Orla Walsh was not exactly an emblem of good health. Back in 2014, then 25 years old and juggling work and grad school in Dublin, she mostly ate on the go—“quick, easy food like deli sandwiches,” she told Bicycling. Her weekends were spent at bars and clubs, she smoked heavily, and the gym was a foreign concept. “I did not exercise at all,” she said.

That changed the following year, when Walsh needed a convenient, reliable, and budget-friendly way to get to and from class. Driving was expensive, and public transportation in the Irish capital, she said, “left much to be desired.” She turned instead to cycling.

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At first, she was skeptical. “I didn’t like the idea of looking like one of those ‘Lycra-clad idiots,’” Walsh joked in a personal essay published last year. But as soon as she gave it a go, she was hooked. Suddenly the six miles she had to cover on her commute each way didn’t seem like so much.

“My initial reaction to it was, ‘Wow, I can’t believe how quick and easy that was,’” Walsh told Bicycling. “The more I cycled, the easier it got, and I started getting faster. I think what I enjoyed the most was the freedom the bike gave me.”

In early 2016, she took the next step and joined a local cycling club, where she participated in long group spins. But something deeper was happening at the same time. As her weekly mileage increased, her unhealthy habits fell by the wayside. She stopped smoking—“I gradually lost interest in that bad habit when I started gaining more interest in training”—cleaned up her diet, and cut back on nights out at the bar.

Then, thanks to the encouragement of fellow club members, she tried open road racing. At first, she was crushed by the competition, getting “dropped by the bunch on every climb, and in one case I finished solo 20 minutes behind everyone.” Yet she kept pushing, taking the failures in stride and viewing them as learning experiences.

“I was enjoying the challenge and was confident that if I kept persisting, I would get better,” she said.

She was right. Six months ago, Walsh left her job as a designer to train full time as a track and road cyclist with the women’s elite national squad in Ireland. She splits her time living and training between Dublin and Mallorca, Spain, and her six-days-a-week training regimen means nutrition is now a top priority.

“I have to properly fuel before, during, and after training,” she said. Deli sandwiches no longer make the cut. Instead, “one of my favorite meals is a big bowl of oats with nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and yogurt.”

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As for her free time, it’s now decidedly more low-key: recovering from training, having coffee with friends, doing yoga, and watching movies. “I want to see how far I can go in this sport and I’ll keeping pushing myself so long as I’m still enjoying the experience,” she said.

And to others who want to start cycling but may feel hesitant, she said, “my best advice is to find a local cycling club and join their beginner spins. It’s sociable and welcoming, so you should have no reason to feel intimidated.”

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