Imagine hiking up a mountain under a full moon with fresh snow under your feet, breaking through the tree line and feeling that warm glow of sunrise hitting your face. Riding a sleigh pulled by huskies in a winter wonderland, cross- country skiing through villages nestled in the Austrian Alps, tobogganing down a mountain at sunset, swimming in a frozen lake or ski-touring up a mountain and descending through the trees. Imagine ending your day in a rejuvenating thermal spa before dinner and a well-earned sleep, to wake up and do it all over again. Welcome to winter holidays in Austria!
Not many thoughts enter my mind apart from what I am doing. I wish everyone could do something like this once a year, or even once in your lifetime. We need it! I switch off from everything. A challenge like this is so all encompassing that I don’t have space for much else. All my energy goes into the challenge, and the micro world I create with the adventure I am on, the world directly around me and the people I am with. My world becomes small but this gives me freedom to become bigger than I’ve ever felt. My mind is not filled with events going on all over the world, with emails, news, social media, and the need to reply to messages, my mind is filled with fresh air and miles, hills, sweat, tears and food stops. My mind is filled with views so dramatic and mind-blowing, I am speechless. My heart flips a bit with each corner I turn and the awe that the NC500 route delivers again and again.
It’s been a year since I started the project of creating my dream van ↠ @theonelifevan ↞ and as I get a lot of questions about it, I wanted to share the process and some resources with you! If you are thinking of building or buying a van i can say it’s ONE HUNDRED PERCENT as awesome as you might think it is! And my journey with van life is only just beginning... However, it can be a bit of a minefield and hard to know where to start. I hope this helps :)
There are preciously rare occasions in life when you are handed an opportunity to go somewhere or meet someone that truly inspires you. Somewhere that shifts your centre of gravity, allowing you to refresh, refocus and restart. Or someone that has the capacity to capture your imagination and transport it to places you aspire to go but don’t quite know how to access. When your mind has gone there, the chances are your body will follow…
In October 2019, I took 10 girls sailing for five days on a Tall Ships Youth Trust sailing adventure proudly sponsored by KEEN footwear. It was magical and lives were changed!
We stepped off the boat with a different perspective. With love in our hearts, faith in ourselves and confidence to go forth and grow into the women we know we can be. I asked the girls to capture their experiences and what it meant to them…
It's 5:38pm on the evening of Friday 26th June. Calves screaming, sweat dripping, lungs pumping and my pain face well and truly locked in, I've just passed the 400m mark on Chamonix's Vertical KM race and it's hurting like hell. I'm seriously starting to question my sanity.
When I think about how I mentally prepare for my next challenge, I always think of my experiences with Ironman.
1 Year To Go: I signed up for Ironman Wales a year ago, since then it's been at the back of my mind thinking about everything I needed to do to ensure I could cross the finish line (and with a smile on my face!)
To complete an Ironman you need to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and run 26.2 miles back to back.
It's not just the training that you need to be on top of to complete an Ironman race - there's all the logistics surrounding it. Nutrition, race plan, kit, accommodation, travel, support, nutrition before the race, recording the race. I needed to have a plan in place for all of these prior to arriving in Wales. Mark Kleanthous my Ironmate and Coach was a great help and spent an hour talking through my nutrition and race prep in the week before the race.
The reason it's so important to have all this figured out before you arrive at your Ironman event, is because when you get there you have a whole new list of things to focus on.
2 Days To go:
It was a really helpful to arrive in Tenby on Thursday evening giving me plenty of time to prepare ahead of the race on Sunday. On Friday morning we headed down to the sea first thing and took a beautiful dip. It was as flat as a pancake and made me feel amazing. What a start to the day
Next we headed into Tenby, registered for my race pack, did the official sea swim session, went to the race briefing and most importantly - bought 'Ironman Wales' kit in the Expo. Mum and I had a lot of fun in there!
Charley and my Mother-in-Law, Nicola arrived on Friday evening, we had a lovely dinner in a local pub - I had this ridiculous steak dish with potato gratin, portobello mushroom and blue cheese on top - wow! I headed to bed around 10pm.
1 Day To Go:
Saturday morning I woke up about 6am by an orange glow filtering across the room. I knew it was the sunrise, so I grabbed my cameras and headed straight to the beach. I savoured the calm and beauty in my surroundings thinking of what I would be doing in just 24 hours time.
I had to check my bike, run and bike bags into transition before 10am in Tenby. I had 5 different coloured bags and they weren't matching the ones in the race manual! I was a little stressed as I knew anything I didn't put into transition I wouldn't have on the day. I began to feel the pressure around me of all the athletes with their expensive bikes and aero helmets. Just kept telling myself, it's not all about the bike...
After checking in, we went back to our gorgeous cottage in Saundersfoot and spent the day relaxing. It was ideal. I put my feet up and watched James Cracknell's Ride Across America (to get me in the endurance mind set!) Mum got really into reading the triathlon magazines they had given me at the expo and Charley busied himself in the kitchen making us nutritious food to eat and a chocolate cake for post race.
On Mark's orders I had dinner at 5pm and was in bed by 8:30. Was actually quite tired the night before the race and my throat felt sore so I wanted an early night.
It really helped me to have such great company and supporters before, during and after the race. Tenby/Saundersfoot is a perfect place for a long weekend break and we all had a great time. If you are thinking of racing there, it shouldn't be difficult to convince your nearest and dearest they are coming for a 'holiday'. My Mother-in-law's parting words were "I couldn't have had more fun if I had done the Ironman myself".
