WHEN meeting Dame Sarah Storey, it is impossible not to feel like a massive underachiever in comparison.

This, after all, is a woman who is Britain's most decorated female Paralympian with 11 gold medals amassed across cycling and swimming.

During her illustrious career Storey has claimed 73 world records and a palmares that includes 24 world, 21 European and 140 national titles across para-sport and able-bodied events. This month saw her named on the 2015 Laureus World Sports Awards short-list in recognition of her four world cycling titles - two on the track, two on the road - won last year. And all this while juggling being a new mum and running her own women's team. To put it bluntly, Storey is awesome.

The 37-year-old has now set her sights on breaking the hour record at the Revolution Series in London next weekend. It is a feat which has hallowed status in cycling circles, with a rider pitted against the clock in a bid to cover as much ground as possible in 60 minutes.

Storey will be the first woman to attempt it since the new UCI rules were introduced last March. The existing record of 46.065km was set in 2003 by Dutch rider Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel.

The men's record has already been toppled three times in recent months. Germany's Jens Voigt set the bar of 51.110km last September. He was usurped six weeks later by Matthias Brandle of Austria who achieved 51.852km. The current incumbent is Australian Rohan Dennis who posted a blistering 52.491km this month.

Storey could land three records on Saturday with the 35-39 age group masters category and her C5 disability class also attainable. "I'm looking at it quite philosophically," she says. "It's an incredibly tough record and no-one is denying that. Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel is one of the absolute heroines of our sport. If I'm not successful it shows how hard it is; if I am successful it might kick-start it for other women to give it a go. It's a win-win situation."

Four weeks after her hour record attempt the Manchester-based rider will look to defend her 3km individual pursuit and scratch race titles at the Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn. Her next major goal will be the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in July.

Throw into the mix managing the race programme for her women's team Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International - of which Scotland's double European champion Katie Archibald is a member - and it barely leaves time to draw breath in the coming months.

Born without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb, Storey launched her stellar international sporting career as a 14-year-old swimmer when she won two golds, three silvers and a bronze at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona. She went on to compete in three more Paralympics before making the switch to cycling in 2005.

Her time as a rider has been equally, if not even more successful. In the last two Paralympics, Storey has garnered six gold medals, as well as a raft of titles at world, European and national level.

Before moving to cycling, Storey admits to questioning her own suitability. "I said: 'Should I really be a para-cyclist? There is not anything wrong with my legs.' I was then talked through the input that the upper body gives to cycling and how the technical aspect relies on two hands."

Her bike has been specially adapted to include a small hoop on the handlebars for her left hand which acts as a safety device. "The mechanics is something I didn't appreciate," she says. "I thought that you just pedalled those legs as fast as possible but there is a lot more to it.

"I think that is perhaps where some of the misunderstanding comes with people accusing me on Twitter of taking medals off really disabled athletes. I'm competing in a group of people who have a similar disability so within a Paralympic sense I'm not denying someone with no legs a medal. I guess that's part of the challenge we have in Paralympic sport in that we need to educate people in a more simplistic way."

Storey is married to fellow rider Barney, a sighted para-cycling pilot and three-time Paralympic champion. He was paired with Scotland's Neil Fachie at London 2012, the duo setting a world record to win the men's 1km time trial B.

The couple have a 20-month-old daughter, Louisa, with Storey famously training right up until the birth and going into labour after a session on the static bike in her garden. Motherhood is another element to factor into an already busy lifestyle but Storey does so with aplomb.

"It's just about logistics," she says. "I'm still breastfeeding so Louisa is travelling with me all the time. She needs me at night to settle. My mum and dad have been brilliant. I absolutely couldn't do it without them. They used to follow me around the world anyway but now they do that with Louisa. She loves the travelling. Louisa is really easy-going and adventures are right up her street."

Storey and fellow female athletes such as Jo Pavey, who won Commonwealth Games bronze and European gold last summer less than a year after giving birth to her second child, send out a powerful message that it is possible to combine motherhood and a top-flight sporting career.

"You can go all the way back to Liz McColgan winning the world championships in 1991," says Storey. "Her daughter [Eilish] is now a runner. If you think of the women in sport who have become mothers there's Denise Lewis and now Jessica Ennis-Hill. Shelley Rudman has just had her second baby and then there's Jo Pavey who has won medals in almost the twilight years of her career.

"I think sometimes we forget it can be done. I don't think we are necessarily as well set-up in British sport as we could be, although that is true in other places around the world too. People seem to assume you need to retire to have children but it is possible. It just needs organisation and understanding from the people you are working with."

Storey came close to making the British team for both the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, but had to pull back on her aspirations for the former in order to balance ambitions for the latter. She doesn't rule out targeting both again as Rio 2016 looms into view.

"It just depends on how the thinking is around the road situation in Rio," she says. "It would be nice to think I could do two completely different road time trials in Rio because I know the para-cycling one won't be quite as hilly. I do prefer hillier, challenging and technical courses. But it's not a decision down to me. All I can do is put in my best performances and see what happens."