Back in the Groove!
FINALLY! I feel like it’s been years since I’ve felt like training for something. I’ve felt unlike myself since my last season of racing, which was 2023. I trained through the winter of 2024, but because of all the heart issues due to the ADHD meds, it always felt like an uphill battle, and it never felt “good”. That was VERY dis”heart”ening (see what I did there?). When I FINALLY figured out it was the meds in like July of 2024, my heart chilled out and I found a little momentum training for the trail half-marathon, but after I ran said half-marathon, I broke my ankle on the way home. That had me on the couch last winter, and while I threw myself into challenging things to try and find my way again (Riding across Spain, Tour de France Femmes route, Ride across Girona etc), I never really felt a spark for training to prepare for those things. I basically trial by fired my way into fitness for most of the hard things I did last year. I seriously don’t recommend this method. Especially if you aren’t sitting on pro athlete levels of risidual fitness.
Anywho, I finally feel like actively pursuing a fitness goal, and I’ve missed feeling this way. I think it’s not an uncommon experience for retired athletes of all levels. It’s really hard to justify dedicating yourself to things in a healthy way after you’ve been pushing it to the limit for so long. My watts are down and my kilos are up, but that’ll change very fast, and I can’t wait because climbing with less fitness is definitely humbling.
Last week’s revelation of how hard this ultra race is going to be was extremely motivating. I desire to have as good of a time as someone can have doing such a thing, and in order to make that a reality, I really need to put in the work.
3-4 days of double centuries sounds ABSOLUTELY miserable, so I’ll likely take at least 5 days to finish, but if reality hits hard enough, Auntie will use all 6 allotted days. As a Black woman bikepacking through foreign countries, I’m genuinely not comfortable stealth camping in the forest, so I’m really hoping I can sucessfully find hotels along the way. The only catch there is that you can’t book anything ahead of time, so if I find my way to a hotel, there’s a chance it’ll be booked up. You have to keep in mind we’re traveling through VERY teeny towns in the middle of nowhere Spain and Portugal. I’m VERY reluctantly considering carrying an emergency Bivy in the event that I absolutely need to figure out a sleep situation, but I’m thinking maybe I’ll do some bivy prep in the next few months. Please pray for me. And don’t tell my Grandma.
It’s been really fun exploring Girona roads again. This weekend Will and I are leading a ride from the Castelli Store in Girona to Donna Deeb Cafe in Terassa, just outside of Barcelona. It should be a pretty quick metric century with a group. I don’t even remember the last time I led a group ride. It’s been a VERY long time! I’m excited!
I’ve been really into testing equipment to try and find the optimal setup for race time. I put in a little legwork reaching out to brands that I had really good feelings about last fall, and I’ll likely just buy the rest out of pocket. I’ve never been a super gear person, and that won’t change. My criteria has always been “if i don’t have to think about it, then it’s great”. That being said, I do notice when things stand out to me as particularly fun, good, or useful. The past week I was really focused on my prescription eyewear from SportRx and my Katadyn water filter bottles. I’ve drawn some preliminary conclusions, but I’ll have more to share next time. Oh also, I’ve discovered that my Castelli winter bibs are stretchy enough to pull down under my butt so I can pee without having to take everything off, this is a VERY common problem for riding bikes with a vagina. It’s all fun and games until you’re mostly nekked in the woods on the side of the road and it’s COLD OUTSIDE but you HAVE TO PEE REAL BAD!!!! So yea, that was the discovery of a huge win. lol.
Will and I are also finally kickstarting our Bike retreats in Girona. I had so much fun hosting camps for Thee Abundance Project, and there’s been a lot of interest from people to come ride with us in Spain. So we’ve created that opportunity. It comes with a fancy hotel, good company, and a lot of fun. It’s wild how much this place feels like home now. Pretty soon this will be the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere outside of Piscataway, New Jersey, where I grew up! Longer than Brooklyn or Atlanta. Boston and California were mere blips in the timeline. We’re really happy here and I look forward to sharing the beauty of this place with other folks in a way that feels less touristy and more like hanging out with old friends. Anywho, if you know anyone who’d be into that sort of thing, we’re holding our first “The Pedaler’s Retreat” May 21-26. Send them our way!
For Valentine’s day, we made a list of things we wanted to do together. Will wanted to see a women’s soccer game. I wanted to watch some movies, and we both wanted to drink hot chocolate with marshmallows and finally start working on our woobles. It was an ambitious list for one day, but by Monday evening, we’d done some of everything!
The Barcelona women’s football club is number one in their league. It was a super fun atmosphere, but they definitely whooped the other team. I LOVE going to futbol matches, the fans are so lively, there are songs, and chants, and POPCORN! Also the stadium was super small so we had second row seats. Such a good time. We watched movies at home, and drank swiss miss with marshmallows, both items had to be special-ordered from the internet. All the chocolate here in spain is like super thick and decadent, I want the watered down milk chocolate stuff. All the marshmallows here are covered in this weird pink stuff. Give me an old school mini-mallow, please! Anyway, I purchased both in bulk and it’s been a big hit.
And last the woobles. They are these little starter kits with all the materials and step-by-step instructions on how to crochet these little stuffed animals. We bought them in America to do while camping in Yellowstone, but never found the time to do it. So now we’ve started, and it’s really cute. Will has decided that folks should be charging more for crocheted items. I’m having a bit of an easier time. I’ll share my fox and his penguin if we ever finish them.
In bike racing news. Bini won again! I feel the same way as last time. Love to see it and I hope he’s being compensated through the roof. I will say that his comment that he never had such a good leadout felt like shade, but it wasn’t untrue. That was a gorgeous display of teamwork, and I can’t wait to see how his season pans out.
That’s all for now. If you have any bikepacking bivy recs, I’m passively researching at the moment. I’ll be VERY amazed if somehow by the end of this, I become a bivy person. Can you imagine?
