my off-season lard arse around the lanes of the Holme Valley each weekend and making the short but somehow arduous commute to work during the week, I was only just beginning to feel in tune with my body and bicycle again. But now I am finally ready. I am hungry to train again. I want to ride more than is in the training plan. This is a good sign.

There is a renewed focus for next season. The team – Team 22 – is a fantastic group of self-starting, ambitious, and talented young women. I am humbled to have been given a ride and am very happy about the calendar and support.

Next week my partner Russ, our child (ok puppy Goldendoodle) Baloo and myself are driving the long journey to the Spanish Costa Blanca where we will be spending the winter. There are a few reasons/ moments of enlightenment/excuses behind this:

1.      We are not designed for the British winter.

2.      There is a very real possibility that either/both of us will develop S.A.D. Seriously.

3.      9-5 with no windows could well be the end of me.

4.      I do not have to spend lunch breaks walking in the bleak rain.

5.      We do not have to ride in sideways sleet for months on end.

6.      There is another way.

7.      In the near or maybe far future we would like to make a permanent move to España.

8.      Maybe we will never again spend a winter in the Grim North.

9.      I say it again. The British winter is soul destroying.

 

So we made the decision to take a temporary break from work and live in Spain this winter and maybe for future years of our life together. We do not know yet and will take opportunities as they come.

So MEGA EXCITED is an understatement.

Our days will be spent playing with Baloo on the beach, riding bikes, riding other bikes with knobbly tyres and riding yet more bikes with strange low positions and wooooooshy wheels. There will be training in the gym, surfing, yoga, meditation. There will be long breakfasts, bakeries, time, drinks on the seafront. There will be a lot of hard work and an equal amount of horizontal behaviour.

 

There are future plans. These will be explored, researched, investigated, and thought through. We hope we can one day live our dream and live and work in this beautiful region. We will see. For now we just really really don’t want to be in the Grim North until the sun reappears next spring :) Happy winter training to all.