​They say, that stress is your best friend and your worst enemy when it comes to pursuing sport. You need to stress your system and break it down - in order to gain and build up. You need to find that spot-on area where it’s not too little nor too much. Phase 1 was all about that balance. Building a base but don’t overload, so I tip over because getting back up is simply too hard. 
Building the foundation in winter so I can ride my bike fast in the summer, is something I really enjoy. Well. Okay, riding bikes for hours every day isn’t always so entertaining, I must say. But it has another side to it that I enjoy just as much as racing in the summer. It’s kind of meditating and so addicting. I love the feeling of progress and trying to be a better me every day. I like to make improvements from earlier mistakes. And I generally just really love to ride bikes. All of that I can do in the winter time, without worrying too much about performance, travelling and so on. I mean I didn’t start riding mtb because I won races, I just enjoyed riding with friends, and in the winter months, I kind of get back to that place.  

​So in my first ‘phase’ of training this year I had 2 blocks of base training. Which in January consisted of a lot of road cycling and as I moved to the Barcelona area in December the mountains made the road cycling pretty cool. Now in the second block, I got my Orbea Oiz (bike-check a few stories back), so a new motivation kicked in - a new ride that would bring me back on the trails. Adapting to a full-suspension bike after 10 years on a hardtail was for sure a weird feeling the first days. Plus a month on the skinny tires made the transition a bit sketchy and not so pretty for me ;-) Whatsoever I felt the benefits of the bike quite fast. A few days after the arrival of my Oiz I took a plane to Lanzarote, where I participated in the Club La Santa Stage Race a 4 days race + 5th and 6th stage with the Danish team the following days (You can read more about that in the last story). When I got home from the island I was pretty dead. My body was low in everything so I pulled the red-card and took some days away from athlete Malene. Okay, almost a week I must admit, but honestly, I was tired.

​When I came back to Spain I had one week to get back into training routines and get ready for the Mediterranean Epic, again a 4-day stage race. The Mediterranean Epic was again on a new bike, still an Oiz but my race machine for the year. But as I had decided to use the two stage-races like some intense training-camps I thought it would be a good test for me and the bike. And what a cool race! The stages were super nice and the trails were technical and demanding. After this race, I didn’t need more stages :-P

​The two races were not only good training it also gave me good UCI points as I finished them in 4th and 5th position. It was not the most glorious racing of mine, but defiantly good training, allowing me to push more than I would have done by myself. 
So now I'm back in my apartment and resting with a good feeling in my stomach. I came through this winter strong, finishing my coach’s training plans, competing in the two stage-races on my own demands and made some new PR’s. So far - so good. 

January marks a beginning. Believing in new years resolutions or not, it is a new year. The word new is in the sentence. So this Jan-Feb, I’m prepping for the 19’ season with a different setup than previously. Not that my training-plan has changed a whole lot, but many other things. I have together with my boyfriend found a good base in Spain, the Barcelona area, where I’m putting in all the basic work. With the new location, I decided to add two shorter stage races to fire up some longer intensity and taste the sweat & blood a bit, in the early months. So after 4 weeks of riding around on the skinny tires in the Spanish landscape, I packed the new Oiz to met up with the Danish National Team for a week of racing on Lanzarote. 

​On the road bike I have logged weeks between 16-22 hours of training; mostly just riding, with a hint of intervals around my threshold and a day with some lovely 3-minute efforts in the painful watt zone. So we’re making a base to build on. Timing is important. It has been enough to push me but also with a margin to let me stay healthy and give me energy for life off the bike. So to end the month in a good way, the 4 stage race on Club La Santa Lanzarote, was what was up. For stage racing, you need the ability to keep a high tempo for hours + have the room for firing up the power and stay in a higher zone for a while.

 ​​I must admit I never really liked the stage-race sort of racing so much, and I’m not sure if I ever will. It’s not my favourite, but it has something to it that is quite challenging and that’s good for me. I always regret it 10 minutes into the first stage - like ‘oh god, what did I do, it’s gonna be this hard for hours and that’s not even the end, it will be this hurt-box for days…crap’. But when I’m out there, no matter how many jokes I make in my head on my feeling of stupidity, something deep inside of me is not giving up. 
​The first stage in the Lava rocks of Lanzarote was challenging for me, I was a bit stressed and unsure on the bike. I only rode the Oiz a couple of times before the start-line, so to be out there in the fast, furious and tactical racing was a big potion for me. Which culmi-

-nated 15-10k’s from the finish with a stupid crash on the pavement - luckily I didn’t take anyone with me down! I got up from the road, collected myself and my stuff, jumped back on the bike and started to hunt the front group that I just lost. My right arm was pumping a lot from the shoulder down to the wrist. Hip and knee were only painful on the outside, but the arm didn’t feel good. So I was really motivated to get to the finish as fast as possible...
I got a green light from the doctor after the stage. Good, so nothing is damaged, it’s just really painful. 
After a shitty night, I was scared for the upcoming stage. But Mads and I briefed it in the morning, and nothing seemed like it would get worse with my wrist, it was more a question of how much pain I would take. Still being smart. Nothing worse than playing hero to ruin your season, so I needed to bring the brain that day. Which worked great for me (hah) and I attacked early on, got away and got some seconds in the overall standing (ending 2nd on the day). 

​The mind is a fascination place, you can manipulate with yourself if you know how to tackle it and speak to yourself. I think. I kinda knew I could do this. Because in November I crashed really bad on my tailbone on the road bike, and the following days I was able to continue training if I 1) let the pain be pain, and 2) mixed it with a hard effort (1minut - ish) every 30 minutes. I could literally feel the pain release just after I had pushed hard in the pedals.

The next 2 stages I just continued with the same speed/effort and finished on an overall 4th place. Stronger - both physically and mentally. I’m happy with my riding, and the feeling of my new bike. My next stage race is the Mediterranean Epic in 2 weeks, I hope I can continue to get better and stronger :-)