about ending this race with a medal around my neck and how everybody excepted me to do that. Or at least I did. I had suddenly something to lose. Cause over the last 7 months so much had happened. I couldn’t stand on the start line with the exact same mindset. ​Since Cyprus, I have been standing on 10 podiums and delivered a good performance over and over again. The season has been crazy. Crazy good. I’m so thankful for all the people around me who got me to this point. ​Thankful that they believed in the idea as much as I did. 

I took another sip from my bottle and found a focus point in front of me. The screen said 1 lap to go and my mind was more busy than normal. The disappointment was already soaking in. I wasn’t riding for the medals, but in 8th spot with yet another girl catching my wheel. As we entered the climb for the last time I looked inside and tried to find the strength to fight for this position.
The fire in the legs started to burn once again but somehow I let go of the busy mind and found the strength to dig deep, get away, and hold on to that 8th spot. I mean 8th in the end isn’t bad. But I was a bit blown away. It’s silly how big influence our mindset have on us. Our willing to suffer and fight, and our general feeling of our effort. We are our own worst enemies. ​

What a successful season. So proud of these achievements! I trained so much for this. And I trained my mind to be able to perform on that level, that’s also why it was with a flat feeling I closed the season. It wasn’t my level. Nevertheless, when I look back at these achievements it’s easier to let go of my race in Lenzerheide and feel the proud, warm, stream going through my body. In addition to my own triumphs, I was also a part of two bronze medals at Europeans and World Champs with the Danish national team in the team relays. ​

​Believe it M. The summer training-period hasn’t been easy or ideal, dealing with an injury in June/July and topping it off with a 7-days illness as we entered August. I had just made it to Graz for the European championship when my body said no. So I backed out and hurried home again. That decision gave me 8 days at home to get fresh and find some kind of race speed before heading overseas to Mont Saint Anne, Canada. Making it to Canada without a stopped nose and feeling good in my body was a success in itself. I learned in Val di Sole and Andorra that even when my training plans fall apart I can still manage to keep my base-form intact. So I wasn’t nervous about falling completely through the peloton, but the dream about another World Cup win had got some cracks. Cracks I wasn’t sure if I could fix this week. So I had the Sharkia song on repeat. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. 

 ​The first 10 minutes was so painful. Mostly for my mind.
​I didn’t have that punch you need to follow the fast start, so I found myself somewhere at the end of the top 10. Come on Malene, back in the saddle. I slowly found myself moving up as some of the other girls needed a breath after the start effort. On the top of Beatrice (the longest climb) I was in the wheel of Evie and Sina, now the pain moved from my head to my muscles. The next 45 minutes, I had them both in sight between 20 seconds and 1 minute, I pushed the system, and wondered if my body would give me some kind of payback from this pace. I didn’t have time for much endurance work or consistency in training, over the summer, as it has been one long damage control, so I was curious how the last laps would feel. As a cross-country rider, you need to be good at using your muscles storage of the different energy sources, creatine/glycogen/fat, real smart over 1hour and 30 minutes. And to restore them again.

​Efficient is key, both body wise and for the technical skills. In a race, you repeat your vo2max power over and over again. So you need to be able to use every inch of your muscles and lungs. But not only do you have to repeat it many times, you also need to handle your bike down difficult descends just after. That's a part of what makes this sport so demanding, and why the training is so essential. So missing it, is not really ideal. After 1 hour of racing, Evie was out of sight and I knew I was losing time, but I couldn’t push it too much on the climbs anymore, because I could feel that my descending skills started to lack. So I just tried to find a pace where I knew I could be a 100% for the downhills. Luckily my fitness and skills were still good enough to take home 3rd spot. The win was some minutes away, which is quite a bit. And with the World Championship coming up in 3 weeks time..
​ I feel the pressure, but I still feel, I got it all, believe it. I’m a good soldier 

The story behind my knee pain:
​The evil combination of an unmotivated but dedicated athlete. 
​
​Coming back home after 2 weeks of World Cup racing in Albstadt & Nove Mesto was only for a short stay, 4 days later I would head towards Sweden for a stage race in Borlänge. My coach and I chose to get in a few quality workouts prior to Sweden and do the stage race as a good intensity training to make the most out of the week. The period of 5 weeks between Nove Mesto and Val di Sole was planned to be blocks of training where I would slowly but surely build up a good form for the last part of the season. But things didn't go exactly as planned.
​It was alone the fact that I live in such a great cycling community that I came through all my trainings that week. 

I had the feeling of being a flat crepe the whole week after the two world cups. But I pushed my system and came through and furthermore won the stage race at the end of the week. ​The course in Sweden was brutal on my hardtail, it was a 7k loop filed with roots and steep uphills. So I had to sit down and pedal, with my saddle sending hard impacts all the way through my spine for 3 days straight. When I got off the bike after the xco race on Sunday my back was literally dead. On Monday I recovered, got a massage and prepared for another week of training. Motivation was still not really there after Sweden, either, but with big goals in sight I pushed myself out there and got the most out of it. I kept thinking I would get my rest the following week when the Danish Champs would emerge. Malene was keen on getting some proper work in the training-bank, but I felt like my body was working against me.. However I was pretending to be a bit deaf and blind for the signs.  

Knee pain
​I manage to finish the block of training and I was now in the week leading up to our national championship. Finally I could take the needed rest, It hadn't been easy weeks. My body and especially my lower back after Sweden was tired. But as soon as I gave my body a bit of freedom something else came up. My knee complained. All my inner alarms went off and I rode straight home. I went to my sports massage, Icaremassage, Thursday and Friday. 3 days till race day. My lower back, hip, glutes and hamstrings were super sore and tight. The pain was on the inside of my left knee but the trouble came from the hip and the back. Our team physiotherapist Sebastian guided me and togehter with my home masseur they did a great job, and loosened up the tightest areas of my musculature. When race day came.. I tried. With adrenalin as my painkiller, I came through the race and took a very revealing 2nd spot behind Annika. 
The following two weeks I felt like was on the edge every day. However, I found a way to keep it in check. With regular treatments of especially my hip and lower back + a stretch/trigger ball sessionsy + breaks during my rides, I managed to continue riding my bike, not completely pain-free but doable. The two weeks of training went by and as the week of Val di Sole came, the timing was right and the pain was almost completely gone - it did not interrupt my training at all anymore.  

Racing
It was again two World Cups in a row - Val di Sole first and Andorra second. I was pretty curious what my race-shape was like. I normally know my fitness-level pretty well heading into the important races, but this time it had been such a rollercoaster that I had lost my delicate feeling of where I was. But I knew I had been working smart and had taken the right choices. A mantra I had in my mind a lot over the last weeks was the quote “hard work - pays off” but modified a bit to “Smart work - pays off”. Which is a sentence I really like, it's not about how much you do or how hard it feels - it's about doing it smart. 

​Mental fatigue 
I know the injury I created those weeks after Nove Mesto isn’t gone. I still get sore and tight. I think I will deal with it for the rest of the season, but that’s all right as long as I can keep it in check like this. 
But more important; I figured out a “And now you stop M” mark to add to my scale of fatigue. When I’m mentally exhausted, like the week after Nove Mesto, I need to take it as seriously as when I’m physically exhausted. An unmotivated Malene is a tired Malene. I’m not saying that I will not train anymore if I’m not feeling 100% motivated, but it’s a pretty good indicator of my fatigue level and when to actually pull the break. Because a mentally tired Malene is more fragile for sickness and injuries - and that's not favourable. Lesson learned 

What now? 
I take some days off the bike and recharges my batteries after the last World Cup weeks. (Including a Beyonce concert yaaass!)