Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / Pedals & Pages: The Adventures of Cyclist and Author Meaghan Hackinen

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Pedals & Pages: The Adventures of Cyclist and Author Meaghan Hackinen · Zone2Speak Podcast

0:00
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Zone to Speak podcast. We're your hosts, Debbie and Juliana.
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Music.
0:15
Hi, good morning. Hi, Megan. Hello. How are you?
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Good. What time is it over there? Like 9 a.m. Good. It's a nice time.
0:25
Okay. Yeah, it's not bad. I mean, for cyclists, come on. That's late, right? Mid morning.
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Really? Yeah, no, I'm going for a ride after this. I'm like,
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I'm gonna have to bring my like light.
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It's gonna be, you know, pushing it later in the day than usual.
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But I train indoors in the evening, and I ride outside more in the day.
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So what's your usual ride? Like, what are you planning today?
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How many hours? My last big ride before Arkansas High Country,
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and I haven't been training outdoors much because I've been busy for work and traveling.
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So I think I'm going to do a century because I like the feeling of doing a century.
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And I don't know how long it'll take six seven hours i
1:01
don't know it's on my road bike which is not the bike i'll be racing but
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the bike i'll be racing is in the shop and i'm gonna go a bit
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north of town to an area with some hopefully good
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good colors and the trees and nice views of lakes and that place i haven't ridden
1:14
this year so it'll be a treat and there's a great donut shop so you guys are
1:21
already changing collars and it's chilly british columbia a little chillier
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yeah especially at night and in the early morning, but it's still a nice summer.
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I've been in the lake twice this week and the colors are just kind of coming on pretty subtly.
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So it'll be interesting to see where we're at in an area with more,
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I guess, deciduous trees. My gosh, that's going to be beautiful.
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I think it's been too many years. I used to kind of make it a regular thing
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to try to go see the fall I'd usually go up to South Carolina,
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like Greenville, and I would plan to do the Hincapie Grand Fondo or something like that.
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I miss doing that. That was kind of like a regular thing and just seeing the
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fall leaves. It's just, it's something else, you know?
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One of the cool things about cycling is like getting to kind of tune into nature,
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whatever that is, whether it's like, you know, the fields or the clouds and the mountains.
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And I think that it's a great way to kind of experience the seasons, right?
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And really, you have time to soak things up. And it's nice to drive to places
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where there's, you know, beautiful countryside, but it's even better to experience
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it on the bike. I couldn't agree more.
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Oh, my goodness. That's one of the best things that I try to tell everybody
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about just getting on a bike is that everything just looks better on a bike. It looks clearer.
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You think better. You just see things differently, you know,
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than if you're in a car or something.
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But I lived 10 years in the Middle East. So I just moved to Girona in Spain.
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So I'm very excited to experience the seasons. I mean, I always traveled around,
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but it's different when you are emerged.
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I was even thinking now like, oh my gosh, do I have all the gear when it actually gets cold?
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I'm going to try to organize my work to try to get a ride in the middle of the day, which is warmer.
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That's a great plan. Yeah. Have you been to Girona before, Megan?
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No, I haven't. I've been to Mallorca.
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I was there in 2022 for a training camp in the 312.
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And I think like 2018, I did this bike ride from North Cape,
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Norway to Tarifa, Spain.
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So I went through Spain, but I didn't go to Girona. Wow, that must have been amazing.
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How was it? Did you like it? Yeah, the whole ride was very cool.
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And I really enjoyed my time in Spain, but it was in August and it was stinking hot.
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And yeah, I just didn't really, I just didn't really realize how hot it would
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be. And I'd look at the forecast and I'm in Celsius.
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So it would be like 36, 40 degrees like every day.
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And so I'd have to ride early in the morning and just either stop or take a
3:54
siesta somewhere and then kind of, you know, ride for an hour or two in the
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afternoon, evening, and then I would just be too hot.
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But when you're touring, it's okay to ride a few hours here and a few hours there.
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And people were really friendly to me. And yeah, I had a lovely experience. It was fun.
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Do you feel like it's always kind of that kind of experience when you're traveling
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and kind of writing somewhere new?
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Have you ever had any bad experiences with tourists? I'm sure there's not all pleasant.
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Yeah, mostly good experiences on the bike, some kind of scary moments in traffic.
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So I think when I finished in Tarifa, I was flying out of not Granada,
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but a town on the coast somewhere.
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And there's just a lot of traffic and it wasn't part of the route I had planned
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out. So I was kind of routing on the fly.
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And it seemed like either like Google was telling me to bike on the beach or
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on these really busy, like unfriendly bike roads.
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And that whole experience was not great.
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And then when I got to the hostel, I was so relieved. I rolled in late at night.
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I was there for a few days. And then I met some people in the hostel that seemed
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friendly, but ended up like I ended up having like three creepy dude experiences in two days.
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And I had been traveling on the road by myself and with someone else for like
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two months and like nothing, all positive experiences.
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And, and like, I was, you know, staying with like warm showers hosts and sleeping
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in the back of bars for siesta.
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Like I was really engaging with people, but just kind of, I wish I could remember
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the name of this town, but there was a lot of Europeans partying and just like a lot of alcohol.
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And I guess dudes who felt entitled, like when I first arrived there,
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some guy was like, Oh, let me give you a back massage. I bet you're tired.
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You've ridden across Europe. And I was like, yeah, that would be great.
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Actually. Thank you for offering. I've just showered. So I'm clean.
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And then he was like grabbing my tits after literally 45 seconds.
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I was like, Like you're not even trying to be subtle. Like, no, thanks.
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I am going to talk to someone else now.
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And it's like, I can't even, I can't even get mad because I'm so tired after
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these rides. I'm just like, God, okay, bye.
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You're just like, leave me alone. I need to go to sleep. Yeah.
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And then I was at the bar the next night with these really cool women.
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One of them had lent me shoes because there was like a no flip-flop policy.
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And that's all I had and cycling cleats. And we met another guy and he was doing
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this thing where he put like pennies or maybe like, I guess you don't have pennies
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in Europe, but a small coin down the front of a woman's shirt to see if it falls through.
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I don't understand this game, but he did it to me.
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I was just going to say, I've never heard of this one. I have no idea.
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And again, I had been on the road for a while, so I felt pretty clued out.
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So he did it to me and the coin fell through and I wasn't wearing a bra.
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And he literally just reached out and grabbed my tits again.
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And I was like, wow, twice in two days. This is unusual.
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Yeah. Waiting for the third. You know how they say everything happens
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right well the third was a little different it was
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some guy who was walking I was walking back to the hostel and he like kind of
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tried to push me up on the wall in an alley to make out with me and I just like
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ducked down like nope nope nope nope like I will walk by myself now that's not
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even funny that was the grossest one I think because like yeah that was icky.
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They're all like, we've been talking about that a little bit,
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how, you know, and it's funny, you mentioned that you were for two months traveling
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with someone, nothing happened.
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But I think the moment a woman is alone, it's such an easier prey.
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I'm sorry that happened to you. And unfortunately, it's happening to a lot of
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us when we are riding alone or not even on a bike.
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But you have done so many incredible things.
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And you're also an author. So exciting. riding I discovered bikepacking later
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in my life and it's one of my favorite things to do.
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Sometimes I just do these ultra races just as bikepacking mindset.
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So tell us like how everything started and how you started riding.
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Yeah I started riding my bike when I was a university student and I needed to
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like kind of just blow off some steam.
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I was really frustrated and I was studying archaeology and anthropology for
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my undergrad and I liked the material but I didn't feel very connected to my campus.
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I was living at home and it was about a 90 minute commute with SkyTrain and
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bus and all these transfers.
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So I would bike part of it and then take the transportation system for the rest.
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And just that little bit of cycling really changed how I experienced the day
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and I was in a better mood.
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I looked forward to my little ride at the end of the day.
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And so it didn't really take much longer to ride my bike than to take all this other transportation.
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So I'd ride farther and farther. And then the next year I was graduating and
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my sister and I decided to do this big bike trip down the Pacific coast.
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And it was our way of celebrating.
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And we had a lot of time, but not a lot of money. We were just trying to do
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everything really cheap. And we did a lot of stealth camping.
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We cooked almost all of our own food when we weren't raiding our hosts closets
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at warm showers places and like food closets.
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And we had a really wonderful experience and I wanted to share it with people
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because it felt really special to me.
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And I'd read books like On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
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And there were so many stories of adventure and travel, but most of them had
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male protagonists. And that's fine, but it's just nicer to see a version of yourself.
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So that was in 2009. And while we were writing, we thought about maybe starting a blog.
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But this was before people had smartphones all over the place.
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And so we had to go to the library to use the internet.
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And it just didn't make sense. You can't keep a blog very well from the library.
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And we didn't have great photos.
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And we had an actual camera and we didn't know how to get those photos from
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the camera onto the internet.
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We gave up on that idea. But the The following summer, I biked across Canada.
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And I knew that time I really wanted to share the experience.
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And I was riding solo most of the time. So I knew that it would be even more epic.
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And riding across Canada is one of those things that people are traveling across
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Canada or a country is something that people want to do, right?
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They want to get in a van with their friends or do it as they're retired in a motorhome.
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So I felt like other people might resonate with my experience. And so I did keep a blog.
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And I did actually use libraries and visitor centers and my host computers.
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And I figured out how to upload photos this time. I brought my little cable or whatever.
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And looking back, I'm really impressed of how well I could tell a story without having a smartphone.
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It was more challenging, but I really valued those times to sit down and write about my experience.
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And when I finished that trip, I enrolled in some distance ed creative writing classes.
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And I kind of kept that up for a few years and in between Wayne did a trip down
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the Sierra Cascades with my partner at the time into,
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yeah, we started in BC and went kind of zigzagging down the mountain range into
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Baja and then to La Paz and then took the ferry to Mazatlan and then went inland.
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And we ended up in Puerto Vallarta because that's an easy place to fly out of.
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So I kept a blog for that trip as well. And after that, one of my profs was
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like, Megan, you should do a master's degree in creative writing.
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And I was like, there is such a thing. I don't want to go back to school. I'm done with school.
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I didn't have great memories of doing my undergrad.
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And she assured me it was very different to do a master's because you're focusing
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only on what you want to do.
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And she said that I would probably end up living someplace else.
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So I wouldn't go through that terrible commuting experience every day.
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So I was accepted at the University of Saskatchewan and their creative writing program.
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And that's in the Canadian prairies. And I moved there and lived about a mile
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or less from campus. And I walked or rode my bike every day.
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And I lived with other young people who were writers. And I just had this really
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immersive education experience that I did not have when I did my undergrad.
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And I loved it. I had so much more fun. I really got to hone my craft of writing.
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I realized the stuff I wrote on my previous blogs was
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all pretty awful and not well written it was
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it's a learning experience it was it was a
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stepping stone and I think if you want to be a writer the
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first step is just to write and really find your voice and and get used to putting
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down words and so I kind of undertook that step when I was traveling and then
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I got to spend a couple of years you know kind of honing my craft and and reading
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about writing and studying it and and critiquing my colleagues',
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work and revising my own and working with a mentor.
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And at the end of that degree, I had a book-length project.
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And it was the manuscript that became South Away, The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels,
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which was my first book that published.
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And that was about that first bike trip I did with my sister. So...
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I was really excited to tell that story. I think anytime we do something the
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first time, it's very memorable.
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And that was my first big bike trips. Stuff really cemented into my brain in
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a way that hasn't from other trips.
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And I just remembered so many of the details and there was a good narrative
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arc for me understanding myself and some of the women in my life better over
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the course of these three months.
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And then there's also the journey, which was exciting in itself.
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So that was kind of how I became a writer and fell into it.
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And I definitely don't make all of my money from writing, but I get my annual
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royalty check. I get some money from the library.
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I get paid to present at events and stuff.
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And it's really an exciting thing to do.
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And I'm doing a writing residency in November for the first two weeks.
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So that's really my off season and on the bike. And I'm just excited to really
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dive into a project for 14 days and not do any other work, not have to worry
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about the bike, except to go get groceries.
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And it's going to be a real treat. Sounds like it.
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I love that. Are you going to do that locally? Or is that going to be somewhere
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that you're traveling to?
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A little bit of travel. It's on a place called Salt Spring Island,
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which is one of the Gulf Islands off of Vancouver Island.
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So it's a bit outside my region, but it's not too far. So it's more immersive.
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Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's nice to be kind of away from all of my
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friends and family so that I'm not tempted to go and socialize when I should be locked up. I agree.
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It kind of helps you get into that zone where you need to be for your writing.
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Yeah. And it's known as a really beautiful island.
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There's just a lot of opportunities to connect with nature. They've got some
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cool coastlines, some forests, some hills.
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These these lovely arbutus trees that have this peeling bark on them that's
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kind of orange, amber, red.
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And it'll be a really beautiful place. But it's also fall. It's going to rain a lot.
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So that's kind of nice in that I won't be too tempted to be running around outside all the time.
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You're probably going to be outside thinking, my bike, my bike.
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I probably will. Do you ever think that?
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It's funny. When we want to go on vacation, we tell ourselves,
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that's it. We're not going to do it. We'll think in our head.
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We'll get through maybe maybe like half of the day, and then something will go through our head.
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It's hard to really completely detach unless you're just exhausted that your
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body just needs that rest. And you have to disconnect.
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I think you're right about that. Yeah. I have...
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I've been off the bike for periods, but they're usually after a long event where
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I'm so exhausted and I just don't feel like I need to ride my bike for a few days.
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But yeah, otherwise I start craving it.
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And then I get worried about my training and I don't want to lose my power.
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But if I'm really just exhausted and mentally and physically and my body needs
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to recover, that's the time I can naturally take a break.
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Do you finish these ultras that once you finish, it's almost just like this
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release mentally, physically.
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What's your experience with that? Because everybody's is a little bit different
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or what they do afterwards to kind of ward off any of those kind of lows that might happen.
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I think my experience has been different after every one and I'm trying to understand
15:38
what to expect for myself, but it does change a little bit.
15:43
After the tour divide, that was probably the longest and hardest I've pushed
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on an event and And I've done longer races in terms of mileage and distance,
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but I think I went harder.
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So my body was protesting more when I got to the finish.
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The first thing that happened was my feet swelled up with edema and they were just absolutely huge.
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They looked like balloon feet and I couldn't wear shoes.
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So I wore flip flops for like five days and then they came back down to a normal
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size, which was a huge relief. And.
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Next thing that kind of happened was, I guess some of my injuries started just
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immediately getting better incrementally.
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So I had like a golf ball sized cyst on my ass and that just kind of disappeared,
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but it took its sweet time.
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It took like weeks and I had a bit of a knee tweak from changing my pedal stroke
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to accommodate this lump on my butt.
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And that went away a little bit quicker. It was just a few days after the bike,
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my knees felt fine. And the main thing was just this really deep fatigue and
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an inability to focus on anything for very long.
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I remember I had to do a few simple tasks.
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I had to prepare a couple of talking points for an interview with a major radio
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broadcaster, and I procrastinated all day on that. I just couldn't,
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I couldn't reflect on my experience in a like logical way.
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I could talk about stuff, but to actually put these thoughts in bullet points
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was just asking too much of myself and everything that required thought and energy took longer.
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Other times I've traveled for races, I haven't always booked my passage home when I started.
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And I was so glad I did with the tour divide because the thought of having to
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book a plane ticket was, it was out of my realm.
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But there are still logistics you have to take care of. When I finished.
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I stayed at a place called the Bike Ranch.
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And then I had to get from there in New Mexico near the border at Cheetah to
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El Paso where I had booked my flight. And it's like a three-hour drive or something.
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So luckily, a couple other finishers were traveling as well.
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And we could all find a ride together.
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We got someone to drive us on our bikes. And then making accommodations there before the flight.
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And we picked a hotel that was close to the airport or Airbnb that was close to the airport.
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So, you know, we all figured we'd just walk our bikes over and like a mile is
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a long way to carry a bike box.
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When you're tired. Oh, yeah. So I ended up getting picked up by airport security
18:09
who carried me carried me as soon as I got on the airport property,
18:13
which was very kind of them. I think they could see I was struggling.
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And here I am. You needed it. I did. I needed a little extra hand.
18:20
So yeah, so a couple of body things and then this deep fatigue.
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And in the long term, I think I had lost muscle in my glutes and legs because
18:30
of being like calorie deficient for so long, because it's just hard to keep eating.
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And then when I got home, I couldn't stop eating because I was so hungry from,
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you know, working and just so, so much in a calorie deficit.
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But I just kind of, I feel like lost control. And I just was eating all of the
18:48
time, like double portions.
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And after about a month, it took me about a month for me to start to be able
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to listen to my body and realize like, you know, I'm actually hungry,
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or I'm just eating because I'm afraid of not eating.
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And And then when I was riding a bit more seriously, I think it took a while
19:04
to build up my glute strength.
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And I wish I had done more strength training to try and work on that.
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But I kind of lumped my strength training into the winter months.
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And I just didn't really think about that.
19:15
Yeah, so I just I think I struggled with kind of my power numbers,
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getting them back up after my, you know, injuries had disappeared.
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And I guess going forward, I know maybe I need to start hitting the gym or I
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use dynamic cyclist strength and mobility workouts as well.
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So kind of doing more of those after an event to help get my body back to where
19:36
it was when I started and not just assuming that time will cure everything. Right.
19:40
And it's more a low impact on the body to do a lot of those exercises.
19:46
They're not too heavy on the strength. They're strength training,
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but they're not too heavy on the weights.
19:52
It's really good for the hips, for the mobility overall. Well,
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I wanted to say congratulations on Tour Divide. You did amazing.
20:00
It's a heck of a race. But, but,
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Given all this experience and time for you to heal, is this something you would
20:07
like to pursue again in the future?
20:09
Not to divide itself, but like this very long distance that you have to put
20:14
so much into it that you are losing muscle, getting cysts and having such a longer time to recover.
20:21
How do you feel like going forward? Would you tackle this? Yeah,
20:24
Juliana, listening to you read it back to me, like, no, I wouldn't do that again.
20:29
That's terrible. terrible so are you looking at
20:32
like i think that i will do events like
20:36
that again but i know that there is
20:38
a cost to my body so i need to really
20:41
be emotionally invested in it and and have a good training plan and goals that
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i want to achieve and just have it really well thought out and it was for the
20:51
tour divide but you know i am i'm not going to sign up on the long ultra just
20:57
on a whim or just because I need something on my race calendar.
21:00
It has to, you know, hold the promise of giving something back to me,
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whether that's like, you know, personal growth or a wonderful challenge of competing
21:09
or some incredible landscapes.
21:12
And I need to go into it very well prepared so that I can, you know,
21:17
do the best possible in the challenging circumstances.
21:20
When I did the Transcontinental in 2022, it took up so much of my time in preparation
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and racing And of course, the tour divide did as well.
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But because the transcontinental is a self navigating route,
21:34
there's checkpoints, and you have to create your route between the checkpoints.
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And that component took a very long time. And there was a lot of second guessing myself.
21:43
And then just the research of what it's like to travel through all these different countries.
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So when I, when I did that in 2022, I was pretty exhausted after,
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and I didn't want to do that the next year.
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So in 2023, I picked shorter ultras between maybe 400 and 800 kilometers.
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And they all required less planning, you know, less logistics to get to most
22:10
of them were closer to where I lived. I only flew once.
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And many of them had infrequent resupply.
22:16
So I just had to mark like two spots on the map being like, these are your only
22:19
choices for food. This is it.
22:22
And in those shorter ultras, I don't usually bring a full sleep kit or think
22:26
about that too much. I just nap as needed.
22:29
So the amount of planning is a lot less and the recovery is much quicker.
22:33
You know, after a week, I'm 90% back to normal. And you know,
22:37
usually kind of need Monday to sleep it off.
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And then Tuesday, I am, you know, a functioning human again at work and stuff.
22:43
So it was nice last year doing those shorter events and being able to be really competitive.
22:48
I think the shorter distant ultras are exciting to watch because people are
22:52
pushing a little harder. There's more lead changes sometimes.
22:55
And, you know, dot watchers can commit to watching dots for like,
22:59
you know, 48 hours where it might
23:01
be harder to watch some of those really long events as a dot watcher.
23:04
So I really got a lot out of those shorter events
23:07
but at the at the same time the epicness
23:11
of doing something like like tour divide is it makes you want to go back and
23:16
do it again because it's just so there's so much to see there in terms of landscape
23:21
and changes and it's a big chunk of the mountains right do you feel like you
23:27
got time to appreciate that I mean you do have a lot of
23:31
time on the saddle. I know some of it sounded painful.
23:34
Try to appreciate it. And even though you're racing and moving a lot quicker
23:38
than a touring cyclist, you are still moving very slow.
23:42
Like, I don't know what my average was, but it.
23:45
Wasn't more than 11 miles an hour. So compared to a vehicle,
23:49
I was wondering about that.
23:50
Yeah, it was not very quick. So you still get to kind of absorb things.
23:54
And when you're hill climbing, it's even slower.
23:56
So the tops of mountains, you really get to slow down and breathe in before
24:00
you rush down the other side.
24:02
One of the things that came to my mind whenever I got a little bit frustrated
24:06
or in a not great mental headspace was advice that Justina, who I know you interviewed,
24:12
gave me when we passed, passed away in Banff.
24:15
And he has just such a great outlook and mindset.
24:18
And I asked him, like, I'm a tour divide rookie, like, what,
24:21
what should I know? What tips do you have for me?
24:23
And he kind of laughed and said, like, just look up, you know,
24:27
when things are getting hard, look up, look at the mountains,
24:29
look at the ridgeline, like, just look at the beauty everywhere.
24:33
And, and you will feel so you'll just feel so beautiful.
24:37
And you'll start having more fun and realize how lucky you are to be here.
24:41
So that's my advice. Look up. And I tried to actively do that when I was in
24:47
not great places mentally. And it was always gorgeous.
24:50
It was always something to really take away.
24:53
And I'm so glad that I got to meet him even for a few minutes and hear that
24:58
wonderful advice that I've taken to heart.
25:00
Yeah. He's so positive. A lot of light there.
25:04
Yeah. Yeah. So going back to you bikepacking with your sister,
25:09
is this something you still want to continue to do?
25:12
Not just racing, but also bikepacking? That's a great question.
25:16
Yeah. And we didn't even call it bikepacking then.
25:18
I don't know if I heard the term until like 2017.
25:21
Yeah. We called ourselves bike tourists or bike travelers.
25:26
I do still make time for touring because I like, I like to kind of connect with
25:33
the place a bit more and, you know, meet people and spend longer than four hours at camp.
25:40
And where I live in British Columbia, there's so many great bikepacking opportunities
25:44
and places that are great to race through or great to kind of slow down.
25:49
There's a lot of rec sites that have free camping and little lakes that you
25:53
can check out and plenty of wildlife. So I did a few bike.
25:57
Packing trips that weren't races this year. A couple of them were in preparation
26:01
for the divide. I was staying with friends in San Diego.
26:05
So I did the stage coach 400 loop as a tour.
26:09
And I think I took six days and did like maybe 60 miles a day.
26:14
And the purpose of that trip was to get comfortable riding solo,
26:17
because I had done most of my trips with partners or family members and like my sister.
26:24
And I just knew that on the divide, I would be alone for a very long time.
26:27
And that kind of scared me because it's not like you're traveling in the transcontinental
26:32
where you're seeing people and communities all of the time.
26:36
You're very much out in the wilderness by yourself until you drop down into
26:40
the valleys and there'll be a small town.
26:42
So I, yeah, I got comfortable being alone.
26:46
It was the first time I used my inReach GPS device. So just testing that and
26:50
making sure I could message on that and it worked.
26:53
And I listened to some audio books and I think I picked up a book from a little
26:58
free library and read and I met folks along the way and then had to figure out
27:03
where I was sleeping each night and,
27:04
you know, making sure I timed my resupply all right. So that was a really cool experience.
27:09
Another trip I did was actually with my sister and it was the first time we
27:13
biked together since that Pacific Coast trip in 2009.
27:16
So it's 15 years. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And so we did, I think it was a 300 kilometer
27:22
loop of southern Vancouver Island.
27:24
She's like a commuting cyclist. She doesn't do big trips. She doesn't really train a lot.
27:28
So we went at her pace and it was fun.
27:31
It was fine. We rode a few hours every day, camped at really great spots, went swimming.
27:36
And she's got a really positive attitude also, you know, she doesn't get upset
27:41
if the weather isn't good or if we, you know, if the stove runs out of fluid,
27:45
she just kind of very stoically accepts things.
27:47
It's always fun traveling with
27:49
someone who looks like you because people get a kick out of you, right?
27:53
You guys twins and you sisters. Who's older? You look so much alike.
27:59
Nice. Are you alike? We're both.
28:01
I do make time for touring and just bikepacking without such a strict timeline.
28:06
And I think that helps me when I race because I know that I have spent time
28:11
relaxed and slowed down and absorbing things a bit more.
28:15
I think that means when I race, I can really just go for it.
28:18
And I know that some people face that conflict. They'll be on some gorgeous
28:21
race route and halfway through decide like, actually, I don't want to race. I want to ride this slow.
28:26
And I only have so much vacation time a year. or why am I like busting my ass through it?
28:31
And that's a really tricky thing to face midway through and all of a sudden,
28:35
you know, kind of shift gears.
28:37
And I think one thing that keeps me on track is just knowing that I have more
28:41
flexible work hours and I can spend that time touring if I want to.
28:45
So I always tell myself, you can go and tour this route. You can come back here if you want.
28:50
And, you know, easier said than done, but it's nice knowing that I have those options.
28:55
It does help. Are you full-time writer now? No, I work for the Federation of
29:01
BC Writers, so a provincial creative writing nonprofit.
29:04
And so I have a lot of communication with writers in the community.
29:07
I am the Zoom host for a lot of our events where we feature presenters.
29:12
So I'm kind of the welcoming person and moderating the chat.
29:15
And I get to sit in on these great sessions about different aspects of the craft
29:19
and business of writing.
29:20
And I host a couple of different writing groups. and I do spend a lot of time
29:25
writing and training and doing events related to writing.
29:28
I think it would be a dream to be kind of a half-time cyclist, half-time writer.
29:32
You're doing exactly what you're meant to do though, because it's quite different
29:38
than what you're expending on the bike.
29:41
So there's always some reflection there that lends its way into your writing,
29:46
for sure. Yeah, you're right about that. Definitely.
29:49
And you're very introspective. I can tell just from listening,
29:53
and I have listened to some other podcasts, and I started reading your second book.
29:57
Oh, thank you. So when I was just listening, I was like, oh,
30:00
I feel like I know her a little bit. I love it.
30:02
And I just loved the way you described it. It put me right there. I felt everything.
30:07
And I really just enjoyed so much of it, just from your descriptions to your honesty, everything.
30:14
How it starts out about your, is that your current boyfriend right now?
30:18
No, I'm on to another guy.
30:21
Okay. All right, Nat. Yeah, right. No, my life is funny in that things reappear.
30:28
I think a lot of us have these experiences where things cycle back and reappear.
30:32
And, you know, I'll work at a job for a while and then maybe move on to something
30:36
else. But then move back to the first job.
30:39
And I try not to burn bridges because you never know when these things might
30:43
pop up again. So if I leave a job, I'm very polite about it because I never
30:48
know if I might need to ask to come back.
30:51
Yeah, I cycled through a couple of terms of employment at a bakery cafe in Vancouver
30:56
and a couple of other places where I'd leave to go on adventures and then come
31:01
back maybe a year or two later after another job didn't work out.
31:05
And I guess I'm telling you this story in a roundabout
31:08
way that shifting gears coast to coast on the Trans Am
31:10
bike place takes place on my first ultra in 2017 and
31:14
I'm in a relationship with a guy in Saskatoon Tyler and
31:17
we're kind of mismatched he's a great person but we are definitely mismatched
31:22
and that's something I write about and I didn't really see it and I saw it a
31:25
little bit at the time but in reflection all of these things become very very
31:30
clear that you can't see because you're just kind of in love or lust or whatever whatever.
31:34
I'm seeing some of it in some of the transitions now.
31:38
As you're becoming more comfortable with your independence, I can see you coming
31:45
into your own a little differently and seeing things more clearly in the book.
31:49
Yeah, and I think that's from being on the bike and having the time to reflect. Yeah.
31:54
In the book, I kind of start to feel emotionally connected to another cyclist
32:00
I'm riding with, Matthias from Germany.
32:02
And we have a- I knew it. Yeah. We ended up kind of in a romance for a little
32:08
bit and things didn't work out.
32:10
I'm sorry to spoil the ending for you, but- That's okay.
32:13
Hey, it's all about the journey. It doesn't always have to work out.
32:16
There's a story in everything. Yeah, exactly.
32:19
And I kind of talk about that near the end. And the guy I'm dating now,
32:23
I met on the eve of the Trans Am bike race in 2017, when I was with that first
32:28
guy, Tyler, and my current partner, James lives in Portland.
32:33
And we met in in Portland when he came out to meet the racers.
32:36
And we were in very different circumstances.
32:39
He was he was married, I was dating a guy in Saskatoon. And then,
32:42
yes, over the next couple years, our relationship status has changed a couple times.
32:47
And we had a chance to connect as crew members for a race across cross America team.
32:53
So he was the RV driver and I was one of the follow vehicle drivers for a group
32:57
of four women from the UK who were trying to be the fastest all female team.
33:01
And we kind of like got into each other when we were, you know,
33:05
in this RV crew situation where it's very uncomfortable.
33:09
You're not very clean. You're surrounded by other people and you're supporting
33:12
these racers who are pushing as hard as they can.
33:15
So they're exhausted and grumpy all all the time and I never made the right sandwiches for them.
33:19
And we just really connected over this experience and yeah, somehow managed
33:25
the pandemic long distance.
33:26
And yeah, we're still together. That's pretty huge.
33:30
Yeah. That's a testament right there. I think so. Yeah. And being together sometimes
33:35
in those kind of close quarters and seeing how other people react and seeing
33:39
how you react to that, I think it's a big eye opener.
33:44
When you travel with somebody, kind of opens your eyes. You see a lot of things.
33:49
Yeah. You learn a lot about the person. Yeah. It's not the same as just going
33:53
out for dinner or hanging out here and there.
33:55
The first time I did a pair cycling, our friend and I, we said to each other,
34:01
we're never going to speak again or we're going to be best friends.
34:06
Because it's really make it or break it because you are together for such a long time.
34:11
You need to respect each other's moods and strengths and weaknesses and problems do come up.
34:17
Or like you said, with your sister, you run out of gas or the weather is bad.
34:20
And if you can handle that well, it just makes an easier journey.
34:24
Well, we're still friends. We're still pairing.
34:27
But it's exciting to hear other experiences because a lot of cyclists go solo.
34:32
So it's great to hear your experience, Meg, with others. For sure.
34:35
And I thought about wanting to do a pair because I've had some hard experiences
34:40
at night and, you know, in challenging circumstances.
34:43
And I thought, wow, it'd be nice to have someone else right now to ride with.
34:47
That would be a huge boost, you know.
34:49
And James and I did some riding together this summer. And we get along well
34:54
touring, but I think our race paces are not evenly matched.
34:57
So we're not going to ever be a pair racing.
35:00
Because like you said, it's either going to make it or break it.
35:02
We're going to be married at the end of it, or we're going to break up.
35:07
It's too much on the line, man. It's too much on the line.
35:10
So I think if I did race as a pair, I would really find somebody else who is
35:14
really compatible with me and complimentary to me as well.
35:18
And we'll see if that happens or not. I don't think I need to race as a pair,
35:21
but I'm just, I'm curious about it. It's a very different type of racing, right?
35:25
Yeah. I've thought about that, what it would be like. Those are cons.
35:29
Like you said, Juliette and I, we're very complimentary to each other.
35:33
We get along really well. But obviously, there are cons in the sense of you
35:38
have twice as chances of getting a flat tire. That's a good one. Because you are two.
35:43
And you have twice as chance of having any mechanicals. Luckily,
35:47
we always wanted to go to the bathroom, eat at the same time. But what if not?
35:51
Then you have to stop to wait for the other person and little details that can
35:55
get in your nerves if it's not insane.
35:59
Yeah, I could definitely see that. And it was Juliana and Juliet.
36:02
Yet those were your names you know right how funny right jay yeah that's really
36:06
funny baby so are you planning on a next book yeah i have two ideas one is a
36:14
collection of personal essays about experiences on the bike and all of the loves
36:19
i have discovered through cycling so.
36:22
Like do it yeah so kind of it would be focused in different sections thematically
36:29
and i've of several essays in each section.
36:32
And essays, I don't mean like boring, like high school essays,
36:34
I just mean like standalone pieces.
36:37
Yeah, short stories. Yeah, yeah. So one would be kind of blood love and relationships
36:41
that I've built kind of with my family around the bike. And one would be romantic love.
36:46
Another would be like kind of about friendship and, and community.
36:50
And then I don't know if self love is the right word, but the relationship that
36:54
I have, you know, my own relationship with the bike and how I have changed just as an individual.
37:00
And I've spent so much time alone. I think that's probably the biggest section of it. It's amazing.
37:05
We all need to do that more. It's like journaling. That was one of the questions.
37:09
So it kind of rounds about, I was wondering if...
37:12
I know that's just another thing you got to pack on the bike,
37:15
but do you do any type of journaling when you stop or anything on the phone
37:20
that you'll kind of transcribe journal that way?
37:23
When I'm touring, I do a bit. I use the note function on my phone.
37:27
A lot of times it's just phrases or a word that will pop into my head or something brief.
37:33
And sometimes I bring like a small paper journal.
37:36
When I'm racing, I don't really do any of that. I think that I look a lot to
37:41
my photos and social media updates.
37:43
And I had a friend helping me with my social media for The Divide.
37:46
So I sent her voice messages.
37:48
So that collection of voice messages is really useful.
37:52
And then the photos and being able to reference like the Rabbit GPS maps and my Strava files.
37:59
So kind of having a good record of where I was at what time I think helps reconstruct the memory.
38:05
One thing, aside from journaling, one thing that's really helped me is having
38:10
conversations with people who shared the experience with me or of that event.
38:15
So talking to someone who raced the event, maybe our paths crossed for five
38:19
minutes, but hearing about what was the same and different,
38:24
just hearing about their experience, it kind of keeps events alive in my own
38:28
mind and maybe forces me to consider what's unique about my experience,
38:33
things that I found challenging that other people didn't, which might be interesting
38:37
to write about because you always want to write about what's,
38:39
you know, unique to you as well as sharing some of the universal.
38:43
Like if I wrote about the tour divide, I would talk a bit about the history
38:46
of the route and, you know, some of the landscape descriptions,
38:49
but the things that happened only to me, I definitely want to share because
38:53
there's been a lot of literature about the tour divide.
38:56
So I want it to kind of have my own take and build and add to it.
39:01
So that's something I find really helpful is talking to people and,
39:04
and especially people who I've, I've written with, and then they can help me
39:07
become more confident in my own memories.
39:10
And, you know, sometimes by sharing something and having them say,
39:13
oh yeah, I remember that night. Yeah, that's exactly how it happened for me too.
39:17
I'm like, oh, okay, good. I'm not just off the wall here.
39:20
I'm not up to lunch. So that can be helpful. And in my regular life,
39:24
I've started a gratitude journal.
39:26
So I write five things I'm grateful for every morning and then follow that up
39:30
with a little little bit of free writing.
39:31
So just kind of writing on whatever project I'm working on, sometimes I'll dive into that.
39:37
And otherwise, just kind of whatever my mood is like, or if I wake up,
39:41
you know, grumpy about something, I'll kind of write on it. Yeah,
39:45
a little resistant of it. Yeah.
39:47
And sometimes if I try and flip the script, if I acknowledge that,
39:51
like, I'm not happy about something.
39:55
And then I try and think about, okay, what can I be positive about.
39:58
Like if something happened at work that I wasn't so keen about,
40:01
I will write in my gratitude journal, I am grateful for flexible hours at my job.
40:07
Just something positive, right? And in so many cases, there's something positive.
40:12
I'm not going to say everything because that's a huge sweeping generalization.
40:16
But in so many of our experiences that, you know, kind of get under our skin,
40:20
there's something positive that we can pull and lean into a little bit to keep
40:25
her mindset in the study side of things, I guess. I agree. I think that's a good hug.
40:30
Like you said, I really liked what Justina's told you about just literally looking up.
40:35
That can work no matter what, just walking outside and looking up.
40:40
And it also just redirects your mind instantly so that we can look at something
40:45
else and not look within.
40:47
Because that's so much of it is sometimes we just need to look outside of ourselves.
40:52
You also write about yourself. I think it's just so important.
40:55
Yeah, I think everyone has a story to tell and everyone's story is worth sharing.
41:00
And sometimes we need to elevate certain kinds of stories or others based on,
41:03
you know, cultural and historical circumstances.
41:05
But I think there's no reason why you shouldn't write down your own story and
41:09
share it at least with the people you love in your community.
41:11
And I think whether or not you want to be a professional writer,
41:14
writing has so many benefits.
41:16
It helps you work through stuff in a way that you don't when you're just thinking. I think
41:20
my mind is sometimes like on a hamster wheel and it just goes around.
41:24
Yeah. And it is this cyclical, not, not, I'm not going to say not productive,
41:29
but it doesn't go anywhere.
41:31
And these thoughts will keep repeating. And sometimes it'll be like,
41:34
you know, a memory of the divide and they'll just keep going around.
41:37
And I'm like, okay, there's something here. You need to sit down and write on
41:40
it because you're not getting past this, this image of riding into a sunset
41:44
in the Great Basin. You know, you need to write on that and see what else is there and explore it.
41:49
And I think that maybe for deep thinkers, you can do that in your mind.
41:53
But for me, being able to put stuff on paper and being able to write through
41:59
it for my eyes only and then kind of read through it and see what's there and
42:03
see if there's any recurring themes or what the story is actually about.
42:07
Maybe it's about something totally different than I thought. lot.
42:11
And just being able to discover that as a means of personal growth is really valuable.
42:17
And I think there's a reason why our teachers made us do journaling and reflection
42:21
every day in elementary school.
42:23
There's a lot there. And sometimes we can't get it out in conversation,
42:27
either because we just don't have the words, or we need to think a little bit
42:30
more about what we're saying, or maybe we just don't have the people in our
42:34
lives we feel comfortable telling these stories to.
42:36
Sometimes when I finished an ultra, the people around me either either get sick
42:41
of hearing me talk about it, or they're not distant cyclists.
42:44
So they just don't get it fundamentally.
42:46
And I kind of realized like, I'm not wasting my time by telling them,
42:50
but I'm dominating this topic of conversation.
42:53
And we should really talk about more mutual things.
42:55
So journaling can be really great in that.
42:58
Yeah, you have great awareness there too. That makes a big difference.
43:02
What was the bike you rode for the tour divide?
43:05
I used a Salsa Cutthroat and it worked out really well for me.
43:09
I was kind of wishing for a front suspension in the end in New Mexico because
43:13
I was so fatigued and it gets really rough and rocky.
43:17
And I just felt like I was taking a bit too much of a beating on the washboard and everything.
43:22
So I did wish for a little suspension at the end. I used the Redshift suspension
43:26
stem, which definitely eats up some of the lumps and bumps.
43:30
And I think the fact that I was so tired made everything feel worse.
43:34
When you're sleep deprived, your pain threshold just falls apart heart and you
43:38
just, everything, everything hurt.
43:40
So in general, I had a really great experience on the bike.
43:43
I didn't have many mechanicals. I got one bad puncture that I filled with a bunch of bacon strips.
43:48
And then I got to a town, I think Del Norte and they, the bike shop there was fabulous.
43:54
They swapped my tire out. They
43:55
lent me a bicycle to go get resupply while they were changing my tire.
43:59
Just very efficient. They were, they had my bike ready to go before I was ready to go.
44:03
And that was wonderful because I just had too many bacon strips.
44:07
It was not going to hold up.
44:09
And putting a tube in is just asking for trouble on a course like that.
44:13
Yeah, it is. My derailleur hanger broke. I think it had just been bashed around a bit.
44:18
I don't know what happened, but it fell off and it was just like hanging by
44:22
the chain. And I had a spare one.
44:23
I actually have to order a spare one because now I don't have a spare one anymore.
44:27
So that, thank you. I'm going to note that down.
44:29
Is that something that you travel with a lot? Like, because this happens a lot
44:34
with derailleur hangers. Too many times to count.
44:37
It is something I travel with. Yeah. And it's just a small piece,
44:40
so it doesn't take up much room. and I've been carrying one around in my road
44:43
bike repair kit and my, you know, adventure bike repair kit forever.
44:48
And I'm glad I got to use it. It was a pretty easy change.
44:52
I watched a YouTube video and then kind of tried to recall it.
44:55
And it seemed like, yeah, I did it. I was fine.
44:57
I got a few mosquito bites in the process, but it wasn't a big deal.
45:00
And then I was going to bring the bike into a bike shop to show it to them and
45:04
be like, did I do this right? Can you check?
45:06
And I just didn't want to wait for a bike shop to be open. Like there's not
45:09
that many on the divide route. And I I kept getting into town too early or too late.
45:13
And then I also figured like, you know, if it lasts 50 miles,
45:17
it'll probably be okay. Like I've probably done it correctly.
45:20
Exactly. You'll know right away. Yeah.
45:24
And people have these crazy mechanicals because the road is such a bit unpredictable.
45:28
Like what you're, you might just smash into a rock and break some spokes.
45:32
And I am glad that I didn't have any of those experiences.
45:35
I did spend time getting my bike tuned up beforehand. I got a lot of drivetrain
45:39
components and stuff replaced.
45:41
So I think going in with a fresh bike or as fresh as it can be for a 2018 bike
45:46
is really important and helps prevent stuff in the long run of the race.
45:53
It really does. What drivetrain were you riding on that bike?
45:56
I don't really pay attention to stuff like that.
46:00
Yeah i just kind of ride what works for me i'm
46:03
doing arkansas high country next week and i'm putting on
46:06
what are you gonna ride you said that's a different yeah i'm putting on the
46:09
same bike but i'm gonna put a smaller front chain ring because it's so pitchy
46:13
in the ozarks and okay i you know will be hiking my bike a bit but i don't want
46:18
to be hiking it more than i have to and i think that's the challenge when you
46:21
have the one by front chain ring is you have to balance like your gears.
46:25
And I asked them to put on one of those big cassettes on the back.
46:30
And they were like, Oh, we can't, we need to change all of this.
46:33
And it's going to cost X hundred. Yeah. Cause you probably need a longer cage
46:36
derailleur than you need.
46:38
I just thought it was a whole other animal too. Yeah. I work at a bike shop. Yeah.
46:43
And you know, I actually just changed my cassette to a bigger one and I was told by so many shops.
46:49
No, you can't, no, you can't. You need a new derailleur and it won't fit.
46:52
But i was able to get a bigger pulley
46:55
oh cool that it cost i don't
46:58
know a hundred bucks or less and it fit so yeah i'll send it to you it's possible
47:06
oh good depending how big you want yeah i asked about your drivetrain earlier
47:13
because of the the new shram transmission that has the
47:17
fixed rear derailleur, so you don't have the hanger.
47:21
So it's a lot more secure, probably a game changer for events like that.
47:26
I have been running SRAM on that bike, so I'll definitely look into it. It's a gravel.
47:30
Is it a road, like a regular gravel bike?
47:33
Yeah, it has like the drop bars and stuff. A drop bar. Okay. It's not a straight bar.
47:39
And you do aero bars on the seat? Yeah, I just use the clip-on aero bars.
47:42
They're just so nice to protect your hand when you're on these long events.
47:46
And, you know. More positions.
47:48
More positions. And I strap stuff to them.
47:52
I put my rain jacket on my aero bars all the time because it rained like every day at the Divide.
47:57
And I kept it in my seat post bag, which I had to get off my bike,
48:01
dismount, pull it out of the seat post bag, roll the bag, and then,
48:04
you know, shove it back in.
48:06
And each time you do that, that's a minimum of 30 seconds and it breaks your
48:09
momentum versus having the jacket on the aero bars.
48:13
You know, I had a couple of elastic bands. I had an elastic band around it and
48:16
then a Velcro strap keeping it on the aero bars.
48:19
And I could, you know, I could put it on while I was riding if I wanted to.
48:23
And even if I stopped, it was like a 10 second stop.
48:25
It was really quick to get on and off.
48:28
So I'll do that. Or I'll, you know, Velcro like candy or licorice or stuff to
48:34
the aero bars if I need a place to store stuff and I'm out of storage.
48:37
And it's just, it's yeah, it's another hand position. It's another storage option too.
48:42
I love that you said that. Is that one of those good treats that you like on
48:46
the bike, like licorice?
48:48
Is that good? I like licorice. I go for the softer kind.
48:51
So I don't go for like the, you know, really chewy stuff
48:54
yeah so i i was going for the twizzlers like pollen peels
48:58
because those are soft but then the flavor started to miss me out
49:01
i got sick of it i ate too many isn't there like these little packs now that
49:05
are the thicker softer pieces those ones are definitely easier to eat yeah and
49:10
i think that if they're like what about gummy bears i like gummy bears i like
49:13
the haribo gummy bears like those ones are good these are the best the factory's here gerona oh my god
49:20
oh my god we're going they do tour it's
49:23
an interesting topic and for ultras it's really an eating contest
49:26
and people who have read my book or seen some of
49:29
my posts they're just like megan you have a terrible diet and i
49:32
have to i feel defensive like in regular life i eat a lot of whole foods a lot
49:37
of greens i am supported by f2c nutrition and they do protein recovery and carb
49:42
mixes and things that are great fuel i i focus on really getting my greens and
49:48
eating nutritious food at home.
49:50
But then when you're on the road and you're racing and you're burning all these
49:53
calories, like I just eat anything that I want or my stomach can agree with.
49:57
And highest calorie possible. Yeah.
50:01
Yeah. And whatever's readily available too. It's like you just,
50:04
your focus is to stay on the bike as much as you can and just fuel.
50:08
And I think like not being emotional about your food choices,
50:11
just being able to eat what works for you.
50:14
Like there was a time I think before I went in the Great Basin
50:17
and I stopped at a like a small resupply and
50:20
I just there was nothing there I really really wanted so I got eight
50:23
Snickers bars and I was like this is fine this is great and going into the night
50:28
they'll stay sold they're they're overpriced whatever like I'm just not gonna
50:32
look at my credit card bill this is this is fine yeah you don't want to get
50:35
too involved in those little decisions and be like oh wow you know I'm being
50:39
ripped off or like there's nothing I I really want,
50:42
or maybe I should get these three things so I have variety.
50:46
Maybe if you need variety, then do that. But just being able to make quick decisions
50:50
and get what will get you to the next resupply is the most important thing.
50:55
Yeah. And what works for your body too, if that works and it's more consistency
51:00
like that, that you know your body can handle it, then you got to do it.
51:05
Everybody's different.
51:05
What I've heard from other cyclists that we've interviewed so far has been,
51:10
it just gets to a point where it just gets so hard to keep eating.
51:14
It's like, what can you take down? There's always kind of this point.
51:17
Yeah, for sure. One of my tricks is using a lot of liquid calories.
51:21
And because I have a nutrition sponsor at home, I drink a lot of my calories
51:25
anyways on training rides and stuff.
51:27
So I try and adapt that on the road by having high calorie coffee drinks and
51:32
smoothies and just kind of, you know, I drink those like Arizona iced teas,
51:36
those big cans. I'll put one of them in my feed sack.
51:39
Or sometimes I'll put a can in my pocket and wait like a half hour and then
51:44
just kind of slam it and then run around looking for a recycling bin,
51:47
which I don't know if that's the best decision. But the can's not heavy, it's just bulky.
51:51
And sometimes you don't run into recycling or garbage for a long time.
51:55
Probably not, right? Yeah.
51:57
But trying to get liquid calories because they just seem to digest a lot easier.
52:02
And often if it's hot, it's a joy to drink something cold. If it's nighttime
52:06
and it's already chilly, it can be trickier.
52:08
I guess I would suggest going for hot chocolate or something and then adding
52:11
a little, an ice cube or two so you can drink it quicker.
52:14
And chocolate milk is something I drink a lot of too. Yeah. That's one of the
52:17
staples that you'll see is chocolate milk's always kind of one of those go-tos. It works.
52:23
It's got protein. It'll fill you up.
52:26
I just love hearing about what you makes you want to, you know,
52:30
write in general, because your mind is always kind of going,
52:33
I can see that, like, there's always so much math stuff to write about so many
52:38
different topics you can go with.
52:40
Yeah, I think that's my problem is picking something and really developing it. Yeah.
52:45
And I try and write down any of my ideas so that I can revisit them.
52:49
So they're not like lost, right?
52:50
And then that urgency to write about them disappears, but they're, they're documented.
52:54
And, And, you know, maybe a month or two when I have time or even a year or
52:57
two later, I can go back and be like, oh, okay, like maybe let's revisit that.
53:01
I've got some stuff to add to it. Yeah, just in life, that happens.
53:06
Just like you said, going back to a job or a relationship or a friendship,
53:10
it's revisiting something. And that happens, even friendships.
53:13
Sometimes you're really close with somebody and then you fall out of touch and
53:16
then they come back into your lives at a certain time. And there's always this
53:20
moment where you're supposed to revisit that or some things just keeps coming up.
53:25
And you're like, hmm, I wonder what that's about. I think that's right.
53:28
I listen to those signals a lot. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely have to relinquish
53:33
control over everything.
53:34
I had a situation maybe when I was going into the basin and I was buying those
53:38
eight Snickers bars, the weather was really terrible. It was pouring rain.
53:42
And I was about to go into this really remote section that the roads would turn into peanut butter mud.
53:47
And I was pretty pissed off because it had been a nice hot morning and I was
53:51
counting on getting through this without any issues. And the weather forecast was fine.
53:56
And all of a sudden it's pouring rain and I'm at this tiny town called Atlantic City.
54:01
And if I continue on, I will be alone in like a remote area with no shelter and muddy roads.
54:09
But to be told by the weather basically that I couldn't continue on,
54:13
and I was pretty pissed off.
54:14
And the event photographer happened to be there just as I was rolling into town
54:18
and kind of grumbling to myself.
54:20
And he said something to me like, if you get upset every time things are going
54:24
to plan, you're not going to make it very far.
54:27
And I was like, I made it this far.
54:29
Sometimes that sucks. It did make sense. Yeah. Good raw advice.
54:34
He's right. You're having your little temper tantrum. Yeah. I was.
54:37
I was very much having a temper tantrum.
54:39
We're just allowed to. We need to feel the feelings. I would have been like,
54:42
if it's not thundering, like I can get around it. Oh, it was definitely thundering.
54:47
But it's amazing what we can convince ourselves of, especially with this direction.
54:52
It's like, nope, I can do that. No, I can figure it out.
54:56
That's one of the skills. I think that's also a personality trait of anybody
55:01
that kind of pushes themselves to those limits too, is that you can go through
55:06
that mentally and physically. Yeah.
55:08
Yeah. I think that's the case. And you've seen yourself succeed before in dire circumstances.
55:13
So you know it's possible, right? And you want it to happen again.
55:17
But every situation is different. And I think that you can build a lot of confidence
55:21
from those successes, but you still have to to be aware.
55:24
A different set of factors has to be taken into consideration every time you're
55:28
making these decisions in an event or in life.
55:31
It's similar to what happened before coming, you know, circling back around,
55:35
but it's still different.
55:36
Yeah. Every race, every book, every journey is going to be so different from each other.
55:42
There's some similarities, obviously we take away, but every situation is going
55:47
to be completely different in some sense.
55:49
There's a lot of opportunities and there's a lot of shorter ones.
55:52
Like my first event was us the Trans Am.
55:54
But I think like lining up on the Grand Depart, though, everybody,
55:58
everybody has their own goal.
56:00
And because these events are, they're less structured than, you know,
56:03
entering an Ironman or something, you know, you sign up, most of my events,
56:08
I don't pay a fee to do so, you know, you pay to have your dot on track leaders. But I think.
56:14
Maybe you really get to choose what your goals are and what you want to get out of it.
56:20
And people have all sorts of goals and they're in different fitness levels.
56:23
And that's one of the cool things about bikepacking. And because it is so challenging
56:27
in any event or race director, they don't put together easy courses. They are all hard.
56:34
Just getting to the finish is such a chance to celebrate.
56:37
To me, it reminds me a bit of the sport of rondeineering in that everyone who
56:41
finishes is a winner, right?
56:43
Like there's a celebration, the person who's like a DFL, like dead fucking last
56:48
and, you know, the lantern Rouge, the last finisher, like these people are honored,
56:53
you know, just as much as the race winners.
56:55
And yeah, I think it's, it's a really cool part of the sport.
56:58
So I think it's pretty well known that you're competing against yourself to
57:02
try and do your best as much as against other people.
57:05
And for me, I feel like I'm competing against like the weather most of the time,
57:09
like there was times in the divide when I was just like, gosh,
57:13
I feel like this route is trying to kill me.
57:16
And you're not even thinking about other people, right?
57:18
It's just kind of in your head. And I do think that if you prepare properly,
57:23
and you know what you're getting into, like for me, honestly,
57:25
it's like 90% fun and 10% really, really hard.
57:29
And that helps me keep a good mindset for most of the time. Like I am I'm genuinely enjoying myself.
57:35
And when things get hard, hopefully I've got the knowledge or the reserve of
57:39
energy or the skills to kind of push through that and just kind of get out the
57:43
other side where things can start being fun again.
57:46
And I don't just do these races purely for fun, but I find a challenge is really,
57:52
having challenges is really important to my life.
57:54
And I do enjoy myself most of the time. And I think that.
57:58
That isn't always the case. I watch sometimes if the conditions are horrendous
58:04
and it's just raining every minute.
58:06
Or I did a race called the Buckshot this spring and there was a lot of really
58:09
cold temperatures and snowy passes on a short course.
58:12
And I didn't have a lot of fun. I made it through.
58:16
I was just kind of like, I'm just going to get to the finish.
58:19
And I did end up riding with two other guys and we were all kind of in the same boat.
58:24
We're like, this isn't super enjoyable right now. But we're here.
58:28
Like, we've got to get to the end. I probably made it a little bit better knowing
58:31
that you're all together kind of in the same boat.
58:35
Yeah, that freezing style riding is, I'm sure it's not fun.
58:40
But I guess what I'm saying is like, it's great to know that you can push through
58:44
when things get hard. And you've proven that to yourself, right?
58:46
Like, that's one of the reasons I've done stupid rides on the bike in the rain
58:50
just to know that I can do it.
58:52
But I think if it was all like that, you'd be really unhappy and probably not
58:57
come back for another event.
58:59
And the most successful racers that I've talked to, like Justinas and Evan Deutsch,
59:03
who won the Trans Am, they seem to enjoy themselves a lot of the time.
59:07
And I think that is the key to being successful is enjoying it and then pushing
59:12
through when you have to. Yeah. It's enjoying the adventure.
59:16
Yeah. And a bike, there's so many different ways that you can enjoy it.
59:19
You don't need to do an ultra.
59:20
You don't need to race at all. You can just bike back or you can just use for
59:23
commute. commute like your sister.
59:25
There are so many means that a bike can bring happiness and joy into someone's life.
59:30
I couldn't agree more with that. You need to find what works for you and then
59:35
organically you enjoy being active.
59:37
What I hear for Megan is she loves gaining that knowledge and that growth from
59:43
these lessons and being challenged and going on an adventure,
59:48
filling her brain with With more stimulation.
59:52
And more stimuli. Of like new sights. New adventures.
59:58
And then writing and sharing with us. So really looking forward to know what's next.
1:00:04
Yeah, for sure. Let's chat in a year and see what I've been up to.
1:00:08
Let's see what I've written.
1:00:09
And the fun thing is that Velo, bike in French, is love with the letters arranged.
1:00:14
So I have like an obvious title collection in Velo, love to like bring it all
1:00:19
together. So that's clever.
1:00:23
Yeah, I hate titles there. It's so hard to distill a story into a couple of
1:00:28
words. So that this worked.
1:00:31
I would write it just because the title works.
1:00:34
I'm so happy you were able to fit us into your schedule and give us your time.
1:00:38
It's been great to get to know you.
1:00:41
Definitely going to finish your book as well. It's very easy to read and super
1:00:45
inspiring. Thank you so much.
1:00:48
Thanks for having me. This has been a really fun way to start on my Friday.
1:00:51
And I will listen to a couple of your episodes on my ride today because it's
1:00:56
going to be a long one. Great.
1:00:58
And enjoy your ride. Thank you.
1:01:01
Please stay in touch. Have fun today. Will do. Bye, Debbie. Bye,
1:01:06
Juliana. I want to hear about that donut. I'll send a photo.
1:01:09
Okay. All right. Cheers.
1:01:12
That's all for today's episode. We want to thank you, our listeners, for tuning in.
1:01:17
Your support means everything to us. If you enjoyed If you enjoyed this episode,
1:01:21
please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing.
1:01:24
Music.