I always thought Jacaranda trees were native Australians, especially after reading the novel of the same name by very Australian Joy Dettman. I was quite surprised to learn that this tree is actually from South and Central America. However, this discovery will not stop me from associating Jacaranda trees with spring and Australia. I arrived in Sydney on 1st December nine years ago and moved into a northern Sydney suburb with Jacaranda lined streets. Every morning on my walk to the train station and every evening on my walk home I was in awe of the concentrated smell of the flowers and marvelled at the intense purple of the little flowers fallen to the street, giving it the look of a purple carpet rolled out just for me.

Today during my flat and easy recovery ride I saw Jacaranda trees in full bloom everywhere. It’s certainly spring.

It was an unusual Sunday morning. No alarm clock at 5:30 AM, no rushing out of the house half asleep to meet friends for some long and tiring ride. Instead I got up once my body naturally decided that it had enough sleep, made coffee for Alberto and me and later Alberto made fruit salad for breakfast. We had some cake on the terrace, too. It was bliss.

Now I’m ready to tackle some more hills and week two of my build phase. Ready to train hard and to give every workout and training session my all.