What would you say to people that are, like, maybe feeling frustrated or, like, wanting to see, you know, improvement, but it's like it's not fast?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, one of the things that I have to give her credit for is ever since she started coaching me she was like, "I have this vision of where you can be, but we need to build you year after year to get there." And, um, she's been really smart about making sure that the things we're introducing every year, they become from a new stimulus to now a new habit, and then once it's a habit, then we start, uh, stimu- bringing something else in.

Um, and I think that has really shown in my trajectory.

But, you know, we're still both a little bit, I think flabbergasted would be the right word, on this year.

Like, you know, we had a conversation after Unbound and she was like, "I didn't even think you could even repeat last season," just 'cause all the girls are getting faster, everybody's more competitive, the racings are getting harder and harder.

So, like, to even think of that and then just look at what we got to do in the first four months of the season is pretty unreal.

Um, but yeah, I think, you know, coaching, I, I got really lucky to have a great coach.

[laughs]

And I'm just curious, like, are you having fun with that? What's like, can you tell us a little bit about what that's been like and how you choose your guests and kind of what you guys focus on?

Yeah, so the cool down is a podcast series that Keegan and Alexi started last year where the idea is to sit two athletes down after a race and just talk about the race, talk about the equipment with the goal of having that published that same day.

So we as athletes want to be the first source of information instead of, you know, maybe being quoted in an article or just you know, having to write an essay long of a post.

Like right now for me, it's awesome because I'm like, if you want to hear more, head to the cool down to talk about it.

And, you know, I do have my co-host Ruth, but our schedules aren't lining up as perfect as we would like.

So I've had to sub in people and You know, I think, you know, the first two episodes I did, it was with Alexi.

So it was like a really interesting dynamic of like talking about the men's race and the women's race.

How are you as a mechanic and do you like working on your bike?

But yeah, tell me what your relationship with Joy is like and how that is going.

Yeah, I think and maybe joy might not be like the most perfect word to use to describe it.

But I think with my coach, we've been talking about how in the past, maybe like two years or so, I haven't had a goal behind me that scares me, that motivates me.

And I've kind of been on this like hamster wheel of a cycle.

And it's been, yep, focus on my Grand Prix, go do Cape Epic.

there were trocca or like these other races and just like i don't know just there's nothing that was that had a fire in me to like let's chase a big dream in every training session it's like no we're going all in for this goal and you know i've done so much within this discipline There really isn't an event that I have done that I haven't won.

So, I mean, there's certain events like the Rift.

And I'm just curious, like, are you having fun with that? What's like, can you tell us a little bit about what that's been like and how you choose your guests and kind of what you guys focus on? Yeah,

That's where she met her coach, Carmen, who helped her rekindle her dream of going pro.

Within cycling, there's all these different disciplines, and then there's this one called cyclocross that, um, it's done in the late fall, early winter to late winter, I would say.

And it's a really small circuit, and you do a bunch of laps, and your race is no longer than, like, 45 minutes, 10 hour.

And, uh, this woman, Carmen Small, who lived in Durango, where I was going to school, she was a professional road racer.

She won, um, a world championship title in team time trial, and then I think one year she got a s- a bronze medal at the individual time trial.

So super badass lady.

And, um, she would jump into these cross races just for fun and to train, and I would get to race her.

What's your mentality when things get hard or just aren't going well?