ELINOR BAKER
A training camp with a difference
On the first night of my team’s December training camp, I had a little cry in my room. It was 1am and neither me nor my nine-month-old baby had slept for more than five minutes. I knew the next day would be spent bouncing between training and meetings from the minute I woke up, with the little ‘down time’ planned being taken up by the endless tasks it takes to look after a baby. I wondered where the hell I was going to get the energy from. The thought of getting through the day was overwhelming. What the hell was I thinking, trying to combine two very hard full-time jobs? I checked Skyscanner for an early flight home.
Ten days later I’m happily writing this from the plane back to Manchester, on the last day of a largely successful camp. I’d love to tell you that I breezed through thanks to my incredible time management skills and endless energy, but that’s far from the truth.
I’d been nervous about this trip since before Nico was born; my manager suggested that he could come along too. The path back to fitness after pregnancy has been going well at home, alongside adjusting to parenthood, but the hard days can be intense. It’s one thing to experience this behind closed doors, but in my most insecure moments I worried about being exposed as a bad cyclist and inadequate mother all before the lunchti
