March on!!!

March on!!!

Hi, here we go for March 2023. What is spring here in Arizona feels like summer anywhere else north of the 40th parallel around the globe as we might hit 80 today. An epic day for a 30 mile ride with intervals along Tempe Town Lake. The ride continues! I have been training hard and it is paying off which is so refreshing. I was selected to ride with Team USA in Belgium at world cup number 2 and hoping for the same for world cup 3 in Alabama.

The training rides we have been doing, myself and friends in town from Wisconsin over the past 1.5 months, have been solid. We have been in Tucson once a week training hard and tearing it up. I mean tearing it up in a literal fashion as well as my foot came out of my strap one day and drub across the concrete. It probably hurt as the top of the periosteum was visible in a nice quarter sized hole. Surprisingly though, it is healing well and almost covered up. Regardless, training did not stop.

Specifics with training have involved twice per week intervals or once per week and a day where I am trying to keep up with higher functioning riders. It is exhausting but exhilarating! I like to say you don’t need a personal best every time but continual progression over a set time frame is how you succeed. Training hard is exhausting. The rides here and there where I may feel sluggish are ok and actually needed. Hoping for a strong ride today. I’ll report back in April before heading off to Europe.

And lastly, the nutrition class I am teaching at the university has gone well so far. It is rewarding getting these students, who are less motivated, to be actively engaged in the subject. There is strength in getting to know the students and directly apply material they can relate to so it is more tangible. The students have varied backgrounds and school is less important than the sports they are at the school competing in. I think it is unique having an instructor that was and is an athlete, who has experienced very difficult times and overcome a spinal cord injury, to encourage them to increase focus on their academics as you never know what may happen in life.