Sports & Recreation

Acknowledgements: I again extend my deepest gratitude to the organize and all of the volunteers who made this possible. Here is how I found a new layer to my own answer to why? To my pacing buddy and fellow commiserator, thank you for being a part of this journey. 💜🚴🏼‍♀️ There are all sorts of responses when I tell someone I did an ultra endurance ride. The most common of then is expectedly a flavor of “Why in world you do that?!!” It’s something that is beyond belief–even to some of my cycling friends. This weekend I realized that my answer to the question of why has been subtly evolving. ...

I’m currently 12 days away from the biggest event and race I have ever done. The Swift Summit 200 features 326.4km of distance and 3,229m of elevation. It’s likely to be hot, and potentially smokey. Last Fall I completed my first 300km ultra-endurance ride to the Coast and back, but that was a bit less distance, 700 meters less elevation, cooler weather, and my fitness level was higher. This is the last year for the Swift Summit, and it has been a big goal to complete the 200 mile course. Almost all of my training the past month has been focused on preparing for the race, dialing in bike fit, testing different strategies, and more. I realized late last night that I finally know what an A race is.1 It has been interesting to see and experience how many different avenues I have conciously or even subconciously started to optimize in preparation for this massive event. ...

My cycling goals this year have revolved around a theme of trying new things and pushing myself in ways that had been relegated to the maybe some day category. This has included exploring gravel riding, racing, and ultra endurance. A few weeks ago I completed my third ultra endurance ride. I completed two 200km rides in the summer, but this was the first attempt at 300km. I’ve also longed to ride out to the Coast from Portland metro for years, but it always seemed out of reach. As Autumn rolled in and the days have already started getting shorter, I knew I had to commit now or face an increasing amount of time in the dark, and a higher chance of substantial rain. I enjoy riding in the dark hours and the rain, but those weren’t variables I wanted at play with such a large increase in distance and total elevation. ...

It took a lot of internal reflection and discussions to recognize that my improving performance was due to the fact that I was steadily, and somewhat aggressively, increasing my training load. In retrospect, this seems obvious and the clearest answer, but the claws of societal transphobia had latched on deep.