I feel like my cycling life has taken a 360 from last year. Not in a bad way, it’s just different. I was all about racing road for the first time last summer and totally loved it! I made so many new friends, became more fit than I had ever been in my life, and tried something I was really scared to do. Although I dabbled in soccer previously in my life, being this athletic for this long was totally new to me. I was not the kid who grew up being good at sports and looking back I don’t think “athletic” would have been a word that was used to describe me. But you know what, I did it and this fitness journey has totally changed my life for the best and I have cycling to thank for that. Sadly I found myself completely exhausted by the end of last year when I had raced road and CX back to back. (Side note, cheers to those of you badass cyclists out there who race all year long, because that was crazy for me!) I burned myself out for a bit and since then I’ve been rekindling the original love I had for cycling before racing was even a factor in my life. I present to you what’s been going on behind the scenes : my Garmin-less, gravel road, no training-plan lifestyle. Right now I’m not looking at any numbers, and it’s just me and my Amira. I ride how I want to ride, and not how I think I’m supposed to. Now don’t get me wrong, I will eventually start training again for cyclocross, but right now I’m just free as a bird on my rides and totally loving it.