Towards the end of 2018 one of my best friends said that once the year is officially over I should let it all go and make 2019 my year, because it’s got my name on it. 

I couldn’t shake those words off and kept thinking what they actually meant. 2018 had been a difficult one and I’ve decided that the new one can’t just go by unnoticed, because otherwise everything that I’ve learned will be wasted. It really did hurt to fall, but all failures have the potential to make us rise even higher and ultimately make us stronger. This year isn’t about looking at external circumstances, but instead looking at myself first to see if there's anything I can improve.

On 26-27 April I am taking part in the ARCHIE Foundation and Mark Beaumont Big Ride, which involves cycling from Dundee to Inverness (via the Cairngorms) and the next day we are cycling from Inverness to Aberdeen. Approx. 262miles over two days. Mark is a very inspirational man who is also incredibly fast and very well experienced at doing endurance rides. While I am a very tiny human with short legs. 

During my training I have had so much support from the teams at Archie and friends, but most importantly Jamie, my cycling coach who keeps pushing me to my limits and beyond so I can prove to myself that I can do this!

The training itself was an opportunity to do some soul searching. I had to make space, a LOT of space to prepare myself physically and mentally. From letting go of things in my life that don’t serve me, establishing new boundaries to actually booking time out to lift more weights, cycle, stretch, eat, sleep, connect with the people that truly value me as a human and finally, train my mind towards a very long and painful climb up the Cairngorms.

I am really looking forward to the last couple of months of my training and hope you can follow some of it and the ride itself.

I have set up a fundraising account to raise funds for the ARCHIE Foundation unit in my hometown, Dundee. Debbie and I run a Kids Yoga Outreach Programme across Schools in Tayside & Angus as well as at our studio in Broughty Ferry. We first hand witness all the goodness the ARCHIE foundation is doing. Without the charity’s support many of our children and their families simply wouldn’t have had the care or the help they need. If I can contribute to this, then I am wholeheartedly in!