A few nights in my own bed.....

After returning home from Colorado we were able to spend a week training in the Peak District, which is where I grew up and where my parents still live. The riding there is really great both road and off road, and it's even better when the sun is shining! Since my dad has discovered a Garmin I've ridden hundreds of miles on amazingly quiet country roads; each day he would load a new route and off I'd go simply following the arrows. Cool :)

Classic Peak District: Cut Gate Path 

Last weekend we went to Minley Manor, Surrey for TORQ 12:12 where I raced as part of the TORQ mixed team in the 12 hour event. Our team of 4 riders - Lee Westwood, Chris Andrews, Neal Crampton and me - took it in turns to race around the 8 mile loop, crammed full of forest singletrack. This perhaps sounds easy but racing full gas for 35-40 minutes every 2 hours for 12 hours gets more and more difficult! It's the cooling down and then having to start up again that I found hard, but it was also difficult to get lunch and dinner - very important, I hate skipping meals! With the podium starting at midnight I also missed my 10am bedtime curfew! Despite a pretty bad mechanical that cost me 18minutes on my second lap, we still managed to win! Big thanks to the boys for having me on the team :)

After a few days at home in my own bed, I'm now packing again (well actually I never unpacked!). Tomorrow we go to Norway for a couple of races. First, we go to Birkebeiner which is a 122km point to point race (starting in Rena and finishing in Lillehammer) in which all riders must carry a 3.5kg backpack. Then we fly 2 hours north of Oslo to Alta, in the Arctic, for the Skaidi Xtreme. This is a race that I'm really looking forward to and we'll spend a week there getting to know the area. Skaidi is in the far Northern part of Norway and is home to the Sami people - semi-nomadic reindeer herders. Being semi-nomadic ourselves, we should have a lot in common, except the reindeer of course.

Follow me on facebook for photos and updates :)