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How to keep that fire burning

How to keep that fire burning - 6 tips for staying motivated

6 tips for staying motivated

Getting motivated to achieve something outside of your comfort zone is hard! And even once you have got started, keeping that motivation going can be even more difficult.

We all face challenges in our training, we all reach difficult times in our lives that can impact on our ability to focus on what we are trying to achieve and no doubt we all have those…

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#mind #Strength #training

Bike Review: Liv Envie Advanced Tri

About Liv Cycling

Liv Cycling, the sister brand of Giant bicycles, is a brand that is dedicated to creating bikes specifically for female cyclists. Their range of products are not only designed to appeal to the female eye but they also engineer their bikes around their 3F design philosophy.

Using the Fit, Form and Function approach they use data and statistics such as body dimensions,…

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#bike review #Cycling

10 top tips for your first Audax

What is an Audax?

An Audax is a long distance cycling event, it is self guided, either by a set of instructions or a downloadable .gpx file you can load onto your Garmin. You will go through checkpoints to collect stamps and answer questions which you will put in your brevet card to prove you have completed the whole route.

Audax rides are usually put together by the local cycling clubs of…

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#Cycling

How to pack your bike for air travel in 9 easy steps

You’ve booked your holiday, you have been counting down the days, but the dreaded task of packing your bike lays ahead of you. You ask yourself lots of questions ‘how will I pack it?’, ‘Do I need a bike box?’, ‘Will it be expensive?’.

Well not to fear! If you don’t have a specific bike box or bag and don’t want to fork out for one, you can just use a regular cardboard box and the best part is…

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#Cycling #travel

Cycling in Australia: What went on Down Under

It was always going to be a risk, but this Australia thing had been hanging over me for a very long time..

My visa for the trip was due to expire and I had just finished a contract at work and managed to save enough money to scrap by, so decided I had to try.

Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith…

Sometimes that leap of faith doesn’t actually work out!

“Dreams stay dreams…

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An Epic Scottish Adventure!

I’d been preparing for the North Coast 500 for a few months, building my training up towards it, but in usual Krystal fashion, my bad luck drew in leading up to it. A month before the event I was on a training ridewhen a sheepdog decided to run into my front wheel and flip me off my bike at 20mph, totally destroying my bike and causing me niggles and pain, not to mention signed off work with a…

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#Cycling #endurance #north coast 500 #scotland

Adventure Alert! The NC 500

The Challenge

The North Coast 500 is a 500 miles route around the beautiful coastlines of Scotland. Starting and finishing up in Inverness, covering a hearty amount of climbing, battling of fierce winds and truly earning the spectacular views this coastline has to offer. This epic adventure has mountain passes such as the Bealach na Bà which approaches 20% gradient rising from sea level at…

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#adventure #Cycling #endurance #nc500 #northcoast500 #scotland #spiceys cycling adventures

Espresso Coaching Ladies Training Camp, Scotland

So there I was, all packed up, bike weighed down and rolled my wheels down to the train station. Blurry eyed at 6 am I climbed onto the train and set off on my journey up to Scotland.

I love that feeling you get when you go off on an adventure and the train pulls out of the station and you get that ‘this is it, I’m off!’ feeling.

And what an adventure it was to be…

I’ve got to be honest, getting…

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#adventure #Cycling #endurance #hills #scotland #training camp

Training update: Out with the Blues, in with the Do's!

Training update: Out with the Blues, in with the Do’s!

Do you ever talk yourself out of something before you’ve even got started?? How many times have you had an awesome idea – the type of idea that excites and scares the shit out of you all at the same time, only to have already come up with ten reasons not to do it against every single reason to do it??

To live is to have dreams, goals, something to aim for. Often we set goals within our grasp and…

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The Elstead 110km Audax

So I went for the baby 110km distance for this one, easy myself back into long distance slowly..

Thoughts of the 200km distance and what I had achieved last year ran through my mind, and that’s the hardest part – your mind still thinks you can do what you used to but your body says ‘not yet little grasshopper‘

I have to admit, I felt nervous – I’m still finding my feet again. This was an intended…

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Four steps to get that mojo back

Is your mojo being held hostage by your mindset?

Everybody has been there at some time in their life, feeling like they have lost their ‘mojo’, getting stuck in a rut, when things don’t quite work out, the feeling that life is getting in the way of their goal and things they’re trying to achieve.

Every now and then, it becomes a bit of a downward spiral where things start to stack up on each…

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#accountability #acknowledge #contemplation #Cycling #endurance #illness #injury #mindset #mojo #motivation #Rehab #training

The Awakening

The days rolled by so fast now, and yet with each day life seemed to pass her by faster, yet, in many ways, life seemed to slow down. Bound into the monotony of routine, senses dulled and overcome with the sense of duty to get through the days meaningless tasks.

Life had become what she had always feared, devoid of passion or emotion, a feeling of being led through a dark room hoping for a little…

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#adventure #Cycling #freedom #life #moments

Training update: All things must pass

I haven’t blogged for quite a while, truth is things haven’t been great. My mum always said ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say don’t say anything at all’ and so I’m a firm believer in sharing the positive and dealing with the negative personally but I also realise that the path I’m on is hard and that can’t be forgotten.

So what’s been going on? Well, A LOT! They say bad luck comes in…

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240/12 - what really happened?

240/12 – what really happened?

It’s 6am, I’ve been pedalling for an hour and a half since my four hour nap to get over the last 120 miles.

The suns coming up, but my hearts starting to sink for I’ve entered the valley of doom.

I’m tired, fatigued and simply not getting the fuel back in.

My legs start to feel heavy and I’m reduced to a crawl… I’ve bonked.

Do you ever feel like the wheels have come off??

I can’t lie, I knew the…

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#adventure #challenge #Cycling #endurance #long distance #night rider

One for the ladies!

British Cycling Breeze Program

You may remember that some time ago I attended a course to become a Breeze Champion Ride Leader and since I returned from Greece I have working towards getting some regular rides off the ground.

What is Breeze?

Breeze is a program set up by British Cycling with the goal of getting one million more women on their bikes by 2020.

They run a training program where…

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#active lifestyle #breeze #british cycling #Cycling #encourage #get fit #inspire #womens cycling

Test

this is a test!

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FTP - Functional Threshold Power baby, yeah!

FTP – Functional Threshold Power baby, yeah!

Since, I’ve been working with power and using tests to determine my zones, a few people have asked me what it means or how it works. Now, just as a little disclaimer before we start – I am not a sports scientist and the following information, including opinions and views are based on my own experiences. I just can’t help being a bit of a nerd though…

What is FTP?

FTP stands for Functional…

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#Cycling #ftp #garmin #Power #power zones #training #turbo #watts #zones

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