Get to Know Your Coach: An interview with Mind Matters associate coach Fiona Morris

Mind Matters Associate Coach Fiona Morris has been coaching for over a year and plays a pivotal role in inspiring, motivating and encouraging her athletes to get the best out of themselves. Her specialty is Cyclocross racing but as you’ll discover her story has encompassed SO much more. Both on the bike and off the bike!

Fiona at the 2019 MMAC Tasmania Training Camp. Photo: MozImage

Where did you grow up? What were your main hobbies as a kid?

I spent the first few years of my childhood living in Sydney, before my parents upped and moved to a little rural area just outside of the beachside town on Lake Cathie, on the Mid North Coast of NSW. My parents didn’t want us growing up in the city - and we had always spent our weekends’ camping, 4WD’ing and riding motorbikes outside the city - so they made it permanent. 

I was an outdoor kid, through and through, a big influence from my dad. I grew up riding motorbikes (my dad owns a motorbike shop) and spending a lot of time at the beach as I grew older. Plus a lot of typical country kid life - I rode horses for many years, worked on my parent’s small property, and explored a lot of backcountry. There was a small group of us in the surrounding properties, of all ages and we would ride our bicycles or horses, hike, swim in streams ...just seeing how far we could get before it got dark.

I didn’t do any typical team sports, except those at school, as we lived so far out of town it just wasn’t really possible. So my hobbies centred around what I had access to and that was dirt bikes and horses.

Perhaps why I am drawn to cyclocross and mountain biking because I love being off-road and in nature. 

Tell us a bit about your working life? What other roles have you fulfilled other than Cycling Coach?

I have a degree in Industrial design, which I pursued as a career about 6 years before realising it was not fulfilling me the way I anticipated, it came to a point where I decided it was time for evasive action.

I quit my job, got married and travelled on an extended honeymoon - where my husband raced MTB’s and Cyclocross in Canada, America and all over Europe.

When I came back I fell into a marketing role and it came pretty naturally to me. So much so that I now have my own marketing consultancy and work with some great clients such as Tourism North East - who run the Ride High Country Campaign for Victorias High Country. It’s a perfect fit for me and brings me a lot of joy.

MTB in the Victorian High Country

What INSPIRED you to get into Cycling?

I dabbled here and there with some mountain biking and even rode (rode is a loose term, grovelled might be closer to it) some of the biggest climbs in Europe as a very novice cyclist. Which scared me enough to hang up the bike and not look at it for years...and years.

Instead, I stood on the sideline of races and cheered on my husband and a whole community of cyclists, that would become my friends. Eventually, their persistence to get involved wore me down and I threw my hands in the air and said “fine, lend me a bike and I will race next weekend”.

I had also built a false sense of security from watching my husband race all over the world, knowing in intimate detail of the ins and outs of the sport that I began to think, how hard can it be? Well, I think we all know that answer to that.

Cyclocross felt much less intimidating than mountain biking or road riding, it didn’t matter if I was fast or slow, it didn’t matter if I couldn’t ride something, because it was ok to get off a run sections. And the whole time I had people cheering for me, no matter if I finished first or last. 

I guess I didn’t have an ethereal moment or an epiphany that inspired me. I had just managed to find the specific discipline of cycling that I found really fun. 

That love of cyclocross expanded quickly to include road and eventually mountain biking too. I compete across all disciplines and finding those new challenges continues to keep me inspired.

What MOTIVATES you to stay Cycling? Even through those brisk high country winters?

Racing motivates me a lot, and I have very high expectations of myself.

I didn’t start riding a bike, I started racing a bike. My first real foray into cycling was racing a local cyclocross race held by Manly Warringah Cycling Club at Terrey Hills. I followed up with another cyclocross race the following weekend, and two weeks after that I raced the Cyclocross State Championships in Newcastle. I did not throw a leg over a bike between those races. I didn’t do well - but that didn’t matter to me, I loved the atmosphere of the racing. 

So that racing is a big part of my why, and underpins my motivation to ride, even when it’s -8° and completely dark in the middle of the High Country winter.

Right now, with no racing for the foreseeable future, I am having to explore different motivations. Those motivations vary from day to day but centre around my love of exploring and freedom, setting myself a challenge or learning a new skill - especially on the mtb. My motivation has definitely been challenged more than ever at this time - but it is times like these that make you a stronger and more formidable rider. 

Fiona at the Australian National CX championship

What do you think is your biggest asset?

In my early days of racing cyclocross  - and sometimes even still now when it comes to mountain biking, my naivety has been an asset. Having spent years watching Australias best cyclocross (and mtb) athletes race, I’ve often found myself blindly assuming I can do what they can do because they make everything look so easy and smooth. My skills from the beginning probably outweighed my fitness, I could dismount and remount, (essential in cyclocross) I learnt to jump barriers and was the only female athlete to do so in 2019. Simply because I assumed I could or should be able to do those things. 

Fiona at the 2019 MMAC Tasmania Training camp. Photo: MozImage

Now I believe it is my relentless attitude. I love to do bulk miles, tough gravel rides, big climbs, head for the snow, ride in the rain, ridiculous interval sessions. If I commit to ride - no matter the weather, no matter the circumstance you won’t have to double-check with me, I will be there. It pays dividends when it comes to racing - In all my years of cyclocross racing I have only had 2 DNF’s - one was due to a flat and I had no spare wheels or bike in the pits. The second was an unfixable mechanical. I have finished races with a broken finger, a torn rotator cuffs...I once even finished a race after crashing and breaking a vertebra. Because if you quit when it’s easy, then it’s easy to quit when it’s hard.

Challenges are an inevitable part of life, what has helped you the most through times of adversity?

Grab a cup of tea I have a story for you, one that I hope can give everyone some perspective to the challenges they are facing - or perhaps some hope that whatever they are going through will have a light at the end of the tunnel.

In August of 2011, Garry and I went to Europe, as I had a won a 10 day cycling holiday through the Pyrenees -  I was no cyclist, but I had a bike and I like to throw myself into a challenge... besides there was going to be a sag wagon! We decided to add on a few extra weeks to explore the Dolomites and the Alpes. I grovelled through some insane rides, the Sella Ronda, mountain biking in Livigno, often wondering what was to become of me when we got to the Pyrenees.

But I never found out. Because a week into our holiday, Garry was hit by a car as he was descending the Col de la Bonette in France. I arrived moments later in the car - seeing his broken body on the road. Lucky to still be alive, he was airlifted to a hospital 200kms away. I spent the following 2 hours, as I drove myself to that hospital, wondering if he would be alive when I got there. 

His list of injuries seemed never-ending. He was in a coma with brain damage, broken back, broken leg, broken elbow, broken ribs, a punctured lung, nerve damage in his neck, arm, hand, leg and foot…multiple surgeries and a myriad of complications ensued. It was like living in a complete nightmare for 7 weeks while he was in a French hospital where nobody spoke English and no one could communicate what was happening to me. It was the most traumatic and stressful time of my life.

When we eventually came home, the nightmare seemed to continue for another 18months. Doctors, specialists, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, more surgeries, more complications, more problems.

The nerve damage in his hand was so severe he had no movement from his wrist to his fingers, the nerve damage in his foot also left it without movement or feeling. His brain damage had caused mood, personality and concentration changes. 

And to really top it off, about 2 months later I was diagnosed with PTSD because of the experience. 

I watched someone who I knew as an amazingly fit and healthy athlete have to learn how to walk again, how to do a button up on a shirt, how to focus long enough to read and understand a page in a book. 

They said he would probably never ride a bike again, but Garry was adamant he would not only ride but he would be back to racing. I have never seen someone so driven by a goal to make the impossible, possible. It was a long and arduous journey, for both of us, but we eventually saw the fruits of all that hard work. Since then he has raced four cyclocross World Championships and I can’t even remember how many cyclocross World Cups. 

What did I do to get through this - Two things: I focused heavily on solutions and knowledge. I read and watched everything I could about the injuries, the surgeries, the medications, the recovery process, the specialists, alternate therapies. I simply tried to understand all I could and it gave me back some form of control over the situation.

Secondly, I realised it was ok to feel all the emotions that were running through me, and let me tell you it was a rollercoaster. The more I tried to push them down the more they wanted to bubble over. So I let them play out, I talked about them with some of my patient and loving family and friends as well as a medical professional.

Now, whenever I am faced with a challenge -  I have an immediate reference to bring it into perspective, and when I do this I realise I have the strength and ability to get through anything. 

Fiona on her home roads around Bright, Victoria.

Any advice you have heard that has stuck with you over the years?

I’m going to share something I learnt from when I was young and something I heard not long ago that I find simple yet profound.

My dad was an amazing athlete at whatever he did, running, soccer, cricket, motorbikes...and now mountain biking, we had a room in our house filled with his trophies and medals. But he always had this mantra - as long as you’re having fun. I can tell him about a ride, a club race or even racing a world cup and no matter the result he always says “as long as you’re having fun”. I think this is such an important message - you have to love what you’re doing or what it’s bringing to you - otherwise, it’s time to reassess what you are doing.

This is one I heard quite recently from a teammate of mine, Stacey Reidel, and it was told to her by one of her old coaches.

Control the controllable.

This really resonates with me, especially in what we are experiencing in 2020. I’ve found myself repeating it when I’m frustrated or overwhelmed with something - It allows me to focus on what I can control and just let the rest go. 

Photography: Matt Slade, Andy Rogers, Ben Lehner, MozImage