I managed to avoid this virus since March last year and then, of course, the week before the World Cup 2021 start I get the F**** virus. Man.. What’s the change?
I know it’s not the end of the world and that I’m a lucky gal, who just had some mild symptoms and so on. But it broke my heart. When you work your ass off for something and then something out of your control just puts a hold on it, it sucks.
For the ones interested, my symptoms was, sore throat, dry coughs and fatigue. I obviously had to skip Albstadt, but as time went on I didn’t feel as great as I hoped before Nove Mesto. Which I then had to skip too. Buuh… What a timing! ​

In danish we say ‘nothing is so bad it isn’t good for something’. So I wonder, what was the good for me?
Mmm.. well I haven’t rested this hard since, since ever
​>.< This virus have had me sleep more hours than being awake daily. Which could turn out to be a good thing, if I look at the bigger picture. I got to read plenty, which is something I love, so that was pretty rad too. And then I got to see the World Cup racing from the other side of the tape. Which was actually quite interesting! On the screen all my competitors seemed so human, like they were also hurting and fighting and you could see their mental game going up and down. Super inspiring! ​

For the past 3 months I have been working hard on building up a good foundation for my 21’ season. I have been spending all this time in Spain, moving around for trainingcamps is just not easy in these times. It makes me so grateful for the open boarders we normally have in Europe. How lucky I am to live in such a union. Anyways, it has been going great. Rarely have I had such a good winter of training, training gone well, almost only good days, no illness, no injures, no big hurdles (should I knock on wood now?). Consistent good work day in and day out. Normally that’s a pretty good start for a successful season. So let’s see what I can build on top of this! ​

Last week we got the season kicked off with two races back to back. First one in Spain, Banyoles, second on in Italy, Andora. Big thanks and shout out to the race organizers, I imagine that it’s no easy task to organize an event at the moment. I came to the races with the plan to leave them with more race experience and a heart full of motivation. I knew I didn’t come in a super race-shape, but when you have a plan you have to stick to it. So I left the ego at home and went head first into the two races with world-class fields. And got my ass kicked just a little, haha. ​

I ended up 13 and 12 on the result list, nothing glorious, but I was super happy with it. In Banyoles I really felt how it has been pretty much half a year since I last did a xco race, after a good first 30 minutes my body was just like ‘gurl, what da heck are you making me do?’. It was such a chock to the system, and it felt really horrendous. But I was glad I did it. Felt like I needed it. Then I continued to Italy where I had a way better race, already improving from race number uno. I was more in tune with what racing is like and it felt like my body rememerd that this xco thing is something we do every other weekend, for fun. haha. ​

Now I’m back in Spain looking at two good month in front of me, full of hard training and racing. I’m pretty excited to do this and hopefully next time I race I feel just a little more speed in the legs. If I can do that at every race until the World Cup, I have done something right, haha. ​

Finding a purpose and small goals doing your preparation races are super important, I think. I wanted to get back in tune with what racing feels like and all the small stuff around it. And I believe I achieved that. ​

As I progressed into the Junior cat, I got a feel of what the life in the mtb world was like, I travelled a lot with the national team and I had some really good junior years. With a really nice balance between, racing, training, school and social life. Which I think, looking back, was one of the key factors to my later success. 
Now that was a lot about me, but what about you? or your daughter or son?