Summer Update!
Photo Credit: Cody Shimizu
It has been a while since I have written an update! Since my last update I have raced Canadian Nationals finishing in third, Fernie Gravel Grind finishing in first for women and eighth overall, and finally, last weekend I raced the Range, finishing in second for women and ninth overall. It was nice to be able to race some local races the past two weekends especially since The Crusher in the Tushar was cancelled due to the terrible forest fires in Utah. That race was a big goal for me and with the race being cancelled it was a big disappointment for me and left a big gap till my next race. Being able to race both the Fernie Gravel Grind and The Range was a great way to get into some fast and hard racing and to work both on my tactical and technical skills in preparation for SBT Gravel August 18th. In the rest of this blog, I want to go over what I have been doing for training and my goals for the rest of the season. I hope you enjoy this update!
Photo Credit: Cody Shimizu
As I am writing this, I am recovering from a minor lip surgery. Since my accident last year, I have had quite the buildup of scar tissue in my lip causing a large lump. Yesterday I was finally able to get it removed. Thankfully, I just need to take a couple days off the bike to let my lip heal and for the swelling to go down; then I can resume training. For training this summer I have been doing a mix of long endurance rides, tempo sessions and HIIT training (High Intensity Interval Training). Throughout the year my coach and I have been playing around with different training sessions to adapt to gravel racing. I am well into the season now and I am starting to get a good feel of how gravel is raced. The races start out extremely hard and fast almost like a HIIT workout, then settles down more to a threshold pace and then basically into tempo for the rest of the race but harder efforts up all the climbs. My coach has been trying to replicate some of my training sessions like a race, so I get used to riding at a max effort at the start then riding at tempo in the middle of my rides and finishing the rides with more HIIT, so I am able to perform max efforts when I am fatigued. So far this type of training has been working well for me. I have been feeling strong on the bike and especially strong in my last couple of races. I am really looking forward to seeing how I will feel at SBT gravel next month. SBT Gravel is another big goal for me, and I hope my physical, mental, tactical and technical training has paid off and I can achieve a strong result.
After SBT Gravel, I am returning to Europe to finish off the season. My first race back will be the Alpine Gravel Challenge in Switzerland on September 8th, followed by Sea Otter Girona, then the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium. The Alpine Gravel Challenge is a race I have been looking forward to all year, and one of or the hardest races in the UCI Gravel Series with almost 4,000 meters of climbing under 100km. I will go more into detail about this race in a later blog, but I can’t wait for this race! With some big races coming up soon I will be fully focused on training well, recovering and staying focused on accomplishing my goals. I have been having such an amazing year that would not be possible without the support of my sponsors, TLAB, CAPO, Kenda Tires, HUNT Wheels, POC, Inspire Athlete Management, Ride Bikes and Services and of course my family. Thank you to my sponsors for supporting my dreams and making this season possible! Now it is time to get back to training, stay tuned for my next blog all things SBT gravel. Thank you for reading!
Phot Credit: Cody Shimizu