Stories

Life is precious

8/17/2023

Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.

Last weekend was a special one for me. In multiple ways. I went into the week of the World Championship on a good wave. I arrived feeling fit and confident in my skin for the first time in a long time. The concussion set back had made me feel like I was constantly on the back foot, but finally I had an amazing month of training in July, where I could dig deep, recover, and get stronger.

The kind of training that makes your body able to respond and get stronger.
So, when I arrived to Scotland I wasn’t scared, I was just looking forward for the racing ahead. Scared of what? Scared of struggling and going home from another race weekend frustrated. But not this time. The race could come at me.

Besides that, I lost a family member during the week, and it reminded me how precious life is. How lucky we are. How we owe it to ourselves to live a life worth living, dream, travel, connect, love, laugh, jump into the deep end, work hard, believe in ourselves. My cousin said that grandma was until her last day always making sure her hair and garden was one point. And I loved that, I will make sure my grass is always green so flowers can grow, and my hair nicely done.

I will make sure my grass is always green so flowers can grow, and my hair nicely done.

So, when I was on the start line last Saturday, I felt excited, calm and that this moment was precious. What a life.

And I had my best race since the injury with a 15th place. It was half as good as last year, but I’m so proud of this one. I raced the whole race and fought for every meter feeling strong and capable.

Next one is already around the corner, World Cup no. 5 in Andorra. So, lets continue the wave and get most out of this season. Maybe everything doesn’t work out exactly how I imagine. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.

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Will it be easy? Nope. Will it be worth it? Absolutely

6/20/2023

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In March I wrote a story about dreaming. Dreaming about opportunities, goals, and achievements. Those words are awfully close to defeat, failure, and bumps on the road. One thing is a good plan another thing is executing it and having luck on your side.

In April I crashed on a training ride here in Denmark and went down straight on my head. A boring (long) week of bedrest, closed eyes, nausea, vision problems and a couple of doctor check ups followed. Got myself a solid concussion and I knew that the road back would be challenging.
I felt sorry for myself in the beginning and didn’t really want to admit that I had an injury, because I didn’t have time for it! I was going to start my World Cup season soon.

But sometimes timing in life is a B**** and I had to shift my mindset and try to get the best out of the situation. I was lucky that my support system through Team Denmark was awesome from day 1, I was lucky it happened in April and not in May, I was lucky to feel the progress of the healing after 10 days and not years, and finally I learned a thing or two about the brain!

In case you wondered – we use our brain a lot. Like a whole lot. When it’s not working properly you really feel how even the smallest action actually takes brain power. And that not everything is a resting activity for the brain. Breathing exercises, meditation, and audiobooks (mostly fiction) was what I found the most relaxing. I think I was lucky I had so much nausea the first week and vision problems, it made me stay at home resting.

Even tho I had a few more punches over the past couple of months than I dreamed of - it doesn’t take away my love for the sport and the love for the chase.

After the week at full rest, I had three weeks of slowly building up some hours of training. In the end of week 4 I did my first cross country race in Sweden, after a successful intensity session earlier that week (meaning no symptoms) I got the green light from the doctor to try. I even won it, but I knew the game would be completely different Nove Mesto the following week. If I could race there it was already a success – only 5 weeks post-concussion.
I could! But it of course wasn’t my best result, nor did we expect it to be, but it was a start, and I was in the World Cup ranking.

Since then, it has been a bumpy ride back to fitness. The body hasn’t been responding as good to training as normal, longer recovery time, still some vision problems (they say time is my friend), and just in general slower adaption to my training. Frankly, the Garmin watch has been kind of crazy/interesting to follow.

Since my crash in April my Body Stress has been elevated. Often Low HRV and a high resting heart rate. It’s like my body has just been working a little bit extra. And I must really be causes with how I let my body rest and recover.

We’re now in a crazy month with 4 back-to-back events consisting of 7 races. My hope is that my body absorbs the efforts weekend after weekend, and that I get out on the other side of Val di Sole stronger, than when I arrived in Lenzerheide.

Even tho I had a few more punches over the past couple of months than I dreamed of - it doesn’t take away my love for the sport and the love for the chase. I’m sure I will get there. Even just now I still have 3 more races in the next two weeks. I’m home for 72 hours now before flying to the European Games in Krakow trying my best to recover, train smart and set myself up for success.

So happy I finally got to write this blog. I have wanted to write, but the first many weeks I couldn’t write something this long without getting symptoms, but now I finally had the ability and time. Hope you liked it. Concussions are a strange beast, and a different journey for everyone. So much respect for this invisible injury.

All the best
Malene

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Onward, forward and everything in between?

3/27/2023

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Today it feels like I’m turning a page. Like finishing a chapter of the season 23’ book. Yesterday’s race in Marseille marked a finish to my early race season. 6th start lines in the past 2 month. Some ups, some downs, good sensations, bad sensations, good luck, bad luck, and everything in between.

@kenoderleyn

I wanted some of the races to go better than they did, but it’s okay - that it sometimes takes more time than I thought. Which made me want to write about progress.
The cycle of the year, as a cyclist, has this flow to it. We reset in the off season, building fitness over the winter, gaining race fitness in the spring, and then we are ready to go when the World Cup season arrives over the summer.

It’s easy to get caught up in moment and let every race weekend affect you instead of seeing the bigger picture – the progress. But what is progress anyway? The dictionary says it’s about “onward and forward towards a destination, advancing and improving”.
I’m still building my race form towards Nove Mesto, which is 7 weeks away, so I’m quite deep into the ‘trust the progress’ mantra.

Yesterday I raced in Marseille, France, a HC race with a stack field. Nice test of myself against the fastest women in the world, a little peak into where am at, and what’s still missing. I did 4 consistent laps riding the 10th fastest lap times and finished 10th in the end as well. I always want more, who doesn’t?
On the other hand, I’m also quite happy where am at in March, this season is super long and if want to be sharp all the way to Sep-Okt, I need to time it. I don’t have this superhero body that’s just a machine out there, I can be on occasions, but yea timing ;-)

It’s not what you look at that matters, but what you see.

I think it was my best race in Marseille, I ever rode, the Lapierre ate the rocks so nicely and I had no mechanicals, just a steady smooth ride. When I looked down on my handlebar and saw the start number 3, it assured me, hi Malene you got this!
It’s not what you look at that matters, but what you see.
Another saying contributing into the progress theme I got going here.

@antoine.kopyto

So, what now? Today I’m flying home to Copenhagen. The original flight got cancelled, so I got rewarded with a little tour around Europe, checking out Vienna airport for some hours before I can hit my own bed tonight. But hey, plenty of time to write a blog then!
Over the next month focus is on everything above^, step by step we get closer to the targets.

And please, could the spring weather also arrive in Denmark soon? Is it too much to ask for...

Xoxo

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Life is precious

Will it be easy? Nope. Will it be worth it? Absolutely

Onward, forward and everything in between?

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