Race # 3: Tour of Page County

The Tour of Page County Stage Race was held in Luray, Virignia.

Luray, Virginia is a very hilly town, so that meant that every race included a whole lot of climbing. (Hills, Hills, and more Hills.)

For those of you who are new to racing like myself, this race included three different races: The Road Race, A Time Trial, and A Criterium. The scores were combined for all three races, and prizes were given to the top racers.

Team VeloWorks Warming Up Before The Race!

The Road Race was on Saturday, and it was about 42 miles of hills. I started off strong, but eventually I got dropped by the group, but I was determined to finish. I pedaled and pedaled and prayed. After over two hours, close to 33 miles, and over 1,000 calories, I finally made it to the finish line. When I got to the finish line, you should have heard the people screaming my name. My body was exhausted but my soul was content.

I finished last, but I was happy just to be in the race.

Right after the race with my teammate Lydia and her daughter!

The next race was the morning after the Road Race. This race was called the Timed Trial race, and each cyclist was given a time to start. My start time was 7:51AM. We rode approximately nine miles, and the nine miles were timed. I loved this race, because it was basically me and my bike trying to go as fast as we could. It took me over 30 minutes, I placed last, but I was happy to be in the race and to complete it.

After this race at about 1:30, there was The Criterium. The Criterium was basically riding a .8 mile circuit for a whole bunch of times. Before this race, I must admit that I was already exhausted, but there was no way that I could go home without competing in this race. 

Well, I rode and rode and pedaled and pedaled... I did about seven laps and then I was told that my race was over. (Relieved!)

I thoroughly enjoyed The Criterium, because I rode up this same hill seven damn times and did not quit. 

Yep, I was last, but I was in the race.

There is only way to go from here and that's UP!

I am falling completely in love with this amazing sport, and falling in love feels so good.

By the way, I must give a shoutout to my awesome team and to my friend, Patrice; their support and laughter made those hills so much more bearable.

Until the next time.....

Three WHOLE Years of Working Out With the Greatest Trainer in the World... AND It's All About the TRAINER!!!

Today marks THREE WHOLE YEARS that I have been working out with the The Greatest Trainer in the World, and I can not even began to explain how my life has changed. (I wouldn't take nothing for this journey.)

I started this health journey just wanting to lose weight.....

However, once I started working out with Berhane, the Greatest Trainer in the World, I finally got that this is about much more than losing weight; this is about being fit and healthy, which leads to some incredible happiness!

I have been trained by other trainers before, and not one of them ever talked to me about my body fat, what I was eating, my lifestyle, knowing my numbers etc. All that they did was workout with me; therefore, I never saw results.

However, Berhane helps me to focus on the important things: diet, lifestyle, and fitness.

Berhane accepts no excuses and neither do I, and that's why we are a great combination.

We often talk about commitment, and My People, I am the commitment type and so is Berhane. I have been working out with him for THREE WHOLE YEARS, and he has never canceled for no reason.... maybe snow, but that has been one or two times in the three years that I have been working out with him. He is never sick or late; he makes no excuses EVER!

Berhane works himself just as hard as he works his clients, and he religiously eat things that are good for his body. He lives the life that he wants his clients to live.

Yea, there are lots of trainers in the world, but we need people and trainers in our lives who encourage us to be our very best without making excuses. And, that is what Berhane does consistently...

Because of him, my fitness levels continue to increase, and my energy and happiness levels are to the roof, literally!

Not sure if I could have done this total mind and body transformation without him! (People Need Other People!)

So, on my 3rd Year Anniversary, I am honoring the Greatest Trainer in the World, Berhane, who expects me, and all of his clients, to be all that we can be.

Consider surrounding yourself with people who expect you to be your very best.....

You owe it to yourself to live the rest of your life as A CHAMPION!

Read my one year anniversary blog here.
Read my two year anniversary blog here.
Go to Berhane's website here.

A Champion....

After I read the above quote, I thought a lot about what it means to be A Champion, and I started to do some research...

I found this article:

The Mindset of a Champion

• by Carol DweckLewis & Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology

There are things that distinguish great athletes—champions—from others. Most of the sports world thinks it’s their talent, but I will argue that it’s their mindset. This idea is brought to life by the story of Billy Beane, told so well by Michael Lewis in the book Moneyball (Lewis, 2003). When Beane was in high school, he was in fact a huge talent–what they call a “natural.” He was the star of the basketball team, the football team, and the baseball team–and he was all of these things without much effort. People thought he was the new Babe Ruth.

However, as soon as anything went wrong, Beane lost it. He didn’t know how to learn from his mistakes, nor did he know how to practice to improve. Why? Because naturals shouldn’t make mistakes or need practice. When Beane moved up to baseball’s major leagues, things got progressively worse. Every at-bat was a do-or-die situation and with every out he fell apart yet again.  If you’re a natural, you believe that you shouldn’t have deficiencies, so you can’t face them and coach or practice them away.

Beane’s contempt for learning and his inability to function in the face of setbacks—where did this come from? With avid practice and the right coaching he could have been one of the greats. Why didn’t he seek that? I will show how his behavior comes right out of his mindset.

MINDSETS

In my work, I have identified two mindsets about ability that people may hold (Dweck, 1999; Dweck, 2006; Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Some hold a fixed mindset, in which they see abilities as fixed traits. In this view, talents are gifts—you either have them or you don’t.

Other people, in contrast, hold a growth mindset of ability. They believe that people can cultivate their abilities. In other words, they view talents as potentialities that can be developed through practice. It’s not that people holding this mindset deny differences among people. They don’t deny that some people may be better or faster than others at acquiring certain skills, but what they focus on is the idea that everyone can get better over time.

After I read this article, I think that is appropriate to apply these two mindsets to not only sports, but to other areas of our lives as well.

I have noticed students who feel that they should not take an advance class if the subject matter does not come easily to them. They do not believe that they can cultivate their ability. I am noticing more and more students and people, in general, who do not believe that if you do something over and over that they will get better. There seems to be this attitude of either I have it or I don't...

I have been around some really awesome people lately; people who are taking their lives to new levels, and the thing that all of these people have in common is that they are all working their butts off to improve their skills.

My cycling teammate, Kaitlyn, is such a strong cyclist. I look at her and marvel and think to myself that one day I am going to ride like Kaitlyn. One part of my mind says that you will never be a strong cyclist like Kaitlyn, but the other side of mind says that one day you will ride as strong as Kaitlyn.

I could assume that Kaitlyn has natural abilities, and I believe that she does, but I also know that she works her butt off.

Last night we did an awfully hilly ride, I am definitely improving, but Kaitlyn was killing those hills. I just looked at her and thought: "One day I will be killing those hills as well."

After that ride, I sent Kaitlyn a message, and I asked, "How did you get so good on those hills?"

Kaitlyn replied, "Repeats and making myself suffer and then suffer again and then suffer again. Half of bike racing is learning how much suffering you can take and then making yourself suffer even more." (Sounds like a Champion doesn't she? Well, she is.)

I don't know about you, but when I leave this earth, I want to leave as a Champion. I want to leave here knowing that I did not shy away from challenges, I cultivated my abilities, I pushed myself to the limit, I encouraged others to reach their highest potential...

I am going to keep suffering and growing so that I can live the rest of my life as a Champion! (Suffering ain't always a bad thing!)

Oh, To Be A Champion......

My Champion!

Quicksand by Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was a Harlem Renaissance writer who came from a mixed lineage: White Danish mother and Black West Indian dad. Larsen dealt with the feeling of isolation and loneliness throughout her life, and it is believed that Quicksand is inspired by her experience of being mixed and living in Harlem, the Southern states, and abroad.

The protagonist in the story, Helga Crane, suffers from being dissatisfied. She was working at a Black college in the South, and she abruptly left because she was not satisfied; she move to Chicago and New York and was not satisfied in either place; She moved to Denmark and found no satisfaction there either. When she lived among blacks, she longed to experience the White side of her soul; but when she lived among Whites, she missed being around Black people.

Eventually, she finds God, marries a preacher, and moves to the South with him. She starts to have children and is always tired and sick and falls into a depression, because she was in Quicksand. There was no way for her to escape her current life, racial identity, social class, and sexism that she had tried to fight her entire life.

This book is thought-provoking and well-written.

I highly recommend it......

Nella Larsen should be a household name!

Nella Larsen

Hallowed Be Thy Name!

Today, Easter Sunday, I am going to share the words to one of favorite songs: "Hallowed Be Thy Name." I hope that these words offer to you the same peace and joy that they offer to me....

You are Love

You are Life

You are Lord over Everything

Alpha 

Omega

Jehovah

The King of Kings

Wonderful Way Maker

Worthy of My Offerings

Hallowed Be Thine Name!

You're the answer to all of my problems and you solve them.

You supply all my needs and I call you our father.

You're a might fortress in the time of tribulation.

And, I am more than a conqueror in every situation.

Hallowed Be Thine Name!

You're the only God and there will never be another.

Ten thousand angels couldn't say how much I love you.

So I'm gonna lift you up Lord

Higher and Higher.

And all the world will see how you set my soul on fire.

Hallowed Be Thy Name!

By 

Ron Kenoly

Enjoy this Easter Sunday and Everyday!!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The very first novel that I ever taught a very, very, long time age, back in Detroit, Michigan was Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Back then, I absolutely loved that novel and taught it with my whole heart.

At my current school, Things Fall Apart is a novel that we teach to our 10th graders, and I am super excited to be able to teach this novel again.

I just finished reading it again, and it is still as captivating to me as it was many years ago.

The novel is set in the 1890s in Nigeria and portrays the clash between the Christian belief and the Nigerian culture. The Christians wanted to show the Nigerians that things such as leaving twins in the woods to die was wrong, that there is only one God, that there was nothing evil about the evil forest. However, the Nigerians had traditions that they have had for a very long time, and many wanted to maintain them.

Chinua does a great job of helping the reader to understand the Nigerian culture and it's people. I totally empathized with them, but I could also see the Christian side of things as well. I wonder if there is a way to merge new thinking with old thinking and everybody be happy....

This book made me think about change and how change is very difficult for individual people, and it is definitely difficult for a collective group. Also, I thought about the idea that even when people's intentions are good, Things Can Fall Apart.

What I love about this novel the most is that after reading it, I have a lot to think about, and I am grappling with the idea of if it is ok to let people live the way they want to or should there be interventions in place to help people see things from a different perspective.

This is a novel that can spark great conversations because Achebe does not give us a clear answer.

I am excited for next week, because I will be reading this novel with my students, and I can't wait to hear their thoughts!

My People, this is a novel that I highly recommend...It's a quick read, but packed with lots to think about....

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

This is the Day... Rejoice and Be Glad!

My next read is Quicksand by Nella Larsen.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

One of the many joys of Spring Break is being able to get up and read a book and drink a cup of coffee with absolutely no place to go....

So, with this time to read, I finished reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie!

I was first introduced to Chimamanda through her Ted talk, and then I read her novel Half of a Yellow Sun. I was completely captivated by both, and I knew that I wanted to read more things that were written by Chimamanda. Check out the blog post and Ted Talk here!

Americanah is a novel about a Nigerian girl, Ifemelu, who moves to American to attend college. She finishes college, has two good relationship, and writes a blog that earns her lots of money and makes her well-known. However, after much thought, Ifemelu decides to move back to Nigeria.

Chimamanda tells a great story, and she touches on many things such as hair braiding shops, immigration, the desire to fit into a new culture, the election of President Barack Obama, how Africans feel about African Americans, love, class within Nigeria, the complexity of moving back to ones native country and so on....At times, I felt that there was an overkill of topics that did not necessary take away from the story line but did not exactly add to the story line either.

Reading this book, I thought a lot about taking a journey, and this theme has come up quite often in a lot of the readings that I have been doing this school year. And, like many other characters in literature, Ifemelu was forced to take a journey in order to grow.

I wonder if God is trying to send me some kind of message....Hmmmmmm

This is a book that I think you should add to your listing if for no other reason besides the fact that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a hot topic right now.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My next read is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.. Consider joining me!