{"id":1244,"date":"2025-06-12T20:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2025-06-12T20:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:01:51","slug":"the-gift-of-the-ride-the-privilege-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/the-gift-of-the-ride-the-privilege-of-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of the Ride: The Privilege of Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After two posts, I\u2019m thinking I\u2019m going to stick with this theme of finding places of gratitude and grit. There\u2019s just really something about Iceman (and mountain biking in general) that stirs things in me I don\u2019t always have words for. Maybe it\u2019s the northern Michigan chill that clings to your bike frame in the morning. Maybe it\u2019s the crunch of frozen earth under tires you debated on the Iceman Facebook page with somebody\u2019s weird (but awesome) uncle for a week. Who knows. For me, maybe it\u2019s the fact that every single year I line up for this race, I feel something I didn\u2019t expect to feel when I first started doing this: reverence. Iceman isn\u2019t just a race. It\u2019s also a ritual of gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some (and I\u2019d argue most) people don\u2019t think of suffering as a gift. And even those of us who train hard, push limits, and go deep into the pain cave – we sometimes forget. We forget that voluntary suffering is a privilege. That to be able to hurt in pursuit of something on your own terms isn\u2019t necessarily normal. It\u2019s not universal. And it\u2019s not promised. Personally, that\u2019s what keeps me grounded. Every time I climb out of the saddle, lungs tight and legs begging to quit, I think: \u201cThis hurts, and I think I hate it now, but man I\u2019m lucky to feel it.\u201d This has been a theme for me in recent years, and something close to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this season, I was invited to join the Challenged Athletes Foundation mountain bike race team and race the Leadville 100 on their behalf. It was one of those moments that hits you with both honor and accountability. The chance to ride for a cause I deeply believe in and that\u2019s close to home – supporting individuals who have lost mobility, who have experienced catastrophic injuries or congenital differences. When CAF reached out, I said yes without hesitation. But what I didn\u2019t expect was how profoundly it would change my relationship with my own body and ability. As I\u2019ve become more embedded in their foundation, I\u2019ve felt this sense of gratitude growing significantly as I witness what the CAF athletes can (and are) doing. And quickly on CAF; they raise money for athletes of all ages and skill levels, whether that\u2019s entry level to paralympic athletes, CAF helps them get access to equipment, training, nutrition, coaching, you name it. Mobility is freedom, and freedom is independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I started noticing things I used to take for granted: getting out of bed pain-free. Swinging a leg over the top tube without thinking. Standing on the pedals during a steep climb. The micro-movements of daily life, the independence of motion, the effortlessness of motion – these aren\u2019t givens. They\u2019re silent gifts. And I\u2019ve just been really feeling that gratitude recently as I ramp up my saddle time (and climbing) in preparation for Leadville\u2026 and Iceman of course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

My training plan for both Leadville and Iceman isn\u2019t flashy. No complicated intervals for the most part (though occasionally). While I am slightly a tech-obsessed data rabbit from my exercise phys background, the biggest success for me over the past few years has been a simple, consistent commitment: minimum two-hour rides, with 1,500 to 2,000 feet of gain. Saddle time and climbing. That\u2019s it. The idea is to simulate what Iceman dishes out – a race that grinds you down slowly with its relentless rhythm, only to reward you at the end in Timber Ridge with thousands of cheers and an ice cold Bell\u2019s adult beverage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

All that to say, I do think there is why between the watts. There\u2019s something spiritual that happens when you blur the line between discipline and devotion\u2026 call it passion. And that\u2019s where I find myself now and why I felt compelled to write about the gratitude I\u2019ve been feeling around the ability to get on that starting line in 29F degree weather. Iceman isn\u2019t just a race, if you\u2019ve raced it one single time then you know this. Let this year be something a little more. For me, it\u2019s as much a mirror as it is the final dance of everything put together in the 2025 season. And the same for Leadville, it\u2019s the other half of that mirror. It will demand more from me than any ride I\u2019ve done, but I\u2019m just happy to be on that starting line. Because I can. Because I\u2019m lucky. And these are the things I want to pass on to our little guy as he’s loving the biking community at only 3 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

So if you\u2019re reading this and training for Iceman yourself, take a second. Think about what you\u2019re asking of your body, then realize it said \u201cyes.\u201d You\u2019re going to absolutely crush this year – when you hit Woodchip and Icebreaker, the pain is only temporary. You get to be out there, and that\u2019s something to remember not to take for granted. Get movin!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thank you to Mark Daisy @markdaisymusic for being our 2025 Iceman Trailblazer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After two posts, I\u2019m thinking I\u2019m going to stick with this theme of finding places of gratitude and grit. There\u2019s just really something about Iceman (and mountain biking in general) that stirs things in me I don\u2019t always have words for. Maybe it\u2019s the northern Michigan chill that clings to your bike frame in the … Continue reading “The Gift of the Ride: The Privilege of Suffering”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[205],"tags":[69,165,72,139,179,141],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trailblazer","tag-iceman","tag-iceman-cometh-challenge","tag-kalkaska","tag-training","tag-training-tips","tag-traverse-city"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iceman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}