Are You Living It?

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

My Cousin-In-Law, Geoff Krill, head’s this program. My cousin (his wife) Heather sent this out - I hope you’ll all consider this great cause!!!

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Hello friends,

I’ve always said that I’d rather be an athlete with more determination and will than talent and ability. And time after time, performance testing assures me that that is, indeed, the case. Once again, my bike test this morning humbled me (ok, humiliated me) - to the point where I tried to do it again this afternoon (my legs quickly reminded me why this is not testing protocol).

nice list…

picture from the top of Mt. Diablo, I decided to be ’spontaneous’ and do both sides of the mountain… that or I’m just flat out crazy.

Let’s face it…if there are two things that stay the same for me at the start of every year, it’s that I’ve got big plans and too many irons in the fire. This year is no different; it holds my intention to get my USAT coaching license, work at growing my knowledge base in teaching swim technique, biking skills, nutrition, and exercise testing, continue and expand the success of TriROK while fundraising for the Wellspring House, and kick butt in my sprint races. All that gets balanced with (read comes second to) being the best mom and partner that I can be, and continuing to try to lighten our lifestyles footprint on the planet (read put the old engineering degree to work on chicken coops, gardens, and sustainable systems).

This is my first time to travel to Europe for Cyclocross. When I arrived in Belgium, I knew that it would be one of the most challenging racing experiences ever and it has proven to be. The racing is so fast, grueling and difficult. It isn’t only the racing that makes you completely deteriorate, it is everything combined with the racing. It is the entire immersion into the most hardcore Cyclocross culture in the world. It’s the same routine day in day out. The same Ham and Cheese sandwich for every meal. On top of all that, it is the fans that despise you when you are competing against the Belgian greats.
The Belgian fans are completely different than the fans from the US. At each race this week there has been a minimum of 10,000 spectators and at the World Cup in Zolder there were over 20,000 fans. These fans are crazy for cross. Cyclocross is the NASCAR of Belgium. The fans wear jackets that have their beloved riders on them. I am Supporter of “Sven Nys” or “Bart Wellens” is embroidered on the back. I have yet to see a Belgian wearing a jacket that says supporter of “Troy Wells” or “Jeremy Powers”.
I have never felt so much pressure to perform even when warming up on the course. You are constantly under the microscope. Today during my warm up at the Grand Prix of Sven Nys , I kept trying to ride a stair step section and failing. It was very challenging and I practiced a few times. Each time they are watching your every move. How you approach it, what gear you are in and the speeds you take. Each fan is constantly analyzing you to see if you are going to beat their rider. Keep in mind that you are not there favorite rider, so they want you to fail. The ability to block them out and completely focus is something I have yet to learn. When we are racing it is easy to just race and stay focused. When you are warming up it is different and hard to block out the 50 yard Belgian stare.
Here in the heart of Cyclocross land, spectators pay between 10 20 Euro(Probably around $30 US) to watch you crash in the barriers. In America they cheer because you are a good sport for picking yourself up and going on. When you crash in Belgium, the fans cheer not because you picked your pile of bones up, but because you are broken and bleeding and they love it. When you are not leading the race, you are getting heckled and yelled at by the drunks.
The beer garden is flowing like the Colorado River at the crack of dawn on the course as the races start early and all of them are watched. The most important is the Elite Men’s race, but the U23 is often one of the most exciting races and the fans are on their way to top levels of intoxication. When the Elite races comes around these fans are saturated with more Belgian Beers than you will find on tap at any bar in America and screaming for you to suffer like a dog. It’s a good thing I can’t understand a word that they are saying, because surely what is coming out of their mouths, other than the rank of beer and cigarettes, isn’t supportive.
There is nothing like being completely gassed on a climb or through a run up and sucking in the cigarette smoke. While we are racing, everyone is drinking and smoking watching you in pain. We are completely flat out, gasping for oxygen, trying to keep the legs turning and inhale some nasty expired Belgian Cigarette smoke mixed with partially digested beer. You just keep going and after a few minutes of sucking in that stale air you are used to it, keep the head up, focused as you plow through the beer cups on your way through the crazy fans.

From Daniel Gilbert of Harvard to Martin Seligman of Princeton, the “happiness” (self-reported well-being) researchers seem to agree on one thing: meal time with friends and loved ones is a direct predictor of happiness. Have at least one 2-3-hour dinner and/or drinks per week — yes, 2-3 hours — with those who make you smile and feel good.
Check this blog for more good ideas~ Thefourhourworkweek.com

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

~Neil Gaiman

“If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.”

It’s hard to say about a year during which so many people have suffered, but from my standpoint, 2008 was a transformational and uplifting journey. Of course it had its dark moments, from my pre-IM bulging disk to my post-IM blues, but if those are the biggest things I had to complain about, well, I was doing pretty well.