Looking back on the past six months, it’s hard to know where to begin. Everything changed for me when I moved to England from Sweden just before lockdown in 2020. Football had been my main sport, but the pandemic meant matches were on hold, so I started cycling. By the start of 2022, the bike had taken over as my number-one interest.
This year, every big ride has felt like a rite of passage, from my first longdistance sportive in Scotland to the first taste of the high mountains in the Etape du Tour – an event I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to complete. Hand on heart, these have been the best six months of my life.
Of course, there have been ups and downs, including two bouts of Covid. For the first few weeks of the Project, I pushed too hard and didn’t make the progress I wanted. After starting to get disheartened, a chat with nutritionist David
Starr transformed my perspective – he taught me how to balance nutrition against training load and have faith in longer-term gains. That was a gamechanger for me. Mental strength training using the Wahoo Systm app has been really helpful too.
Being on the Project has made a huge difference, providing the impetus I needed to set myself goals each month. Knowing that each challenge would become a magazine article was great for motivation. I’ve learnt so much about myself, my performance and how to make improvements. I honestly feel like a new person: I’m much happier and I have more energy. Right now I’m coming back from my second Covid infection, in August, but this time I’m far more confident about rebuilding my fitne
