The prep has begun towards Ronse!

The preparation has started towards the 2025 World Championships which are being held in Belgium this year. I’m looking forward to returning to Belgium. Although, I’ve had some not so great races there, Belgium is where I stamped my with a bronze medal 2023. I had a very successful World Cup in Belgium this year as well. The temperatures typically are not too hot, which favors somebody like myself who does not sweat well because of my injury, in addition to a great culture of cycling in Belgium. I love going to the coast at the World Cup each year because there are amazing cycling trails and you see many many people out riding their bikes of all ages. There have been some big time able-bodied races over the years held in Ronse. Ronse is the town where the World Championships will be held. There is a huge classic race there annually that attracts World Tour professionals. When I was at the World Cup in Belgium this year we got to go drive the race course for the world championships. The course is fairly flat with a few rollers but nothing steep or long with respect to climbing. There is one short semi steep quicl climb. The only thing I don’t like is there are two quick cobble type sections. Other than that, it’s going to be an amazing time.

Preparation has already started. I am increasing the volume of training just a bit but making sure I maintain strength and intervals to keep my power numbers up. I need to continue to focus on going as hard as I can for 30 to 40 minutes. This is very good training for me. Too many miles, too many hours, without intensity, really wear me down. I’m back in the gym one to two times per week with some strength training as well working on multi joint exercises such as pulldowns and rowing mostly. Making a few component switches to my bike but if I don’t find them to be preferable I’m going to continue to use what I currently have. I’m hoping these new changes provide reduced rolling resistance, more gear options, and a little better braking power. I’m more concerned about the first versus the latter. A lot of time can be lost even on a short cobblestone section so having a tire that can roll with the cobbles versus trying to fit a circle in a square is a very good thing. I’m going to focus primarily on the time trial for he world championships and just hoping my road race performance will come along with this prioritized and focused training. As long as I keep the volume and intensity up a couple times per week I should be okay. The road races are typically one and a half to one hour and 45 minutes. But, it’s 100% go from the start in paracycling. There’s not much jockeying for position, at least in my classification.

Overall though, things are good here at home. Very grateful for the many publications that featured me after the World Cups as a result of my performances. I even got to go back to my hometown and speak at a community event about healthy living and staying focused over the lifetime. I need to make sure I avoid too many distractions. Training comes first. I’m not teaching over the summer but I’ll start preparing my fall course in the next week or so. I believe I am teaching exercise prescription and testing.

With qualification for the World Championships also came selection to the national team thesecond half of the 2025 racing season. I’ve actually already qualified for the 2026 national team as a result of my performances at the World Cups this year. Having that knowledge of my selection increases confidence and allows a much more pleasant training and preparation experience. USA cycling is taking over US paracycling in a month and I hope good changes are brought. It’ll be nice to see more performance-based selection criteria.

I’m going to leave it there for this month but look forward to sharing more to my blog next month as the preparation continues and hopefully some other positive happenings going on in my life. I’m going to go to a painting class tomorrow evening. I’ve always wanted to take a painting class and now’s the time. I’m really looking forward to it! It’s all about balance. Once again, it is all about balance.