I've been very fortunate in my cycling. My bike has taken me awesome places with ridiculous rewards but the most recent place it has brought me is the game changer. I'd like to tell you a bit about the people and the place.
I am a coach, certified with USA Cycling and have been allowed the honor of helping people change their lives through cycling. Sometimes it's helping a racer reach the next level, sometimes it's honing skills and sometimes it's teaching kids and adults to ride a bike. My most rewarding clients are the ones that work the hardest to do what you and I take for granted.
This week I am working the dream and here is the rest of my team, the coaching staff outside our facilities in the shadow of Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs
We've spent much of today and yesterday honing skills and running drills on this field that is so close to the sky you can almost touch it.
Our group of athletes is ready to roll out for the day of hard work and challenges. These are no ordinary cyclists, these are men and women of steel and grit and determination and drive that could put the rest of us to shame.
Among our athletes are current world record holders and olympic hopefuls. This young man has asked me to adopt him and I already have in my heart. I've been helping to hone his equipment and body mechanics to allow him the most efficient pedal stroke he can achieve that matches his drive and spirit and determination. I am as dedicated to him as he is to reach his goals. He wants to go to Rio in 2016 and I know he will get there.
Feel bad about your day? After his accident he didn't want to live. With one leg lost above the knee, one below, an arm that ends just after the elbow, life as he knew it was over. And he had a rough time. But then someone challenged him and told him he'd never ride a bike. Against all odds, he set out to prove them wrong and did he ever. The rest of our athletes are also ParaOlympic cycling hopefuls, some of whom already hold world titles in cycling and some in multiple sports. Yet they are still humble. They are wounded warriors and civilians, young and not so young and each has a challenge they are battling and they are winning.
Don't let the challenges fool you though, these people are no joke and can put able bodied riders to shame. And they are so eager to learn and to excel. When they pull me aside to ask about a drill or their nutrition or to work with them privately to help them achieve, they do me the greatest honor of all because by helping them and their multiply varied challenges I am developing the tools I'll need to help others and grow this sport. To think that I can show them the keys that they can use to make themselves into world champions is humbling and awesome at the same time.
Our AT, mechanic, support staff and fleet hands are all phenomenal and who wouldn't want to be part of this team?
I am here to hone my skills as I delve into a new arena that my bike has taken me in hopes that I can build more inclusive and accessible cycling at home. There are so many people who, through some misfortune or another, have put hopes of self challenge and competition and all the joys that it can bring, far from their mind and it just doesn't have to be. Let's change that.
It's late and I have another 14 hour day ahead so I gotta sleep now so I can be the best I can be for these athletes who look to me to help make them the best they can be.
I'll keep you posted.
I am a coach, certified with USA Cycling and have been allowed the honor of helping people change their lives through cycling. Sometimes it's helping a racer reach the next level, sometimes it's honing skills and sometimes it's teaching kids and adults to ride a bike. My most rewarding clients are the ones that work the hardest to do what you and I take for granted.
This week I am working the dream and here is the rest of my team, the coaching staff outside our facilities in the shadow of Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs
We've spent much of today and yesterday honing skills and running drills on this field that is so close to the sky you can almost touch it.
Our group of athletes is ready to roll out for the day of hard work and challenges. These are no ordinary cyclists, these are men and women of steel and grit and determination and drive that could put the rest of us to shame.
Among our athletes are current world record holders and olympic hopefuls. This young man has asked me to adopt him and I already have in my heart. I've been helping to hone his equipment and body mechanics to allow him the most efficient pedal stroke he can achieve that matches his drive and spirit and determination. I am as dedicated to him as he is to reach his goals. He wants to go to Rio in 2016 and I know he will get there.
Feel bad about your day? After his accident he didn't want to live. With one leg lost above the knee, one below, an arm that ends just after the elbow, life as he knew it was over. And he had a rough time. But then someone challenged him and told him he'd never ride a bike. Against all odds, he set out to prove them wrong and did he ever. The rest of our athletes are also ParaOlympic cycling hopefuls, some of whom already hold world titles in cycling and some in multiple sports. Yet they are still humble. They are wounded warriors and civilians, young and not so young and each has a challenge they are battling and they are winning.
Don't let the challenges fool you though, these people are no joke and can put able bodied riders to shame. And they are so eager to learn and to excel. When they pull me aside to ask about a drill or their nutrition or to work with them privately to help them achieve, they do me the greatest honor of all because by helping them and their multiply varied challenges I am developing the tools I'll need to help others and grow this sport. To think that I can show them the keys that they can use to make themselves into world champions is humbling and awesome at the same time.
Our AT, mechanic, support staff and fleet hands are all phenomenal and who wouldn't want to be part of this team?
I am here to hone my skills as I delve into a new arena that my bike has taken me in hopes that I can build more inclusive and accessible cycling at home. There are so many people who, through some misfortune or another, have put hopes of self challenge and competition and all the joys that it can bring, far from their mind and it just doesn't have to be. Let's change that.
It's late and I have another 14 hour day ahead so I gotta sleep now so I can be the best I can be for these athletes who look to me to help make them the best they can be.
I'll keep you posted.
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