I'd say today's ride was pretty good. I was killing it early on... I felt really good. The middle 30 or so miles of this 77 mile ride were a bit tough.. more from a mental perspective than anything else. My nutrition was pretty good. I think that @ ~30 miles/2-3 hours into a ride, I need to start drinking a mix of water/Gatorade. I just feel better.
I've been thinking alot lately about why I'm not super comfortable reaching out & telling my story. A good chunk of it is that I know so many people with stories like mine. Granted, signing up for a 620 mile ride w/out owning a bike & setting a huge fundraising goal is my own brand of crazy, but the rest of my story isn't so different.
I know men who race in marathons on back to back weekends. I know men/women who drive multiple hours one way to practice with their team. I've played against a few paralympians who are always ready to help out, to give pointers, to teach what they know. And so to me, what I'm doing isn't so different from people I've met. I forget that the rest of the world doesn't always know someone like me or my friends. All of us have had injuries, all of us have found a way to live a life we enjoy. I'd bet most of us would be active if we weren't in chairs, we'd still be doing crazy stuff, still would be pushing ourselves, still would be good people (or assholes, cause I've met a few of those too).
I guess what I'm getting at, is if you look around, you'll find someone like me.... and actually, you are probably more like me than you know. Once you stop focusing on the chair, you'll realize that.
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Rachel, this past weekend as we trained here in San Diego I kept in mind what your training would be like in Florida. It started out cool but the sun came out from behind the clouds and warmed up as we started to climb. Good pace by all this week.
You're learning what all cyclists do that fluids and nutrition are essential. From the first turn of your wheel start drinking and eating every 15 minutes and try to consume about 300 calories an hour. If you don't you get behind and unfortunately, you can't catch up.
Keep up the trianing.
Mike Henderson
www.findingwaystohelpothers.blogspot.com
Rachel's mom here-she accuses me of cyber-stalking. Even though it has been 13 years since her injury-her dad and I occassionally run into people who ask about her. They assume that is living with us and are amazed that she not only has gone to school, earned a PhD, but that she drives, has an apartment and lives so far from us. Our response is - why wouldn't she. People see the chair and see a disability, we just see Rachel.
Besides she is only a 2 hour flight from us.
Mom
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