The race is in less than 6 months and I've been planning for it for a while. But what does it mean?
Here I’ll explain some of the planning that went well so far and the things for which I'm still unsure or unhappy about.
First of all, I'm following a pretty boring weekly routine. I wake up at 6.35am Monday to Friday. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are for horse riding before going to work. Wednesday morning, I have a personal trainer session, and on Monday and Friday mornings, I train on my own.
My official work schedule is 9am to 6pm, but the nature of my job requires some flexibility as I have to attend calls and meetings late at night. Work has been challenging lately, which makes it interesting yet not overwhelming since I feel I’m constantly learning.
After work, I either work, sometimes exercise, I write for this blog (or should I say scribble), I meet new people interested in my race, spend time with old friends, plan for the derby or have a date night with my husband.
On Saturdays, I wake up before 5am to cross the border to JB (more on this here) and come back usually afternoon. The rest of the weekend is usually full of activities with friends.
Basically, there is not much room for spontaneity. I don’t particularly enjoy my routine but it gets things done and moving. One of my main concerns was my riding level… the consistency of trainings helps me a lot in improving my seat and also my confidence. On the physical training part, it’s not much fun but I can feel the endurance my body is gaining.
On the gear front, despite, my time researching, reading and talking with former riders, I'm still nowhere near ready and I still feel clueless. I've been going to hiking, running and cycling stores and although it has been useful, I feel overwhelmed and not ready to commit. So far, I have a helmet, stirrups, underwear, buff and head lamp… So from the neck up, I’m good! More seriously, I’m overly excited that Garmin decided to support my training with a new shiny watch! It’s not only amazing to follow my training and sleeping pattern with it, but it will definitely be a great tool during the race to not get lost. Yet, procrastination has indeed been way too friendly when it comes to gear and I definitely need to start making decisions and purchases.
Regarding getting the right message out, it’s been full on. Meeting with journalists as well as Women on a Mission, Ride for Rangers and so many more organizations. It’s been great to share my passion and explain what I want to accomplish on top of the race: getting people to live more, inspiring women to reach for their dreams and giving back to the community, especially in Mongolia. Here too, it takes effort and commitment and I have not yet been able to finalise everything but it is energising to see people rally around me.
Finally, the responses I get from the people around me are overwhelmingly positive. It helps me put things into perspective. I might not have the perfect shoes yet, but a complete stranger reaching out on Instagram to share their story and it's worth all the efforts I’m putting in the race.
