Performance Process: The problematic 'should' word with Ruth Edwards

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4.9 • 960 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After two years at home racing the Life Time Grand Prix and working coaching and bike fitting roles, Ruth Edwards is back in the WorldTour peloton and already back on the pro road podium. We sat down with Ruth in Adelaide just days after her first WorldTour race back at this year's Tour Down Under in January to discuss all things returning to professional road racing.

We kick start the conversation deciding this is not a "comeback" but merely a return from sabbatical. Ruth talks us through the whys of needing to walk away from the WorldTour, why gravel is not for her, and why ultimately the lure of a road return was too much to ignore. We discuss the process of determining if a return is the right idea, setting goals with no idea where your level is, and process for mitigating the challenges that ultimately led to her needing a break just over two years ago.

Ruth explains why you do things because you want to, not because you should and how the rapidly changing landscape of pro racing was a major motivation in wanting to return.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the performance process everybody. I'm Kayle Fretz. We got a great show for you today.
0:15.8	Something a bit different, right, Ronan? We're not going into wind tunnel testing and things like that.
0:21.1	Well, we're talking to a current writer to start
0:22.8	with which is a first. Yeah which is excellent. Really interesting episode with
0:26.3	Ruth Edwards. Made name Ruth Winder, some of you may still know her by Ruth
0:31.6	Winder.
0:32.5	Ronan, what?
0:33.9	What did you two talk about down at T.
0:35.9	Yeah, well, we recorded this in Adelaide,
0:37.8	a few days post-Wombe's Turdine Under.
0:40.8	Ruth was still there with the Human Powered Health Squad who she's racing with for this season as they were
0:46.1	awaiting like Karel Evans Great Ocean Race. So yeah we caught up and it's very much just a
0:58.0	chat an interview sort of on returning to the World Tour Peloton. Very conscious not to call it a comeback.
1:01.0	Ruth said it was, the past two years have been like a sabbatical. She did obviously
1:05.7	race some gravel, some mountain bike, the lifetime Grand Prix in that time, tried a few different jobs, like bike
1:11.7	fitting and coaching in that, but ultimately decided that she really wanted to come back to the World Tour Peloton and yeah we caught up just after her first race back.
1:21.0	I'll jump in and give a bit of bit of
1:23.4	Ruth history since she's a pretty good friend of both myself and my wife and
1:28.1	her husband is one of my best friends and we've known each other for a long time so
1:31.7	just a brief, brief rundown on what she's been up to.
1:34.4	So Ruth's been racing since she was like, I don't know,
1:37.3	junior, 14, 15 years old.
	...

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