It’s been an interesting time with the Corona-virus wreaking havoc on the world. We were pretty lucky here in New Zealand with our freedom over lock-down so I was able to train mostly uninterrupted throughout.
In March I was in the USA to race 2 US Cup rounds in California but they ended up being cancelled just the day prior to the first race. Unfortunately my timing wasn’t great as I arrived back in NZ to do my mandatory 2 weeks self-isolation just 10 days before the country went into Alert Level 4 lock-down.
Upon my return to NZ I cut my training back to just 5 days a week, taking it easy for a while. During Level 4 my training was a bit more limited in regards to the distance I could venture from home, but once we hit Level 3 and then Level 2 life training wise has become a lot more normal. I have been able to return to the High Performance Sports NZ gym as well since we reached Level 2.
My coach has slowly returned my training to the usual volume in response to the UCI rescheduling some of the World Cup rounds to September and October. World Champs have been rescheduled to October in Leogang, Austria which is where I won my first World title back in 2012 as a Junior.
During lock-down I didn’t find it too hard to keep up my training regime. Even without any races on the horizon, I guess training each day over the last 10-plus years has become a bit of a habit! However, it’s nice to have some international races in September / October to target again. Fingers crossed they will be able to go ahead as planned.
I’ve been doing a few back country adventures to keep training interesting now that lock-down restrictions have eased. I’ve ticked off some great rides and on foot adventures recently in Arthur’s Pass National Park and also over on the West Coast which I’ve really enjoyed. Sometimes it’s hard to make time for this kind of training but whenever I do it’s certainly worth it. I’m planning a few more so hopefully I can fit these in before I return to Europe for racing, whenever that may be!
