gravel biking

Ramsey Hanna is an ultra-cyclist on a journey to discover what he's capable of.  In 2021, he came in 6th place at the Dirty Water 500km (a single stage 310 mile race across the state of Ohio) and he also completed the TransVA 560 ride in 75 hours (typically a 9 day event). Ramsey holds a PhD in organic chemistry and bakes his own bread from scratch. Enjoy!

Check out teamai.org for more info on our charity endurance  team. 

Today's episode includes an interview with professional cyclist Emily Schaldach as well as a surprise crossover with Hannah Stelter/Turtle Mountain Animal Rescue and a debrief on the episode with dear chums Meagan and Molly. Tune in for 75 minutes of fun!

There is no one way to exist in the world, and our guest today is an example of someone who pursues her passions without being set on a specific career trajectory. Emily Schaldach is a professional cyclist, writer, and researcher and in this episode, we get insight into all three pursuits. Emily shares her cycling history, training tips, and her most memorable cycling stories, emphasizing the importance of keeping it fun! We discover how Emily got into writing and what she prefers to write about, before getting a glimpse into the structure of college creative writing programs. In terms of her work as a researcher, Emily breaks down the fascinating topic of her current research and her inspiring job-finding strategy that got her in the door. Tune in to hear everything from Emily’s experience of queerness in the cycling space to her heart-stopping encounter with a moose, and so much more!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing professional cyclist, writer, and researcher Emily Schaldach.

• Emily reads the rules of engagement.

• How she feels she’s perceived by others.

• Emily’s training tips.

• Her relationship with adversity.

• Emily partakes in the “I’m a 10, but…” trend.

• Her relationship with social media.

• The structure of her work life and the fascinating topic of her research.

• Her job-finding strategy.

• The value of meaning over money.

• Emily’s cycling history.

• How her family influenced her, growing up.

• How to channel competitiveness in a healthy way.

• The best advice Emily received from her cycling coach.

• What motivates her to upgrade her equipment.

• The recommended mountain bike to start on.

• The longest ride Emily’s ever done!

• A recount of crossing paths with a moose on a cycle.

• Emily’s favorite race thus far.

• How she connected with Sarah Sturm.

• Emily’s trajectory as a writer and favorite content to write about.

• The structure of college creative writing courses, in Emily’s experience.

• Her experience of being queer in cycling and writing about it.

• Emily answers our rapid-fire questions!

Tweetables:

“You just have to do enough every day so that when you do want to do a lot, you’re able to.” — @emilyschaldach [0:03:55]

“I don’t need everything, I just need enough.” — @emilyschaldach [0:16:18]

“I’m always telling people, especially [those] who have kids, just keep it fun as long as you can.” — @emilyschaldach [0:30:14]

“I go through phases of having apprehension about talking about queerness but the more that I do it, the more fun it is.” — @emilyschaldach [0:54:35]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Emily Schaldach on LinkedIn

Emily Schaldach on Instagram

Emily Schaldach on Twitter

Emily Schaldach on Strava

Too Many Socks Newsletter

Sarah Sturm on Instagram

Business Lesbian

Ramsey Hanna is an ultra-cyclist on a journey to discover what he's capable of.  In 2021, he came in 6th place at the Dirty Water 500km (a single stage 310 mile race across the state of Ohio) and he also completed the TransVA 560 ride in 75 hours (typically a 9 day event). Ramsey holds a PhD in organic chemistry and bakes his own bread from scratch. Enjoy!

Check out teamai.org for more info on our charity endurance  team. 

In February, Ryan Atkins took on his Seven Summits challenge. For seven days, he climbed, virtually that is, the highest peaks on each of the world’s continents. The place where he actually gained all that elevation was in and around his home in Sutton, Que., a little more than 100 km east of Montreal. The way he climbed was on a fat bike one day, on a virtual riding platform another and on a gravel bike as well. He also ran and skied his way to the high elevations he needed to reach.

You might remember hearing Atkins on this podcast more than a year ago. He and two other riders took on the Wapusk Trail, the world’s longest winter road that runs from Northern Ontario to Manitoba. He’s also been part of bike-based expeditions along James Bay and in Northern Quebec.

About 10 years ago, Atkins raced mountain bikes in Canada Cups and a few World Cups, such as Bromont and Mont-Sainte-Anne. He was a world unicycle trials champion, in 2006 and 2008. More recently, he’s been focused on obstacle course racing. He’s been the World's Toughest Mudder six times, the Spartan Ultra world champion twice and the OCR world champion. He likes to push and challenge himself.

Atkins’s Seven Summits challenge is, well, bonkers, especially the day he gained 6,961 m on a treadmill. That’s the height of Argentina’s Aconcagua. What attracted Atkins to this challenge with its jaw-dropping difficulty, both physically and mentally? The athlete seems to have a superhuman enthusiasm for daunting, repetitive tasks. Still, he found very cool moments throughout the challenge. They were more than just silver linings, but insights he would have never gotten otherwise. He also ate a lot of cookies and gummy bears.

If you think you might want to try climbing Seven Summits yourself, you’ll hear some tips that will help you with your own bonkers challenge.