Ah, Wednesday. Nothing quite like a Wednesday. The middle of the work week. The day before Thursday which is the day before Friday. Now throw in the start of a new training block and this Wednesday takes on even greater meaning. It is the infamous double day. A road ride in the morning. A cyclo-cross ride in the afternoon.

Thanks to the frosty weather and icy roads, I ended up doing my morning ride on the trainer. Probably for the best anyway since I had to do some specific microburst intervals. As much as I loath the trainer, it is a useful tool when specific work-outs are required. It allows you to remove variables such as stop signs/lights, dogs, tail/head winds, etc. – making it pretty simple to focus totally on the required efforts. A solid two hours was put in this morning. During the recovery block at the end, Marc decided to raise my saddle – he raised it a full centimeter! Guess it was a bit low. Marc realized that I wasn’t getting full leg extension. Then when Tim and Jos came by, Tim decided to push my saddle forward… It was pushed all the way back so we moved it forward about a centimeter. Time will tell what these changes do to my riding position. But admittedly, my riding position does need some adjustment.

After a bit of a break and a refuel, I was out again for the second ride of the day. I took the bike with the adjusted saddle height and position. And? Well, I didn’t notice any negative affects from these changes. Felt quite natural really. Marc came out with me on this ride and was a massive help. He essentially rode behind me and shouted things like “pedal”, “look up”, “look ahead”, “pedal – why aren’t you pedaling”, “good job”, “better”. I started the ride a bit tense and rather spectacular crash in the first ten minutes didn’t help matters. It has been a long time since I’ve endoed and had the sensation of “flying through the air”. Not sure what happened but now I’m a bit stiff and sore – the front of my helmet made a very nice and deep imprint in the snow. Thank-you Giro for making such reliable helmets!

We zoomed around the ‘cross course at Averbode for a good couple of hours – working on getting faster, smoother, more confident and trying to do the “little” things right. At times frustrating, but with patience, I was able to see small improvements. It is fascinating what the layer of snow does to a course. All in all, a great ride.

In fact, a great day of training. I’d been craving a hard interval work-out to get that ache in my legs and a bit of panting in my lungs. Then to follow this up with a ride where I saw some progress, well the training day is pretty much complete.

Tomorrow is looking like another good day of training. A little 2.5 hours with tempo intervals. Another date with the trainer. But at least Marc has got lots of good movies for me to watch!

Well, I’m done for the night. Time to chillax with the remote control and the television. Last night we stumbled upon the track World Cup from Cali. Watched the Canadians rip it up pretty fierce. Nice to see.

Over the last few days I’ve received some pretty amazing emails and comments. Really these mean so much to me. I love reading them. I read them out loud to Marc. I keep them open so I can refer back to them and capture the positive vibes you’re sending me. All I can hope is that one day I can do the same for you.

The cold weather has returned to Belgium. Not only cold weather but also snow. This has resulted in some icy and dodgy bicycle paths and roads. No choice really but to ride the trainer. I’m not a fan of the trainer. I can get into it when it is minus 20 outside and I definitely can’t ride outdoors. But when it is not that cold (minus 2) but the roads are bad, I really hate the trainer.

I’ve done two days in a row of trainer riding now. Two 90 minute recovery rides. Yesterday I watched Young At Heart – this is a great documentary about the Young At Heart choir. The Young At Heart choir is composed of senior citizens who sing “popular” music. It is a fantastic film. Great message about living life fully. I would really like to see this choir live one day. Hopefully they add Canada to their tour stops. Today, I caught up with everyone else out there and finally watched In Bruges. Really enjoyed this movie. Strange to be watching this film while being in Belgium and having already visited Bruges. Bruges is one of my favorite cities, and now after watching the film, I want to return!

I’ve got a double day on deck for Wednesday. The morning is 2.5 hours with microburst intervals. I really really hope I can do this ride outside. I can’t stomach 2.5 hours on the trainer. In the afternoon I’ve got 1.5 hours of skills work. Have to see what the weather is like – depends on where I will go. Options are Floreal Lichtaart or the Averbode Abby and forest.

I’m looking forward to this last block of training. It is the last bit of training leading up to the World Championships in Tabor. Lots of longer rides with interval sessions and tempo blocks. Just the kind of riding I like to do leading up to a big event. I like to have the feeling of “effort” in my legs prior to an important race. I find these hard rides give me a lot of confidence regarding my fitness and preparation. I know that I really can’t build any “new” fitness by Jan. 31 but I can sharpen some of the edges both physically and mentally.

This week I’m talking with a sports psychologist that has been recommended to me by my coach and Marc’s coach. Looking forward to talking with him. I wonder if I should have done this a couple of weeks ago. But it might have been too much too soon. I’m in a better head space than I was a few weeks ago. I’m more realistic and aware of the possibilities I have ahead of me. I’m not feeling as down on myself as I was. But I still am not feeling it 100 per cent. It will be useful to talk about how I’m feeling with an “expert” and get some advice on how to handle the race pressure I impose on myself and how to deal with my own expectations. One revelation that has been helpful these past few days has been looking at the ages of some of the other women I race against (and who are finishing where I want to be…) – 43, 41, 45… Yep, lots of riding years left in these legs, lungs, and heart.

Well, I’m off. Think I might try to squeeze in a little 20 minute yoga session before calling it a night. I spent the afternoon in Leuven – taking in the shops, the January sales, drinking some decaf cappuccinos, and being a bit of a tourist. If you’re curious about my day, check out Victoria’s Island (I posted pictures!).

Thanks again for the super supportive comments, emails, and messages. These mean more to me than you can truly understand. It is so helpful to know that I have so many people cheering me on.

Sunday brought with it cold, snow, wind, and a challenging day on the bike. But it was a day on the bike – so this is a good thing. Nothing worse than wanting to ride and not being able to ride. With thanks to Jos for picking me up and navigating the slippery snowy roads and driving me to the cyclo-cross race in Tervuren.

I really wish I could give you a riveting blow-by-blow race report of the action. But I can’t. You see, this race course was a couple of notches above my technical skill level. In North America, this would have been a mountain bike race. Ya, it was like that. After doing a couple of warm-up laps, I really didn’t want to race. But Jos and Nikki Harris (2nd place on the day), convinced me to just get on my bike and try it. I knew this was the only solution. So I did it. It wasn’t pretty. It was slow. I was all over the brakes (went through a set of brake pads!). But I did it. This is good. Next year I’ll be ready for this race – I’ll know what to expect, I’ll have the technical skills to actually “race” this race rather than simply ride it. So, in the end there were some successes to take from this day. I have written a race report.

I guess this experience allowed me to take another bite out of the elephant. I’m sure I learned a few things from this race experience, lessons that will become clear over the next few days/weeks.

The rest of the day was pretty good. Easy drive home. Lots of good conversation with Jos. Chilled out here for a bit, got to talk to my dad. Nice dinner out at our favorite little cafe. Then the last two episodes of The Amazing Race (which I think I slept through…). All in all, a good Sunday. It is now Monday morning and I’m looking forward to a good week of training and the potential for some races this weekend. This weekend is the National Championships weekend for every country (except Canada and the U.S.), so there isn’t much racing available to me and Marc.

As usual, Luc was out cheering me on and snapping photos. So here are some more excellent photos, with thanks to Luc:

Ever have one of those days or even a couple of days where you just feel the good vibes? Everything seems to be clicking. The legs feel good. The head is clear. The hear is pumping. You feel like some progress is being made. You just really are having a good time out on that two-wheeler.

Well, this is exactly how the last couple of days of training have gone. Yesterday was a great day of riding at the Averbode Abby race course. Then today I went to Sint-Niklaas with Marc and rode for a good 90 minutes on the race course. I loved this course. It was super fast. Frozen hard ground. A fun fly-over. A fast descent. Twists and turns in the woods. A lot of fun. I did have thoughts about racing…

But after standing in the pits for Marc’s race, I was frozen. So no race for me. I think this is probably best anyway. I had great sensations on the bike today and can go to bed feeling confident with my riding today. Again, no massive improvements but I’m sure there were some minor ones. I’m slowly but surely munching away at the elephant.

Had fun after the race hanging out with Luc and catching up with people in the cafe. Great way to relax at a race is with friends. Marc had a great race – he finished 7th. Unfortunately a crash and some mechanicals bumped him out of the top 5, but a good race nonetheless.

Tomorrow I’m racing in Tervuren. I’ve never raced there before but from what I’ve heard it is a pretty fun course in a beautiful setting. Many thanks to Jos for taking me to the race and helping me out tomorrow. Looking forward to Sunday. I’m sure that the good vibes will follow me tomorrow and I’ll have more fun on my two-wheeler!

Ever wondered how you eat an elephant? Have you ever thought about how eating an elephant relates to cyclo-cross racing? Well, guess what? I have been wondering just this.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
How do I improve as a cyclo-cross racer? One pedal stroke at a time.
Hmm, kind of the same thought process. Bit by bit, slowly but surely, with steady, measured and small improvements, the bigger improvements will come. Soon enough I’ll have eaten the elephant. The tough part is remembering not to rush this process. An elephant is massive. There is a lot of muscle, flesh, fat, to get through. Lots of lesson learned on the way. I’m sure to overdo it at times and have to take a step back, but this is part of the process.

One pedal stroke at a time.

This was the focus of today’s ride. Marc joined me for some riding at the Averbode Abby race course. With Marc’s help I broke the course down and focused on improving how I was riding through the corners. The focus was on pedaling. Always pedal. Kay Van Den Brand who rides for Scott was out and we watched him ride through various sections. He does slow or brake but then he is quick to apply heavier pedal pressure to get on top of his pedals and back up-to-speed. So this is what I worked on. I could feel myself getting faster and more confident during each “sectioning”. Marc rolled off to do his intervals and I kept on hitting the course.

Definitely a good session on the bike. Small improvements were made. I didn’t eat the elephant but I was able to start in on it.

As for the weekend? Well, Marc is racing in Sint-Niklaas tomorrow. I will be there to pit for him. I’ll be bringing my bikes – I may race with the junior boys. I may simply ride the course and do what I did today. See how I’m feeling and get some advice from Marc and others. On Sunday I’m racing in Tervuren in a women’s UCI race so I want to feel fresh physically and mentally for this race. No matter what happens, it is going to be a great weekend.