Thanks to the construction crew getting mostly out of our way, we can get back to an overdue hill repeat session. We'll do a mile warm-up, speed up a bit getting back to Faith Hill, take a quick breather, and then do a couple sets of hill repeats on Faith Hill. Something like two sets of five, but weather and energy levels can help determine what each individual chooses to do.
A reminder that the
Hope For Heather "Teal Ribbon Run 5K" (and 3k family walk) is coming up on Sunday the 29th. It's been a fun race a few of us have done and several of us have supported the past couple years and hopefully we continue that tradition. Escalade said she wants us to specifically sign up under the
"Prayers for Bridgett" team. Rumor has it, this team does a champagne toast before the race and wears teal colored tutus. I do not know if that is true, or if either is a requirement. We'll figure that out later.
Some quick thoughts on the Tuff e Nuff 5k/10k challenge that TRY volunteered at:
They ended up with over 500 people for a first time event which they were very happy with.
It's amazing how much earlier you have to get up to volunteer at these things than to participate in them.
The weather was fricken cold when we first arrived - less than 40, but was warm enough (for volunteering at least) by race time. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
We made some new friends and had "a blast" supporting the race at the "mud pit" obstacle. Here are a few photos from the day:
Friend of TRY and Escalade's snowboard guide, Megan-Mack:
What the mud pit looked like, with me way in the distance:
Escalade and her new best friend Kate, who were the victims of some muddy hugs:
A glimpse at the obstacle after the mud pit called "walk on water":
And a glimpse of some competitors, I believe they called their team "past our prime, but not ready to admit it" (OK, that was our name for them):
It seemed like a fun event to do! There were a lot of laughs at our obstacle and a lot of smiles at the end.
The finale for this post is a preview of an article that will probably be published in the Baldwinsville Messenger. We get the scoop on the story as our Escalade explains what she went through mentally and physically on her trip to Colorado Springs to the Olympic Training Center. Thanks Escalade for the very interesting story:
“If your dreams don't scare you, then they're not big enough.” I might not have my sight, but my vision is as clear as could be. "Will you look back on life and say, 'I wish I had,' or 'I'm glad I did'?" said Zig Ziglar. It is very hard to set a goal that is three years away, but I have wanted to be a Paralympian since I was a little girl and I am going to do everything in my power to make it happen. I am going to set smaller long-term goals that will all lead up to my ultimate goal of Racing for Team U.S.A in Rio in 2016.
On the way to the Olympic Training Center, many different thoughts were running through my mind. I was mostly feeling excitement, but the unknown started to fill my head as I got closer and closer. Will I be able to find the bathroom? Will I make friends? What will we be doing? Will I be good enough? What type of food do they serve? Where do I sleep? The list goes on forever. When I arrived, I was sitting in the cafeteria with my dad, talking to others in the program. The girl who was going to be my roommate introduced herself. Her name was Sarah, and she was also my pilot. A pilot is the person on the front of a tandem bike. Sarah and I clicked immediately. Others in our group kept asking how long we knew each other, remarking that it seemed like we knew each other for years, and not just for a couple of hours. I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate, pilot, and now great friend. Sarah had never been on a tandem bike before, but she is a pro cyclist, so she learned extremely quickly how to navigate a bike that is totally different than the one she is used to racing. We established our means of communication and rode as if we had been riding together since we were teenagers. She alerted me when we were going left or right, stopping, slowing down, when we needed to apply more pressure to the pedals or speed up, and other things that we needed to communicate while biking. In this camp, there were two other tandem teams. Both were male teams. The other twenty people consisted of injured military or people who were paralyzed. Those who were injured in the military with traumatic brain injuries usually rode an upright single bike. The individuals, who are paralyzed, rode hand cycles. They control the whole bike with their hands and arms, and instead of pedals, they push with a rowing type motion. I met many amazing people and I was fascinated by their stories. I laughed whenever anyone would ask what my story was. Compared to a person who was blown up nine times by an I.E.D overseas, losing your sight was no big deal at all.
I was at the Olympic Training Center for a week. There was no competitiveness at all. Whenever we raced,
you could always hear others yelling “great job,” “keep it up,” and “you got this.” Every day, I woke up around 7:00, walked to the cafeteria for breakfast, went back to the room to change into my bike gear, and went outside to hop on the bike and wait for our instructions. We left the campus around 9:00, returning around 12:30. At this point, we took our showers, put normal clothes on, went to the cafeteria for lunch, came back to our rooms, put our bike gear on, and then hopped back on the bike around 2:00. Around 5:30, we returned to campus, took another shower, had dinner, and then went to our nightly meeting from 7:00-9:30. When this was all over, we went back to the dorms, and mingled with one another. At first, we talked about our stories, why we were there, and where we were from. After the first night, everyone seemed to get along as if we knew each other for more than a few days. It was like a family, each person looking out for one another, and all there for the same reasons. We would say that we put the word “fun” in the word “dysfunctional.”
Each day we had different tasks and destinations to bike to. We biked on the Air Force Academy Base, Garden of the Gods, and around Colorado Springs. We worked on our skills which included doing figure eights, tight turns, reaching for our water bottles, navigating a course with scattered cones, and other things to feel as comfortable as possible on the bike. We had three races throughout the camp. Two of these races were on the velodrome. We biked a kilo, which is three times around as fast as you possibly could. A 3K, was nine times around the track. In the 3K, the objective is to shave time off of each lap. It is very difficult to do, but Sarah and I managed to do exactly that, and each lap out of nine was faster than the previous. Prior to coming to this camp, I had no idea what a veladrome was. Sarah had explained it to me, but I was still unsure of what it looked like. Before our race, our head coach had us walk the track, to give the visually impaired or blind athletes a feel for what they would be racing on. I had no idea how steep the track was. It felt like we were going 60 mph, but we were probably in the 30’s.
Our last race was a 20K time trial. This was 12.4 miles as fast as you could on a road course. After completing these races, besides being exhausted, I felt accomplished, proud, and happy. I thought Sarah was insane when she told me that we had to warm up for about an hour before each of our races. “Why would anyone want to work out before doing a race?” We put our bike on a trainer, which is a mechanism that hooks to the back wheel to stabilize the bike. We both hopped on and did a long workout.
We had moments where we would pedal softly and just get our legs used to the movement, but other times we were pushing hard and sweating. Before the 20K time trial, we must have done three out of the four laps that we would have done on the race. I was exhausted and thought to myself, “there is no way I can do this race, I am already tired, and my legs are killing me.” All of those thoughts left my mind as soon as we were on the course, giving it our absolute best.
People always tell me that I am amazing or that I inspire them. The people I met were the type of people who inspire me. Those people fought for our country, were injured, and still have the motivation and will to keep going and race their bikes. It seems silly looking back at the things I was worried about while on my way to the training center. I could not have asked for a better, more rewarding, motivational experience. I am 100% glad I chose to attend this camp. With hard work and determination, I believe I can accomplish anything that I set my mind to. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles! Sarah and I were invited to Ohio, October 4-7, to go to a Paralympic feeder camp. At this camp, they conduct a lot of testing. They will test each of us separate, then both of us together to test our power. I am very excited for the next steps to hopefully make it on the USA National Team. I will “see” all of you at Rio in a few years.
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