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Creating a reality

1/29/2024

The winter training is in full force as we reach the end of January, and the racing season is slowly (but surely) creeping upon us. I like this period of the year, it’s when you can lay the foundation for the season ahead. After a reset in the off-season, there are always new little tweaks and changes to add. The forever chase for the better is motivating and makes it such a fun job to have.

I have had a good winter so far; my December was a hectic mix of finishing my semester and building up my strength and fitness. But I managed to juggle the life balance and got into January relatively fit and ready to go to South Africa for a training camp. I went for two weeks to Stellenbosch, with the national team squad to prepare for a big year ahead. With the Olympics this summer and the qualification in the spring, everyone is trying their best to be their best. Which was an awesome environment to be in.

Now I’m back home to relax a bit, before I go down there again, to do the same thing all over. Okay maybe I’m lying a little bit, I’m not just relaxing, the past week has been mostly rest – but a new week is coming and I’m also going to get my physical abilities tested at Team Denmark, the Danish center of sport. A little insight into where I am at and where I can improve (…well I’m right here, but you know what I mean:) ).

One thing is the physical aspect, another is the mental. Chasing the better is not just about power numbers, even though it would be easy if it was just so – but being a great athlete is about a tiny bit more ;). I heard a podcast the other day and their conversation has stuck in my mind. It was about self-beliefs. What are we believing about ourselves?

What are we believing about ourselves?

They talked about how we create our own reality. It reminds me of the saying “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are”, I think it’s credited to Anaïs Nin, but whatsoever is so impactful. We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are. Maybe the winter is also the time to change our set beliefs, about who we are and what we can do. I have built up a set of beliefs around myself, but maybe I can change that. Move that? We build these to fit our reality. The brain is interpreting what is happening – it’s creating our reality from, past experiences, our interpretation of the present and the expectation of the future. ?

Combing all the pieces creates the story in our minds. So, when I think of my reality, maybe I should try to change the narrative. I am, after all, the author of my life, so why not write it in a way I believe would get me the furthest?

Next time I think oh, I can’t do this because last time x,y,z happened, I need to remember that that is just me creating a reality that fits with my beliefs – not necessarily the truths.

Well. That's a proper New Year goal.

xoxo
Malene

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Life is precious

8/17/2023

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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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Creating a reality

Life is precious

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

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