The moment you've all be waiting for on the edges of your seats, a summary of my happenings with part II of my training down in Tucson this winter .... well maybe not but enjoy. And remember if anything I hope you again take away just how grateful I am to be continuously be inspired by the people around me. As Andy Warhol puts it "The world fascinates me."

This Time Around

I'll open this time with my delight to find out that I can now pack my bike into a travel bike box in under 15mins. Progress! For reference it took me over an hour last time. Thanks again to Justin, for letting me borrow your bike box to travel with.

This time consisted of a total of 11 days of training and I again was fortunate the have Homestretch house me while I was down there. My objective during these 11 days was to: rack up some solid kms, join some "race pace" group rides and riding with one of my teammates who was joining my down in Tucson for a few days.

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I was keen this time around to see how much I could push myself, while continuing to listen to my body. Continuing to expand on my knowledge of the difference between pushing myself and harming myself. This doesn't happen overnight and I am still constantly learning new things about how I adapt to different stresses but listen to my body doesn't rely on data, numbers, or pushing myself to burnouts. I continue to work on understanding the difference between I don't feel like doing this and I can't do this. Pushing myself to my limits doesn't mean breaking myself. Stress, rest, repeat. Reflect, move forward. If I fail don't blame and list excuses, embrace the failure, reflect on it and grow through it. Learn from failure, move forward and try again. Failure is inevitable towards growth. Learn to accept it. The process isn't perfect, it can be messy, but I feel it's worth it as long as my passion and dive continuous to pave the way.

Fun socks always put a smile on my face. This ride was powered by pink flamingos.

More beautiful multi use paths in Tucson

It's amazing what surrounding yourself with passionate driven people can do. The environment that Homestretch presented with a group of Elite and Pro cyclists was more than ideal. Days consisted of waking up working (tidbit: I work for a civil engineering consulting firm based in Ontario, shout out to Ainley Group), then heading out for training, then back to the house for dinner and most evenings everyone in the house would sit down and have dinner together before either getting back to work or recovering a bit before bed. These dinners where great, they were an opportunity to discuss anything and everything and get to know each other. Topics ranged from:

• Racing and training stories, the good, the bad, the ugly and the amazing
• Past, present and future of women's cycling
• How talented Taylor Swift is.... this discussion may have arisen after watch the T-Swift documentary.
• What a coven is. Google it.
• How we got to where we are today. The majority of us did not start out in cycling. Listening to everyone's backgrounds was intriguing and an example of transferable skills and knowledge, and the passion for sport.

In it together; there's something to be said about being in a house and thinking damn that was a hard training session to get back to the house shower and getting something to eat when a housemate walks in from her training session and looks just as zonked as you were. And with few words just have an understanding and respect for each other. One of those memorable days was when everyone in the house all did 6hr ride days, and not altogether. As my teammate puts it #6hrridesarethenewthing #itsallaboutthebase. Will this ever trend?... to be determined.

Shout out to Cindy, Leah, Kristen, Gabby, and Lindsay for being badass ladies. And to Kathryn and Lauren for keeping the house and us all in check, and for the constant support and encouragement.

Part of staying at Homestretch means being an active member of the Tucson community. This time around I was able to volunteer at Felicia's Farm (www.feliciasfarm.org/). Cindy was kind enough to make the connection and have Kristen and myself tag along.

Cindy and Kristen weeding the onion patch

Cindy feeding the weeds to the chickens

Thumbs up to weeding the onion patch