1.Welcome and Patreon announcement

Today I talk with Irish professional cyclist Alice Sharp. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to another Roadman Cycling Podcast. I've got another interview for you today. I've got Irish Professional Road Cyclist and Track Specialist Alice Sharpe. We get into it. We talk about the financial board and the PCR tests placed on Reuters last year as they tried to travel around the globe and navigate the changing environment of COVID-19. We talk about what it's like to be a professional female cyclist, the challenges of penetrating a male dominated environment and the Irish track team and the amazing progress they've made over the last few years and how Alice is so, so central to all that. You're going to love today's episode before I dive into it. Just a reminder, we've changed the format up slightly. We used to be five days a week on the podcast, but now we're going four days a week and one of the episodes is going to be a Patreon only episode. We're calling it the secret podcast. So once a week there's going to be a Patreon only episode and that's just a tip to cap and I say thank you to everyone that's supporting us over on Patreon. So if you'd like to get access to the secret podcast each week, all it's going to cost you is the price of a point of beer once a month. So if you'd see me down the pub and you'd say, you know what, I'm enjoying this podcast. Your mind's all right. Or your mind's a bit of a dick but I can't of enjoy listening to him. Either way, I'll buy him a point. If you want to buy me that point, all you got to do is head on over to www.patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. The link is in the description. Click on that. It takes like two seconds to sign up. You buy me the price of a point once a month and you'll get a secret RSS feed, which basically means you're going to have a new podcast once a week, come and straight into your ears. This week, I just dropped it yesterday. And this week, I talk about why you're mentally fatigued all the time. I talk about decision making fatigue. We're making roughly 30,000 decisions a day. So I talk about four strategies you can use to avoid decision making fatigue to make sure you're saving that decision making muscle for the big important decisions in your life. You're going to enjoy it. But without further ado, let me welcome to the The Royal Man Cycling Podcast, Alicia. Oh, thank you. Excited to be here. I'm excited to chat and let's hope your doggie New York and Wi-Fi holds up. Yeah, I hope so. I'm not that hopeful. We have like a power cut a week, so we'll see. Solid infrastructure. Yeah, it really is. Lucky the cycling is going out there if the Wi-Fi is not good. Yeah, no, we are lucky. I think this is my favourite place to be riding. are lucky to spend so much time out here. And the weather's in kind to us as well. You know what, I often go back and forth on where's my favorite place to ride on. I love meorca, but I always just come back to Gerona. And I think the ride is actually nicer in meorca. But it's just when you finish in the evening time is why Gerona always edges it for me. Like meorca's just, it's like being in fucking like a leaving serret holiday or something. all right, now you want sangria? I think we're in a different part of the island to that. There's no sangria here. Yeah, and I'll use got like one cafe up there. I assume you're up near cyclone planet, are you? Yeah, yeah, we're in Aluro. So yeah, the cycling planet, there's a few other cafes, but yeah, that's the one we all tend to float down to. It's quite a lot. I know, I've never actually been to Girona. I feel like I'm not cool enough to go there to stick to New York. You're definitely going up to go there. I was always that weird kind of a random chat for a cyclam podcast, but I'm not sure how much you've been following the news, but big news in Ireland. There was a young girl, I'm going to say she was 22 or 23 out running last week. And she was attacked and killed out running. And it was only chatting to a friend of mine. It was a girl.

2.Women's safety on the bike

And she was like, listing all the things you do as a female runner. And she's like, basically, if you don't know about this stuff, it's because you're a man. She's like, it's things like when you run past somebody and they're going to go the other direction, you lower down your headphones to make sure he hasn't turned around and is following you. When you see somebody on the sidewalk on the same side as you, you change sides. Like all these tactics around, you know, staying safe that I was completely oblivious to. Is this whole issue of women's safety, does it extend beyond running into cycling as well? And I'm also completely oblivious to this, So yeah, I'd agree to an extent, but I think yeah, running leaves you a bit more. Well, I feel more vulnerable if I'd be out running just I think with your bike, you feel like that is an extra means to kind of get away from the situation. But yeah, I still think you would check around and if someone was following you a long way, then I would feel nervous about it in the same way. Like your friends are saying when you're out running, you'd be checking around behind you and stuff, but I've been lucky not to encounter anything that I've felt too unsafe about. But yeah, I think it's the element that you feel like you could perhaps ride away from them. Is it like if you're out on a solo ride and there's a male cyclist like 10 bike lands back for a prolonged period of time, is there a little bit of an alarm bell going off in your head? And not usually actually, and perhaps that's because I've never felt like I've been in a situation that's been too scary. So perhaps that could be me being naive and thinking like, oh, sure, or cyclists are friendly. But yeah, I suppose it can be a random attacker with a different agenda to a guy just riding behind you wanting to catch up and be like, oh, hey. Because that would be my instinct to think that it was just another person out in the spin and they're going to have a chat to you. Yeah, I think there are definitely shape or experiences like that. It's probably a large reason why I'm completely oblivious. I think a good portion of lads are completely oblivious to that extra safety and security dimension that girls have to face. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'd agree. Yeah, I guess it's good to have it raised as a conversation, just like you're saying, you're completely oblivious to it if everybody shares their experiences and opinions like it would educate everybody and hopefully make things a bit safer. Because it got me tinkin' around the Strava culture. And there's, I suppose something else I want to touch on as well because the track team you're on for better or worse. It seems like a lot of the girls are quite focused on social media. And, you know, that's a double edged sword, I feel, because on the one hand, it brings great exposure to what athletes are doing. But on the other hand, it does attract an element of weird, creepy guys, especially following young girls on social media. And when you couple that with GPS tracking software like Strava, like a company thinking like, oh my God, this is like a whole new level of creep that I never even talked about. Yeah, and the Wahoo even has that thing now. I don't have one, but friends have said where it'll flash up and be like, you know, so and so is coming and they're on the other side of the road and you can see their screen name, which is just extra creepy. Like you'd be able to shout their name out, of course, to the other side of the road. But yeah, I guess you're putting yourself out there and perhaps sometimes you should really think about if that's the right thing to be doing. But like you say, it's giving exposure to the sport. So yeah, it's a hard one to balance, isn't it? What is your thoughts on social media? Because I know within the Irish track team, there has been, I suppose, in contrast to other cycling teams, if you were to add up all the followers across the Irish track team versus all the followers and any other track team, I think you guys could be world number one ranked. I don't know if I'm bringing any of them, but yeah, we could be. Well, that's why I taught your perspective on it's interesting because you seem to have largely opted out of the social media game that other girls on the same have decided to play quite heavily. Yeah, I don't know if it was like a conscious decision or anything, but I just prefer to kind of crack on and I don't know if I have something to say or say it but I think I'm quite dull so nobody really needs to know my day-to-day business.

3.Instagram illusions and teammates

Yeah but I think Instagram is a strange platform because it's you know it's a lot of times it's the illusion of something whether it's the illusion of success, it's the illusion of a happy life, the illusion of wealth. Whereas I don't know if you're kind of tongue in cheek dismissing saying I don't need my life study interest. It's the life of anyone in a scrum that interest them. It's a very manicure platform. Yeah, no, you're right. You're only putting the best bits on. And I think sometimes even we'd be guilty of that. It probably often looks like to outsiders that all we do is sit in the cafe. But I'm not able to film when I'm doing the really hard effort or take pitch. So I am taking pitch when I'm sat about and sometimes I think that perhaps that gives off the wrong impression because it looks like we're not working hard. If that makes sense, like you're only like you say only putting elements of your day up. I had this year's Irish road champion image and coder on the podcast a few months ago and she was talking about really struggling with aspects of social media because she's heavily gone down to Instagram roles well. And she was talking about her somewhat a girl from the Peloton, I've just said incredibly main things to her off. Like, basically, she's only got opportunities because of our social following. And yeah, do you find it frustrating being team mates with the girls that have such a such a focus on it? Or is this just let them off? Or are you seeing them getting much hostility? I would think the complete opposite, like I've trained with image and lived with image and I know how hard she works. So if somebody has thought that from the outside, then that's them taking what they want from I guess from social media and making a judgment because that's not the case at all with her and the same with anybody else. Like I guess all of would be the one with the biggest following and I know how hard she works and it's probably the same. It looks like people are always calling out that she's just going out for food and stuff, but I know that she works really hard as well. So I guess if you're putting yourself out there, you have to kind of expect to take that criticism. But at the same time, it's a judgment that isn't always based fully on your actions or the truth that's going on. Yeah, it's definitely a limitation of the platform. It's actually one of the reasons I really enjoy podcasting. It's, you know, with a picture and a caption, it's very easy to take that out of context. But I can spend all day clarifying a point from every, any single different angle. If somebody actually has an issue, you can bring them on and interview them and you can really unpeel the layers of an issue rather than being a very reduction. Even like the tone of voice and stuff is so lost, isn't it? And I think I find that hard sometimes. Like I'm quite a sarcastic person and I wouldn't really be able to convey that via an Instagram post without sounding like, I don't know, I'm grateful or rude. I think the whole COVID debate is a very good example of the limitations of like picture format with short text. It's impossible to express any sort of dissenting opinion on government policy in picture form like that without coming across like a crazy conspiracy to your tin foil hash. But in a longer form format, you get to actually debate the nuances of an issue on breakdown on and kind of move away from those reductionist arguments. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Let's chat about your cycling career. OK. How did you get into cycling? I have done triathlon since I was 11. And then until about 21, 22, and it was my last year at university, I went to Manchester Met. I just started doing some local crit racing. And I think I won like the second crit race that I did. And this guy, yeah, flex. And this. Shout out to me. I know, there's a point to this. Oh, it gave him up to me afterwards and was like, oh, hey, would you like to be on my team? And I literally had no idea who this guy was or like what the team was or what. This is one of the creeps we were talking about start. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I should really watch out more. But anyway, it all worked out fine. And yeah, the next race that he was talking about was the Lincoln GP, which I suppose is a pretty big race in the British calendar. And then the week after that, I was in doing the tour series crits.

4.Starting cycling as a woman

So it was a bit of a like, I don't know, baptism of fire. That's a big part to say for. Yeah, right. I had no idea what I was doing and like I was a total Fred. But I think sometimes yeah, the naivety gets you a long way, doesn't it? And you're not second-guessing yourself and you just kind of go for it. Did you have any challenges getting into cycling? Because I know, you know, I need to just look at our client roster, our podcast downloads, you know, anecdotally group spins. It's a massively male dominated sport. And you know, there's, then you've the idea of wearing completely skin tight kit. So you add in the trying to infiltrate a totally male dominated sport and then maybe some body insecurities around wearing this completely figure hook and close. I think it could be very challenging for girls to start cycling. Did you have any of those hung up? Yeah, definitely. I think for me actually cycling was kind of wearing more clothes because I've been a swimmer. So literally wearing as little as possible. And then triathlon is wearing a skin suit with no sleeves or anything. So yeah, I guess I didn't feel like that. But we were talking about that the other week actually, that like there are so many like kind of rules to cycling that take a new person a long time to learn and I think can be quite alienating or you know like scary to join a club because people will be like, oh they've got their glasses underneath the helmet strap and they haven't got their socks out here and they've got nikas on under their bib shorts or whatever. There are a lot of rules that people don't tell you and you just have to kind of learn and I don't know feel embarrassed or awkward as you're learning it. But yeah, I don't think I didn't think too crazy. I definitely like done a lot of stupid stuff when I was starting. I remember I got all my stuff as a hand me down and my local cycling club was sorts and I was decked out so I looked like I kind of knew what I was doing because of all the hand Yeah. But it was the first time I'd ever used clipping pedals. So you can see where the story is going. Yeah. The guys are meeting at 830 or whatever. So I rock up 829 right up to the front of the group and then I just stack it down on the ground, couldn't clip out on the pedals. But I have that. I think we've all been there, haven't we? But that's right. A passage. I still see some of the guys that were on that group spin now and any time they see me, they just say it was the funniest group spin ever. I'd only ever seen boy crisis on TV. I'd never seen a group spin on TV. I'd never even heard of a group. Yeah. That's true actually. They'd be going up a hill and I'd be attacking on the grass on the run. I was tragic. I think we do have more information now. Yeah, definitely. And even you can kind of become some sort of level and fitness from doing stuff at home like I think Zwift's brought in rightly or wrongly when people think about club spins a lot of people too cycling and in the end they'll go out and ride on the road but they'll be strong and be aware of cycling and I guess then they just learn the group etiquette and stuff. Yeah I launched a Saturday group spin this is like a roadman cycling club spin and we do a Saturday morning just a coffee shop right it's three hours but we are pushing hard to try and get more girls on this bit and more girls involved in it. But you do see a lot of girls torn up once or twice. And then it's a very, how do I say this, sperm-y, seamy environment. It's just so many ads. It is, yeah. I don't think I've ever been in a club where there's been more than two or three girls. Like I'll very often be the only girl on the ride. And I get used to it and you're used to talking to lads, but I think, yeah, it would be intimidating if you're new to to the sport. Because I feel like now I know I can hold my own and I'm not going to get dropped. But if you're new, that's not the case, isn't it? And then you're a year around a bunch of men. I think it would be very intimidating. It was actually amazing over in Toronto. I was out on one or two spins and it was almost all girls on the spin.

5.Track life in Mallorca

And I was like, Oh, wow. It was crazy. I was like, there's only like two boys in a 10 person group. I was like, this is totally, that's so nice. A lot of girls were Irish as well actually. Yeah, there's a big group of people out there now. Yeah, it's good to see. We got to competing base as a New Yorker and Gerona. Yeah. So to make it out there someday. So the setup in New Yorker for anyone that hasn't been there, I've been a couple of times when I was piloting on the front of the tandem. So I kind of have a rough idea what the setup is, but how many of you guys on the Irish National Track team are based on me or get and then as a follow on that what what's a typical day look like or is there such a thing Yeah, so at the moment there's us TP girls out here and kind of everybody else is working at home or Racing away and stuff so at the minute it's myself Emily Kay Kelly Murphy and me Griffin out here So a typical day at the moment. We're on a track camp. So we'll be on track three or so times a week week. So we'll spin down there, which is like a 50 or 50 minute ride depending if there's a headwind or a tailwind. And then the track session is three hours and then we'll spin back. Depending on the day, we might have a session in the afternoon or evening. And then the rest of the week will be the efforts in gym or a long endurance, fried methods. So it's pretty full on. There's no balance and paradigm jobs around this sort of schedule. No, no way. And a few of the girls study and stuff. But yeah, I think you kind of just so wrecked the rest of the time that, yeah, if you were trying to hold down a job, it would be impossible. Who's running the Track Sessions 40 Irish team out there? We've been having a bit of a shift around at the moment, but we've got David Montaneur helping us out quite a bit so that's been really good. Awesome. Ex-World Champion. It's going to be good. Yeah. Yep. Pretty decent. I'd have help myself. Do do do do do announcement time in the middle of the podcast. It's that brief intermission period. Two things I'd like to just call your attention to in the middle of the podcast. One, if you'd like to get access to our secret podcast, which is dropping once a week, this week's episode is about why you're suffering from mental fatigue and how you can combat that. It's easy to get access to it. all you gotta do is head on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch and you can get access there. Secondly, and this one makes such a big difference. We had a consultant in on the podcast and he said a big thing we're not doing well. We're doing a lot of things well, but a big thing we're not doing well is liking, subscribing and reviewing the podcast over on iTunes Apple. So even if you're not listening to the podcast on Apple, I'd ask get a hand on over there, drop a review, drop a rating and subscribe to it over there. Okay, let's get back to chat with Alice. So, Cycle Lawrence in a little bit of a period of transition because they had a high performance director from basically when I started, Cycle I think Brian Newgerton was the high performance director and he's recently stepped aside. How much upheaval is that for you guys? Yeah, I mean It is a bit because yeah, the team pursuit team was his passion and everything but For him personally, I think it was the right time for for him to go But yeah, we were sad to see him go because the team pursuit team was you know making big strides and stuff And it was his passion project, but we've all carried on and had new coaches and things so it's all moving along well Is there a worry among girls that the track team was Nugent's project and maybe the next high performance director won't have such an emphasis on women's team pursuit? I mean I guess so there's always that possibility but I don't know if you look at the results that we've had recently then I think they speak for themselves so personally I'm not worried about that, I think we'll find a way to keep it going. Are you looking at zooming out a little bit and looking at the team pursuits of 49 because it's kind of balancing your individual ambitions against the wider team ambitions? Like you could be flying, but the team isn't going super well.

6.Road goals and pay gap

If you zoom out and look at your goals for the next four years. Are they all wrapped up in the team setting or do you have your own individual goals as well? Yeah, I think team pursuit is the priority and that's what we want to qualify for Paris. But I'll continue racing on the road and I think it's a good compliment to my track fitness and things. But yeah, I'd like to catch a few results on the road this year because last few seasons has been COVID but then limited chances to race because we've been cracking on with the team food stuff. So I think this season I'll be able to have a few more opportunities to get a big block in the road done. So are you still with the Belgian continental team? I think they re-branded from RuPaul did they? Yeah, so it really bikes. Cool. Yes. So how's your program looking for them? Yeah, good. We haven't gotten through the whole summer yet, but the front end of the programme looks like we'll be starting with the Belgian classic. So I'll start with on Loop Het Newsblad, Les Salmon and Hegoland as well, I think. Amazing. Hegoland looks like a rougher. Yeah, I'll raise the bullets. It's twisty. Yeah, savage. No, I like to start with those ones. It would be just, actually we start in staying for a smaller race in February. But yeah, it's a good way to start like, I don't know, rip the plaster off, I guess. How frustrating is the female scene versus the male scene, like a lack of opportunities, pay priority, or is it improving? I think it's improving. I mean, the pay thing is obviously always an issue. And I guess we're lucky that we're able to be funded for the track because I really don't know how some girls find the motivation and like balancing a job and things and able to compete on the road. Like it's very impressive. So I'm grateful for that but at the same time it shouldn't be reliant on the fact that you're doing a track program and a road program and really the road program for me is like a hobby if you think of it like that because you're not being paid and everything. You pay for everything yourself like the equipment is provided if I need to get to Belgium. Even the PCR test last year was just ridiculous. Well, they start adding up a loss. I honestly think I spent over a grand last year on PCRs. You need a PCR sponsor? Yeah, really. And I think what's interesting with Saiklin at the moment is the model is completely fucked for male pro Saiklin and female pro Saiklin. Sponsorship seems to be more charity or philanthropy. You see teams like Quebec, ASAS, Gone Bus this year. But the girls and the Instagram accounts, they're building not just specifically your track girls, but some of the other girls in Saiklin. a brand point of view, they're getting so much attention that we could be at the beginning stages of a totally new model where you actually start giving some return on investment sponsors. Like if I sell tires, if I sell saddles, whoop, fitness to tracking devices, the girls are getting so many impressions on their social accounts. I would say they're far out stripping even, you know, you mentioned Orola Walsh briefly, And we used to coach Orla and it's bringing the amazing career she's building on social. But Orla's impressions must be as big as some of the top world's operators. Yeah, definitely. Probably more sometimes, isn't it? It's maybe targeting a different audience. Perhaps your average club rider or someone new to cycling would follow Orla because it's following somebody's journey, whereas they might not be aware of Chantel Black or somebody like it takes you knowing a bit more about the sport to understand who the best riders are because it doesn't always go on followers and things. Yeah. Yeah, I think almost that example you gave nearly, it illustrates a problem and an opportunity in cycling. You mentioned people like Chantal Black, it's kind of, it's the old guard of cycling. And this very closed insular group that's difficult to penetrate. And it feels very elitist. But when when you see people like Orla, it almost feels like, oh, that's a normal person. I could get into this sport. Like you can see the journey, you can see the scars and you can see the progression and you're like, oh, this somehow seems achievable. They didn't get teleported here as this ultra athlete. Yeah, and I suppose it's, I guess, yeah, if people are open to sharing their story because really everybody's the same, like everybody's had to work hard. But yeah, if you're not putting yourself out there, you say it looks like that person's always been a superstar but I'm sure she started writing when she was like eight and was worked very very hard.

7.Recovery days and team mindset

100%. What do you do outside of China or is it literally trying to un-recovery? I think people like to get a flavour of how does a day look? I think it's pretty much that but yeah I'm big into cooking and baking and yeah like lots of and brand new activities like embroidery and drawing and stuff. So pretty chilled really. So is that a conscious to stay off your feet, old school, kind of, you know, never stand if you can say, never sit if you can lay down to like mentality or they're just stimulating before. I think, yeah, when I'm on camp then, yeah, we're pretty wrecked. So we wouldn't be out, I don't know, doing things. But when I'm at home, I live more normally as opposed, going meet up with friends and go out in the afternoons or the evenings and stuff. But yeah, when we're on camp, I feel like we're here to work. So resting up and stuff is the priority in between the sessions. Be part of team pursuit teams. You ever get days where you just wake up and you're like, I am not in the fucking mood for trying it today. Like I just don't want to do this. Because as a scholar, later. Yeah, so how do you balance that in the team in for him? Because as a solo rider, when you have that day, you're just like, fucking on flip my rest eyes around. I'm going to take an easy day today. But in the team environment, it's not as easy. No, and actually, the group we have here is really good. I think we all like picking each other up. And we're not really ones for moaning. So if somebody's moaning, then you kind of know they're having a bad day and you'd be there to help them and pick them up. So I think that it's lucky in that sense, like you'll always be able to get through the session. But yeah, track's kind of hard for that. Like, you can always kind of like float through your efforts and just get them done on the road, can't you? But for the track, especially team suit, you need to be really like switched in and alert to deliver the efforts perfectly and ride smoothly, do your changes and stuff. So yeah, it's quite mentally draining. And if you're feeling tired already, it's like the last thing you want to be doing smashing around. Yeah, it's not a chilled out environment. I still have nightmares people shout numbers out. Yes, I'm going around the track. Literally, and you've got your dropping split and there's nothing you can do about it. Oh, if anyone has a ridden track, like the difference between a 0.200 of a second sounds like nothing, but it's like the effort to get that back is yeah. And on the tandem it's doubly bad. So when the split start going against you on the tandem because it's such a creature motivation like you need to start out the blocks. Again. Yeah. Like you're 14 or what's out of blocks and then you need to do you know, eight, nine hundred watts for the next 30 seconds to get it up to speed. And then you can settle into cruising speed. But when it starts going against you, when you tie up, oh my fucking lord, I hit one of those foamies on... Oh god, yeah, yeah. I hit one of the worlds over in Toronto. And... Oh my god, you just don't get back to my space. No, I didn't get back to my space. Oh, you just hit into it, okay? Yeah. Oh, Jesus. It's actually, do you order Irish tandem? Did come up? I don't know how you crash on a fucking track on your own with no one else there, but the Irish tandem actually managed that. They went down. I think it must have been hitting the pad, surely. Or rolling a tub or something. I was actually looking for a sniper in the audience. I thought I could have been a rival team. Yeah. Do you have any? I know a lot of people listen to the podcast. They are working at nine to five job. They're balancing relationships, family, social life, and then they're trying to squeeze their training in. Is there any strategies or tips that you use or any of the girls use to get a session done on a day when you don't really feel like doing a session. Just anything to tweak that motivation. Yeah, I think just try and break your goals down and think like what this session is going to achieve for you. Like, it's easy to say like, Oh, what does one session matter? But if you're skipping one session a week, like that's really adding up, isn't it? Or even knocking half an hour off of each ride, like over the course of the week, that's really going going to add up and I think yeah just break your goals down and think what it is that you're working towards and if it's going, yeah for us like going to the Olympics is the ultimate goal but you need to think of more short-term goals because otherwise you're like oh well I'll worry about that in a few weeks time when I'm feeling fitter but you need to be doing the work now to be able to reach that end goal so yeah I think just break it down and try and take each session by each session.

8.Process, guilt and coaching

And how process driven are you versus goal orientated? Like, by that I mean, are you just to get up and do what's in the training peaks and the result to look after itself? Or does the lore of a world championships or a nationals, is that what gets you to do the sessions? I think, yeah, I'll get up and do what's on my training peaks. And, yeah, like I really trust my coach that he'll get us into the best shape possible and we always have that, they're always feeding into those bigger goals, so like, nationals or world championships and things. So I guess it's process driven. But yeah, there's always that push of extra motivation when you know it's only a month out from worlds or whatever. But yeah, I think I actually train, I don't know if this is bad, but off of guilt a bit, like I wouldn't be able to cut my session short or do one less effort because I'll feel so bad about it afterwards. So no matter how much it's hurting or afterducks, I know I'll feel worse later if I haven't done it. Yeah, that was actually something I struggled with a lot when I was full time because I had this guilt going, okay, like if I caught a five hour session down to four hours, it's like, what the fuck am I doing? I should be back working in law, like I'm wasting my time. But often because of that, I didn't listen to my body where my body was saying, you need a little bit of a rest here, bro. I didn't know where that line was between digging deep to get the last three intervals done versus being sensible and skipping the last three intervals because I'm actually digging myself into a hole. Yeah. Were you coaching yourself? No, I had a coach, but honestly, looking back, it's my feedback to that coach, you know, yeah. And I know now from coaching people, like, you can look at the data and that paints one picture of what it's chatting to the athletes and the context around that data matters so much. Yeah, definitely. If you're feeding back that feeling the day before they're able to change the session for you, aren't they? Sometimes, yeah, you need to dig in and push on and then, like you say, all the times, you just dig in the hole and it's time for a rest day. Yeah, like I'm sure you've had many a day doing an intervals up orient. Some days it feels effortless and other days heart rate looks the same, power looks the same, but mentally there. Absolutely. Every pedal strokes a funeral, like. Yeah, yeah. It's that someday is that you just have to crack on. Yeah, I think we are in this weird culture. And I talk about a lot in the podcast of trying to take the discomfort out of everything in life. Like you're trying to replace going outside and training with sitting inside on Zwift. You're trying to replace long endurance rides with adding in extra intensity in the middle of the endurance ride. But at some point, all this needs to be reconciled with the fact that cycling is a herd, almost primal sport that demands uncomfortable periods. Yeah, definitely. I actually haven't really ever been on Swift because I just way prefer to be outside in the cold and then be swaying on the turbo. Yeah same same. Yeah I just can't stand it. Alice finally what is what's the big plans for this year? What if we chose a year from now? What has to happen between now and then for this to be a kick-ass rockstar of a year for you. I'd like to get a few top 10s in some 1.1s and yeah be pushing for a podium in some 0.2s and I'd love to do some more road racing as a national team. I think we had a good outing last year at Cresbres and it's just good to be riding with the girls and seeing like the level of the Irish road racing go up and there are so many more girls even to be selected that are of high quality. So that would be amazing if we could ride more as a team. And then hopefully we'll do as a team pursuit squad the Nations Cups. So I think the first one we'll do is in Glasgow in April and then I'm not decided the second one will be and then that'll lead into euros and worlds there at the back end of the year. And I'd love to go to Road Worlds and Road euros the year but I don't feel clash again with the track commitment. So we'll see. Busy, busy year. Yeah. I couldn't believe the standard of the Irish girls when I was out in Jerona.

9.Rise of Irish women's cycling

It's, you know, and these are girls that are just coming on the scene. Obviously, you know, mostly the Irish public are where the likes of you and Kelly and Imogen. But there's other Irish girls there like Orla Walsh at different Orla Walsh. That's right in for you, CD. Yes. Super strong, Becky Ward to triathletes, She's with Vela Revolution, unbelievable climber. Yeah. And these girls are as strong as cat who lads in Ireland. And yeah, definitely. And this Fiona as well, and Megan who got that last year. Yeah. Fiona is so strong, like an incredible descender as well. Yeah. Yeah, she's on our team next year with me and Mia. So I'm the same with Megan. So I'll be exciting to see her progress. I think she'll have a good year. So I think it's an exciting time all around for Irish women's cycling at the moment. Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, going up in the past, I've been the only person sent to euros and worlds, and like, it's pretty hard to ride alone. But there's no reason now why we can't be sending, you know, three or four real equality riders to those fig events. It'd be amazing. I know your Rupel team, sorry, I forgot the new name of it. Yeah, really bikes. I know they're an Irish register team, but they're are based, but it would be amazing to see an Irish registered Irish based team that's heading abroad where it's a full roster of Irish girls, because I think it's getting there where the standard and the amount of girls coming true. And when you have the, you know, where we had on post for lads to look at and a sport, what's that vehicle now that younger girls coming up a sport? And if you had something like that, I think it's going to pull so many more out of the woodwork. Definitely. I think you're right where it's at home and it just seems that much more accessible. Like, it isn't, once you do it, it isn't hard to get over to Belgium, but it is that initial barrier, isn't it, of like, I don't know, it's scary to leave home and stuff, but if people are coming over from home and going to Europe, all together in a group, then yes, good. And it's always good to be around, I don't know, the same culture and the same vibes. It's always hard, isn't it, when you're in in Europe to be different personalities and stuff. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it's just so much more difficult. Alice, what is, if anyone wants to follow your journey, if they want to catch up on what's what, see how you get on the classics, how do they follow you? On Instagram, Alice55. I know that's not it. It's Alice. I love it. It's sharp. Yeah, Alice shop. Alice, thanks for taking the time for time. Thank you, see you later. That's it. Roadmen, before you rush off, I want to mention something completely new. We've recently just formed the new Roadman Cycling Club. So there's two elements to this club. One, it's a virtual club. You can join it anywhere in the world. And two, it's an in-person club based in Ireland. So if you're a racing cyclist in Ireland, then you're looking for a team to race in the colours of next season. If you're looking to hang out with some amazing people and do group rides on the weekend, go and check it out. It's roadmancycling.com forward slash roadmancc. The link is in the show notes. Hope you can join us as part of the new roadman cycling club.