Grit2Greatness Endurance Podcast

Resilience and Recovery Through Adaptive Sports with Zed Pitts

• April Spilde • Season 1 • Episode 15

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What happens when life throws unexpected challenges your way? Join us as we explore this question with Zed Pitts, an incredible adaptive sports athlete and Army veteran. Zed shares his journey of resilience and adaptability, from battling Graves' disease to rediscovering purpose through cycling. His story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the supportive communities in adaptive sports, such as the DoD Warrior Games and the Invictus Games. Zed reveals how these experiences have helped him transform his life and the lives of fellow veterans through the VeloFlöProjekt, offering inclusive experiences that rebuild spirit and strength.

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Speaker 1:

I think greatness is about resilience, it's about humility.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And finding purpose within your journey in helping others.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to episode 15 of the Grit to Greatness Endurance Podcast. Today we're tackling one of my favorite topics, which is one of the most powerful qualities an athlete can cultivate resilience Endurance. Athletes train for the expected miles, logged plans, executed schedules, adhered to. But what happens when life doesn't go according to plan? When unexpected challenges like family emergencies, health issues or even global events disrupt everything, resilience takes on a new meaning. This conversation will explore how my guest handles the unplanned and unexpected. We'll look at how he has adapted and persevered, not just in sport, but in life and in his personal mission. For many of us, training for endurance has become a foundation for facing life's uncertainties head on. We'll discover how mental toughness and adaptability develop through endurance, offering valuable lessons on handling life's curveballs. So if you've ever felt like the world threw something at you just as you were getting ahead, or if you're looking for inspiration to push through life's inevitable detours, this episode is for you. Are you ready to meet today's guest? Today on the show is Zed Pitts.

Speaker 2:

Zed is an inspiring adaptive sports athlete, army veteran and founder of the VeloFlow project. Diagnosed with Graves' disease, zed used cycling as a therapeutic journey to overcome physical and mental hurdles, transforming his life and returning to service, which is a pretty big deal. His adaptive sports journey began with the DoD Warrior Games in 2015 and 2016, where he discovered the power of sport in healing. The same year, he competed in the Invictus Games, where his perseverance symbolized resilience, making him the perfect guest to showcase on today's episode.

Speaker 2:

Zed's commitment to adaptive sports didn't stop there. He leveraged platforms like Zwift to stay connected with the military adaptive sports community, further refining his skills and using technology to reach new fitness levels. The VeloFlow project, his initiative, aims to inspire wounded, injured and sick veterans by providing inclusive and supportive cycling experiences that foster camaraderie and personal growth. Zed's story exemplifies resilience, passion and the impact of adaptive sports on physical and spiritual recovery. Plus, he has an amazing voice, so I can't wait to introduce him. His journey with the VeloFlow project and his message of empowerment through sport continue to inspire veterans and adaptive athletes around the world. Sed, welcome to the Grit to Greatness Endurance Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for having me, april. It's so exciting to be here today. I'm not really sure what answers are going to flow for me with these questions. I was looking at them and I was like, okay so I think I have to do a little bit of self-reflection as we go. So we're going to adapt and overcome.

Speaker 2:

I love it. I love it and I love that you are also a fellow Army veteran. I think your service is just amazing. It's wonderful to be able to have that connection with you being Air Force and just knowing how difficult that can be to balance or counterbalance your athletic life with your service and also, when we get into your story, how you've been able to manage leveraging some things that could have absolutely been setbacks in your life. So I'm truly honored to have you on the podcast today. It's also a great thing when we have two Minnesotans that come together. I was talking to you before we started and just hearing you talk about St Paul, which is kind of my old stomping grounds, makes me really miss my hometown and it's just cool to have that friendly spirit back on the pod and kind of reminiscing about how awesome Minnesota can be.

Speaker 1:

So right on, and just to give you a snapshot of today's weather it's a little bit murky outside. It looks like a Halloween story from Sweeney Hollow, but or Sweeney Todd.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Sleepy.

Speaker 1:

Hollow.

Speaker 2:

Sweeney Todd I love it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it's kind of chilly outside, so I don't know if you missed that. Well, colorado is kind of similar, I think.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, you're speaking my language. I do love the winter and I love all four seasons. So we've been lucky in Colorado. We had a really long summer here in the Springs and we just had our first snowfall last week and it actually was really pretty, and then, like a day later, it's gone. So that's one cool thing about Colorado Springs It'll be snowing and then a day or two later it will be completely gone and be almost like summer weather again. So it's nice for mountain bikers like me to be able to ride the trails all year. So well, my friend, are you ready to jump into this? I definitely want to know more about you and and kind of dissect a little bit how you got started with the VeloFlow project and and just talk to me a little bit more about your mission, because I think it is extremely worthwhile.

Speaker 1:

OK, well, I want to warm up to that. Yes, I'm going to warm up to it because I you know what's funny? I was listening. I know rich sores right? Yes, real three endurance podcast. He was asking me about the mission and I I am always I'm like okay, I know what the vision is, but my mission kind of adapts to the season and basically the VeloFlo project is my personal journal that I share publicly, if that makes any sense when it comes to my adaptive sports experience and how I go about it, managing that balance that you mentioned, the military service and my training.

Speaker 1:

So we'll get to it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that was great. Yeah, the personal journal like I was checking out your Instagram the other day and I was like, yeah, I can see your whole story. It's so cool to see how not only the VeloFlow project came about, but just kind of your personal journey into being an adaptive athlete and who you're bringing with you is really great, right. So all the things that you are doing to lift up not only yourself but you're the community of people that you are inspiring. So can you tell me a little bit more about your kind of what brought you to VeloFlow or what brought you to wanting to start something like this?

Speaker 1:

Well, let's see here. So the VeloFlow project didn't start immediately when.

Speaker 1:

I started the adaptive sports journey. It actually started in response to COVID journey. It actually started in response to covid and um. I'm not sure how familiar your audience is with the dod warrior games or the invictus games, but the community that's affect, the veteran community that's affected by those games. They were pretty much at a standstill and the Invictus Games and the DLD Warrior Games actually had to take a knee, in addition to, you know, the Paralympics, olympics and a lot of triathlon events. They all had to kind of go away and a lot of the wounded, injured and sick veterans that were looking for they had their whole lives you know, pinned to these events, these highlights, and they went away.

Speaker 1:

It took away that very important sense of purpose for soldiers right and veterans and once they lose that sense of life purpose, their suicidal ideations may creep in.

Speaker 1:

And we actually lost. That I'm tracking. We lost two in our cohort. When I say cohort I mean the soldier recovery unit that I was at at Fort Bliss and so I'm not going to put their names out there just for the sake of their families. But that triggered a response to me to we need something to fill in those gaps between events. So I had to tap into that adaptive thinking and try to figure out a way to get the news out there to the veterans. That's a part of the wounded, injured and sick community so that they can always they can reframe their

Speaker 2:

purpose when it comes to their athleticism yeah. Wow, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2:

Just putting my own lens on this and understanding that when we have one identity and that identity gets ripped say it's athlete, or say it's soldier or it's airman, and then we lose it whether it's COVID or it's an injury or it's not being able to sustain our service like that can really shake our whole foundation and, unfortunately, put us in a position of vulnerability for, like you said, those suicidal thoughts or harmful behaviors.

Speaker 2:

And I think that you recognizing there was a gap there and looking for ways to fill that gap with things that build community and reach out to the people that that might not raise their hand and say, hey, I'm hurting, or this really struck me here, that's huge, said that's I. I so appreciate you sharing that because I know we were kind of walking into it, uh, waiting into it a little bit, but I'd love that you went there, uh, and told me a bit more about how this actually got started. I know there's a little bit of your own personal story there too, with um you being an adaptive athlete and um being diagnosed with Graves disease. Can you, can you talk a little bit more about that too?

Speaker 1:

So I remember one of the the topic or the questions that you sent me. You were asking um, like, like, what event kind of disrupted my training and when? When you said training, I was like, uh, is she talking about military training?

Speaker 2:

and it's open-ended for a reason.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes I was just like okay, so we're going to do both. Felt like pretty much everything that I worked for to get to that point, get my first deployment, you know, ready to serve my country. All of that was at risk and here I was.

Speaker 1:

I was ready to serve and only to face a diagnosis of Graves' disease and grappling with fatigue and heart palpitations and muscle weakness and at that time I was super struggling with a way to move forward with my military career. And then at the time I was like really into like powerlifting.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you're speaking my language now too.

Speaker 1:

I was into powerlifting, getting strong. You know all of my soldiers. I was a sergeant at the time, e-5. My soldiers following me wanting to get more fit before we went off to Afghanistan. By the name of Mark Catapan, he was at the soldier recovery unit that I was thrown into to either be discharged medically or returned to duty. But, Graves' disease was a disqualifying diagnosis to serve right.

Speaker 1:

So I had to figure it out out, and the way that I figured it out was to get back fit for duty. I went through this, this coach, coach catapan, who was a an adaptive reconditioning specialist at the sru at fort bliss, and he introduced me to cycling. And, um, he encouraged me, though, not just use. You know how you go through like a rehab program and you just pick up some kind of exercise program and you get tag fit for whatever, and then you just drop everything that you've done. He encouraged me to not just do cycling or take cycling just for rehab. He encouraged me to make it a lifelong commitment for my overall health and mental resilience. So cycling became like my therapy and my mechanism to fight back against Graves' disease, and every time I got on the bike I felt like that was one small victory to get over Graves' disease. And the Army also is. They are implementing this thing called the Holistic Health Principles. The program is H2F and it's all about balancing physical fitness and mentally and emotional strength right.

Speaker 1:

So within that program you learn to set small goals and focusing on steady progress rather than quick fixes, and that's one thing that the Army is trying to move away from, where a soldier injures themselves in training and then they pop some ranger candy yeah, ib, like 800 milligrams and they drive on and they're causing more damage. And because I moved away from that quick fix mindset, it became more um instrumental to not just overcome uh graves disease but use that type of that type of uh small goals, holistic, uh balance to to face every challenge that I come up against it's interesting that you brought up cycling as your, your, your form of therapy, because it's very similar to my story.

Speaker 2:

Um, yeah, I, I, I loved, uh cycling as a teen and, um, I, I walked away from it when I joined the air force. It was just hard to be able to uh, especially being stationed in Alaska. Um, it was hard to get out on a road bike, in the bike at the place I was stationed at, so I kind of fell out of it. And then it wasn't until I got into triathlon back in 2019, where my passion rekindled for cycling, for all the things that are endurance related, and got me going in this path of grit to greatness. And got me going in this path of grit to greatness. And it's just so cool how you can have one person or thing pop up in your life and they give you this key that unlocks an entire story of adventure and self-discovery. And now you're on this mission with VeloFlow Project because you fell into cycling and you used it as a mechanism, like you said, to fight back against Graves disease. I think that's just a really amazing story, my friend.

Speaker 1:

Right on. So I didn't, I didn't know. Well, actually I did. I listened to one of your podcasts and I learned that you, you have been, you started your triathlon journey journey. Oh gosh, and Alaska, is that correct?

Speaker 2:

Yes, oh no, it was sorry, it was in Kansas I was yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I was stationed at McConnell air force base and it was during COVID. So I had a. I had a huge um gap in my life too and was actually kind of dealing with some depression and and um, I've always wanted to be a triathlete, I've I've wanted to do an Ironman, and it just seemed like the stars aligned for me to start training for it and and then I just fell in 100% into the lifestyle. Yeah, no, seriously, I am so happy with that decision to switch gears, if you will, because I was really big in the strength community, like you. I competed nationally for powerlifting as well and just was full on board with strength, strength, strength.

Speaker 2:

And then I got injured and it derailed a lot of. That put me into this. That's why, when I talk about that identity piece, I had a loss of identity and it just caused me to have to really adapt and think of something, a way to fill that hole. So, yeah, similar stories, and it's just that's what I love about talking with people like you, because I mean, I know you've achieved a lot of great things, I know that you've met a lot of great people and brought people up with you, but it's also really nice to see that it wasn't something that was just given to you, it wasn't something that you were born into. You actually had something pretty life shattering happen to cause this change in you, to find cycling, to make it purpose driven, to start to reformulate who you are because of this diagnosis. And I just again think that is the definition of resilience, because so many people unfortunately fall into the trap of, well, this is now my life and I have no control and just stay in that rock bottom, right.

Speaker 1:

So absolutely and that speaks to the second part that I wanted to talk about, the resilience piece.

Speaker 1:

When I had to more or less keep sight of my long-term goals, like my, my soldier goals or military career goals, in addition to my, I guess more or less, uh, changing the mindset from power lifter type to endurance athlete type, um, when I was at the warrior games and invictus games, those, um, those two events, and leading up like Team Army, leading up to those events, they show me that True resilience is about more or less this is my truth, right it's about staying flexible and adaptable and I remember during those games I noticed that every athlete there, including myself, we all face different story or historical backgrounds, different story or historical backgrounds and those are those obstacles within those backgrounds could have defined us Right.

Speaker 1:

However, we didn't this. We decided to kind of change the narrative and we learned to redefine our limitations through adaptive sports. So that's where, when I brought up the army resilience and recovery program and I forgot to mention the master resilience training into holistic health and fitness, that H2F, all of those models to kind of like break down your goals into smaller, manageable actions, they can kind of allow you to tap into that resiliency rather than being overwhelmed by being depressed or not being able to move forward with your initial goals, but you can still.

Speaker 1:

You can still have your long-term goals achieved by adapting that way. So but yeah, that's great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's great. I think that is exactly the definition of resilience is learning how to be able to move through the day to day adversity that every one of us faces. And I think it's just like compounding interest If you don't have the ability to move through the day-to-day obstacles, how are you going to be able to handle when life throws you the worst?

Speaker 2:

The things that are going to happen circumstances of death, circumstances of illness, injury of death, circumstances of illness, injury, things that loneliness, things that are just hard. And I think that, with what you're saying, understanding the micro level, how to be resilient in the micro is going to build to the macro when, absolutely, if you live long enough on this earth, there's going to be some macro level adversity. That this is exactly what I want people to take away from this episode and want people to take away from the podcast as a whole is these are things that they might sound easy or they might sound micro or small, but when you build the reps, when you build the habits of knowing how to reframe, knowing how to find gratitude, knowing how to be able to listen and reflect on yourself and make meaning out of something, those are the things that when you're in those really dark times where you're looking for hope and optimism, you're able to grab it. You're able to find it because you've built the skill of training your brain how to do that Right.

Speaker 1:

So yes, and that's that's where. Um, that's one of the things I like about being in the army. I learned to embrace the army's concept of hunt the good stuff where, where you find cause, I I mean, you never know what you're going to find yourself absolutely like. I remember being mobilized to eastern europe and I'm thinking that I'm going to go into this situation where everything is set up. This is me probably being a spoiled american soldier, but everything was going to be up. I was gonna fall in on the base and everything was gonna be copacetic, but it was not we had we lived in the middle of nowhere, we had to build the base from scratch.

Speaker 1:

There were some, uh, like these chews, like they had in Afghanistan, yeah, but these were like used by everybody and they weren't ever kept up and it was just nightmare. But, um, I learned to hunt the good stuff and bringing it back to, like this, this, where I was facing a lot of frustration and disappointment with the graves, I learned to. With the hunt the good stuff I was, I kind of unpacked the positives, even in those heart, those hard times as I was recovery, um, recovering from the graves disease and figuring out a way to overcome it and refit later on, like doing that, that hunting the good stuff, my thoughts, not 100%, like I don't do this all the time and sometimes I have to snap myself back, but hunting the good stuff has become kind of second nature for me.

Speaker 1:

Yep, exactly so as soon as I feel like I'm frustrated, as soon as I feel like my athletic progress is being stalled, I remind myself that resiliency in and of itself is not about just bulldozing through the obstacle that's in front of me. It's about adapting, it's about making the most of where I am in my athletic journey or in my military journey, and that's something that I practice over and over again as I was training in the SRU, and so I always tell people like that want to train with me or training beside me that frustration is that's a natural thing, especially if you feel like you're blocked, so, but don't.

Speaker 1:

Who reads a book and it just goes like introductory chapter. Happily ever after you know, so you need to look at those setbacks as a part of the journey. So that's why I feel like the VeloFlow project, aka Zed Pitts' journey is about progress, not perfection, and my adaptive sport of cycling and sometimes running it's taught me that it's not always smooth. Always look at every bump, every hill as a part of the resiliency process.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and adding that richness to your story. I love that. I think about all of the things and every time we move, every time we go to a different location or new assignments, there's always frustration and, like man, I hate that we have to do a permanent change of station again after two years. I just can't take this change all the time. Then I think back and I'm like, because I went here, I learned this thing or I met this person or I had this incredible experience that makes my life so much more colorful and enjoyable and like, yeah, in the moment it sucks.

Speaker 2:

In the moment it's like golly, I just can't wait to get through this day or this week, or even these few months, like it just goes on and on. But honestly, when I think back and that's the beautiful thing that you shared, that is the ability to understand that, it is the journey, it is the day-to-day, the things that we're learning as we're going no one wants to just cut straight to the end. Reading the book is what brings the reward, and living it.

Speaker 1:

So that's really good stuff, man. You know, and I I try to, I know there's a new ha, there's a new generation coming through the military ranks. We got gen z yep and I, I, I have to tell them like, look, um, look, I don't know what YouTube and Instagram and nothing against social media, because it's a great thing.

Speaker 2:

It's the highlights reel. Exactly, yeah, but I try to tell them like it looks instant because we have editing tools to people, reaching the solution to people reaching a solution, but you have to go through a process that might be uncomfortable so that you can be great on the other end. So that's what I try to drive that home for them.

Speaker 1:

I hope it's sticking. I don't know, it's just youngness too.

Speaker 2:

It's youth right. I feel that I definitely wanted to hustle through my life to get to the greatness side quickly, and obviously that's just to me. I like the journey that I'm on. I like hustling in the micro to achieve the macro and just being patient in that journey. And it just takes time, I think and experience. And yeah, I do think that there's a lot to be learned in just allowing for hey, slow down, don't trust everything you see on social media because, people are obviously, yes, are only showing you the good and that.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing is, when you peek behind the curtain, you really do see that, hey, this thing is. When you peek behind the curtain, you really do see that, hey, this person worked very hard for that, or they. They applied a skill over time, for a massive amount of time to get to where they are. They stayed consistent, absolutely so well, is that I'm throwing away the script? I don't know about you, but oh, we're just gonna chat, let's go fool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm just, I'm adapting as it goes yeah, you're doing great. I apologize for making you throw away.

Speaker 2:

No, no I, that's a compliment that's a compliment, my friend um can you tell me? Uh, for for me and for our listeners, I would love to hear, or have an understanding of what is Graves' disease and how is that? You said it was a diagnosis that can take you out of your service, right? It used to be a disqualifier, or can be a disqualifier. Can you tell me more about that and help us understand why that was so that shook up your life?

Speaker 1:

Okay, so going back to the beginning, as I mentioned earlier, like I was mobilized with an engineering unit in Alabama it was 363rd Engineering Company in Sheffieldabama and, uh, we were supposed to go to afghanistan and during that mobilization process we went out to fort bliss and, um, I noticed that at first it was I was lacking a lot of sleep, like I could not sleep and um, I'm like, why, why, why am I not sleeping that well?

Speaker 1:

so I was averaging two hours of sleep. I'm not like. And uh, so I I went to talk to the the medic and he was like let me, let me check your pulse. And my pulse was about 110 a minute and he said I think we got to take you to the hospital. Oh, wow. So I went to the hospital and they couldn't find anything, so we drove on. I returned to the company and I continued to train to get ready for Afghanistan. And as an engineer you have to lift heavy equipment sometimes. And this one particular day I got up and I went to the, to the Connex, to pull some equipment out of the Connex, and I was pulling like a duffel bag thing, and my arm, I felt like a popping sound, it felt poppy and it sounded poppy. I was like what is that?

Speaker 1:

And my, my muscle kind of exploded because I wasn't you know, remember, I was into powerlifting. So I'm going to the gym still averaging two hours of sleep, not getting any recovery. So I'm going to the gym still averaging two hours of sleep, oh my gosh, not getting any recovery. So it was breaking down my muscle tissue and not, um, not rebuilding it overnight. Um, and it didn't help that I was a vegetarian. So protein and soves' disease attacks your bones, so it robs you of calcium.

Speaker 1:

It also robs you of sleep, it raises your heart rate and it also causes, like this dryness sensation in your eyes, so it feels like you have glass in them every time you move them left and right and so, and then ultimately, I went through something called a thyroid storm and your thyroid is the gas pedal of your body, right, so it tells, it talks to the pituitary gland, and then it's like, okay, how much energy you need. Okay, we need to ramp up the heart so you can do whatever. I was always on go, so it was causing a lot of stress on my heart. I was having chest pains, joint pains and ultimately I lost. I think I was 100. I started off before the graves. I was 215 pounds and I dropped down to 155.

Speaker 1:

Wow, in like two weeks it was great what so um because of that uh, they were like well, we need to do like a blood draw. They did a blood draw. They found that my thyroid stimulating hormones were way off. They were super low, meaning that the brain was not communicating to the thyroid because my life was doing the most and so it just sent me into like, almost like a, and so it just sent me into almost like a deteriorating state. I wasn't healing, but I kept training.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, and if I didn't go?

Speaker 1:

to the hospital. I probably would have been checked out.

Speaker 2:

Yes. I mean that's a huge shift.

Speaker 1:

So that's Graves' disease in a nutshell.

Speaker 2:

So once you were diagnosed, it was one of those things where, hey, this is something you're going to be dealing with for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1:

That's what they were saying, okay so um, but medical, you know it's we're in the western world. So it's always something that they have to kind of help you either live with it or symptomatic, yeah symptoms.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, treat the symptoms yes.

Speaker 1:

So what they did was they zapped a lot of people go, ah no, but they zapped me with radiation like the whole. And is that where you got?

Speaker 2:

your deep voice from.

Speaker 1:

I know. So I've always been talking like this and I talk slow anyway, so I'm glad that it's understandable.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, it's great, my friend.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so they zapped me with radiation and but I had to be on the watch by the medical team. But I had to be on watch by the medical team and the medical team established something where you go through your medical treatment but you also have to. This is through the social recovery unit. You also have to take up some kind of adaptive activity, whether it's art, music, oh, wow. Or you take up is it equine therapy, where you work with horses?

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I chose cycling because of Mark Caterpill, so um and then later I got into running.

Speaker 2:

Um, so I I don't know if I told you, but I am going to be testing out this Tridot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we got you, man, Y'all got me, I don't. I don't say I have the bug yet but, I'm going to do something where I am. This is a little bit of a tangent, but I'll do like a run, bike run.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

That's great, and we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 2:

Heck. Yes, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

But circling back, yeah, so the medical team plus adaptive sports, plus the goal setting piece, where I'm setting goals along with my family and friends back home. I utilize those three elements to get back fit for duty.

Speaker 2:

So how long was your process? Would you say those three um?

Speaker 1:

those three elements to get back fit for duty. So how long was your process, would you say? Um, ooh, let's see it's so after, after they took me off of the deployment, what sent me into a suicidal ideation? Because I was a perfectionist? I hear you, yeah, um, I w. I was a perfectionist. I hear you, yeah, I was. I was stripped of my purpose and I was stripped of my what I consider my identity.

Speaker 2:

So I was like what's the point of?

Speaker 1:

me, you know, doing anything, I was withering away. But getting into those three elements that I mentioned medical social support, goal setting and um social support, with goal setting and the adaptive sports, I want to say it took me about a year to get fit for duty and then after that I um, I started like dod, warriorod, warrior Games, invictus Games, and then I was doing everything in between like really long tours on the bike Like I was in Germany with Project Hero yes, I was. I did things like recently Colorado's Ride with Bill Plock and Rich Soares and some others in the past. What I just came from Canada not too long ago with the Invictus Games Foundation Woo, excuse me. So, yeah, that's what I do now. Because of what happened at the SRU, I'm able to demonstrate that I am more than fit for duty. Mm-hmm, yeah, you're at the tippy point now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. I think that's a great segue into talking about Invictus and the DoD Warrior Games. I would love to hear more about your experience with that and how did that connection happen.

Speaker 1:

So with the Warrior Games, it started in 2015, actually, and my first competition was at Quantico, but it all started through the sru okay not really sure how, like it's kind of I.

Speaker 1:

It was unclear how they actually selected the, the, the athletes, but from my understanding they talked to all of the srus peppered throughout the US and they sent their best athletes to these clinics or camps and from there they picked the best ones for the Warrior Games. That's awesome. And then from the Warrior Games the whole nation picked their best athletes for different events, from powerlifting to cycling, right um archery, swimming, all of that yep and sent them to the invictus games. And both the invictus games and the dod warrior games are kind of like the same but um, the invictus is more international. He does have an international component where they might invite two nations to come in and compete, but the Invictus Games has pretty much all of the NATO-affiliated nations competing. That's amazing.

Speaker 1:

So that was how I got involved in that, through the sru um leading to dodo games and the invictus games wow, yeah, so kind of walk me through that.

Speaker 2:

So you, you're picked up for this. The cycling team, I imagine. Yes, um, how many people were you with when you uh from the army and did you join up with other um cyclists from air force and from navy? How did that work?

Speaker 1:

okay, so the for the warrior games bit. That was more intra like departmental like yeah, yeah, competition yes, so go army beat navy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go army beat air force it was oh yes um, but for the invictus games it was all of the us affiliated dod athletes would be on one team. So that's how that was. The only downside was like we didn't get to train together because the logistics of, yeah, getting everybody together. But, um, we made it work, like, yeah, we showed up. Yes, competition, we were just like okay, we're wearing, we're wearing the same jersey. All right, together, we're on the same team.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yep, I love it.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And for the running part. Of course that was individual, I was. I didn't do distance, I did the sprints. Okay, so my, my sprints were the 100 and 200 meter Nice.

Speaker 2:

So that's what I did Nice, and and with Graves disease, how were you able to manage that level of training and competition and performance?

Speaker 1:

reservations about actually putting me in the running, bit Like cycling. They were okay with that, as long as it wasn't taxing on my cardiovascular system in the early stages of the treatment process. I mean, my heart rate was sky high. Yeah, I can imagine training would be yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can imagine what training would be counter counter or contraindication.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so you don't want to send send a guy out there and his heart explodes. So I started off really small and Mark Cattipan actually kept close watch over me. Kept close watch over me. He didn't let me over train and as I progressed through the sru program, they would do these check-ins, like health check-ins, and ask me how I was and do the x-rays and or ultrasounds on my on my left arm. That exploded and uh, yeah, so, and as they saw me improve, they allowed me to do more. Oh, wow, yes. And then they also had me monitor how much protein intake I consume, or protein intake consumption.

Speaker 2:

That sounds.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Your protein intake.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes, and like calcium intake, because, yes, I've said Graves attacked the bones. And then the sleep. I had to go to the sleep clinic a couple of times with the mask and the whole attractive thing and they monitored my heart rate to make sure that I was actually going into REM, to where they knew I was recovering from all the training that I was doing so as I showed my numbers improve and then I stabilized, they were like step he's yes for the warrior games, for the invictus games and he's been for duty.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I, I bet you felt amazing when you reached that.

Speaker 1:

So it was bittersweet, okay, because I, yes, I was fit for duty, but I was going to leave all of the soldiers that were in the S-122, that I established a connection with, that I knew, understood my story, and I was about to go into a population, that of the military, that might not so they want to see. It's something we call in the wounded, injured and sick community for vets invisible wounds and so that covers ptsd as well, though they see, and that look able-bodied.

Speaker 2:

You look, yeah, fit, yeah Right. The outside appearance Right, they don't look at the inside.

Speaker 1:

I don't see the inside. They don't see what you have to like, manage and tune into the make sure you perform your best. They don't see that. So when I try to explain that to them, they like okay and they drive on and I don't think it's stuck.

Speaker 2:

No, right, I can totally relate to that.

Speaker 2:

It's that judging by a book by its cover, right. So I'm so glad that we got to hear a little bit more about what that entails and how what that entails and how yeah, devastating. I mean it's devastating to hear that your bones are compromised, right. So, and that sleep, I mean that would put someone in an early grave if they can't get quality sleep, and I think you illustrated it beautifully on how you absolutely can't judge just by the fact that you can't see that they're missing a limb or that they are scarred or that they're burned, right. So it's just, it's all these things that are internally happening that can put someone on their face very quickly or on their, like you said, like in an early grave. So I appreciate you being willing to talk about it.

Speaker 1:

Hey, I look at it as a story of triumph. So, I I kind of um more or less like when I share the story. It kind of reminds me of why.

Speaker 2:

I started anyway.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, it kind of it's like a rekindling of my motivation when I see it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can see it. I can see it, yeah. Yeah, I love that. So we've covered a lot. We have explored your journey as far as the diagnosis and then your recovery and now moving forward with honestly reaching another level of who you are. And I want to highlight the fact that you didn't just do this for yourself. You're doing this for other people too. You're bringing other people with you. Do this for yourself, you're doing this for other people too. You're bringing other people with you. Can you tell me more about the community that you've, that you've created with the sick?

Speaker 1:

injured and wounded and how that has, how that has benefited your life and where you are now. Well, I'm thinking the community that I, that I started was because I believe, well, this is what the military teaches us. I believe, some kind of leadership role around certain issues in this, in this case, being a soldier and an athlete that overcame a certain health adversity, you should go about that for um, with the mindset of not just pursuing your personal success.

Speaker 1:

You know, within that realm, like me as the founder of the veloflo project, not to sound narcissistic no, no but I feel like it's about lifting, uplifting those around you in the process. So through adaptive sports I I've seen how other veterans inspire entire communities yes simply by pushing past their limitations, and I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to give back to the community. So that's why, um, as you mentioned in the bio, where, um, we, we started the esports initiative through Zwift, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that was my way of trying to give back to the DoD worry game community and to the national. There's so many like organizations. National Mobility Center poured into me. Challenge Aspen, who Mark Catapan is working with right now. He has veterans coming through the Veloprojects nonprofit initiative, connectvfp, to get them, keep them active. We have Operation Second Chance Project Hero, colorado's right.

Speaker 2:

There's a billion.

Speaker 1:

Challenge Athlete Foundation. All of these people are just pouring into us, us, and I want to give back to them. So that's why I started the Velofo Project. That's why I believe our community is all about self-empowerment, and that's the only way that we can keep this whole resiliency thing going. That's the only way we can keep this grit to greatness thing going, because of that mindset of uplifting those within our community athletic soldier athlete community yes I hope I answered the question.

Speaker 2:

Dang man, no, I got chills I got chills, that was beautiful and I'm glad you brought it back around to Zwift because I wanted to ask you about that. I think that's a really cool connection that you have with Zwift and bringing athletes in that space as well. Can you talk a little bit more about how that got started?

Speaker 1:

Yes. So, as I mentioned about filling in those gaps in 2020, and I started the Velo4 project to kind of I know I can't catch them all and this is not a Pokemon this is not a Pokemon.

Speaker 1:

I was like gotta catch them all, gotta catch them all. I can't, you know. I know as a person. I'm not some kind of God or something or magic person where I can wave a wand and all of the suicides are gone, but it is disturbing to me. I was looking at a study. I think they started the study in 2018 to 2020.

Speaker 1:

Our suicide rates within the Army has increased per year within the army has increased per year and so that, on top, and you know, and it increased a lot in 2020 and I think that's why the veloful project was birthed, because, um, I was like this must stop and it's gotta be a way to keep us to connect it. And there was a soldier within the whiz community on the Invictus side. His name is Andy Perrin and he's a retired Royal. I want to say armed forces, I'm going to say army. I never asked, but he was a civil, he was a signal NCO. He's also my nemesis in psycho because he always beats me.

Speaker 1:

I can't I love it but anyway, he introduced me to zwift and I was like what's that? So I got in, got on it, we did a couple of rides and I was like thinking to myself hey, I know they're about to cancel the games, both the DOD warrior games and the Invictus games. Can we like establish?

Speaker 2:

some kind of group?

Speaker 1:

ride where it's like a an ongoing thing. So right now I didn't join the ride today. In the last few weeks because oh shame but I'm I'm doing some renovation and I'm setting up my zwift studio okay, I have a zwift bike, right, and I have the whole shebang, the screen, and I'm painting right now and it's, it's toxic.

Speaker 1:

So I don't want to pass away before I set it up, but that's how it got started, that's. And now we have the e-sports initiative through the Invictus Games Foundation, headed by Josh Baji, and he's probably going to be like why do you say my last name like this? But he, yes, so he's a triple amputee and he's a recumbent cyclist, hand cyclist, and he's an athlete and he runs the. He runs the e-sports initiatives through Zwift and any kind of like virtual esports type initiative through the Invictus Games Foundation. So it kind of took off from there. So we have a Sunday ride every Sunday, oh cool. And then we have all of these virtual competitions that you can be a part of. Heck, your Trident athletes can jump yeah.

Speaker 2:

Hey, how can people find you on Zwift to join this ride?

Speaker 1:

Oh well, it's called the.

Speaker 2:

We Are Invictus social ride and it's every Sunday.

Speaker 1:

Yes, social ride and it's every sunday. Yes, but they can find. They can find that ride um on zwift. If they have the, they should download the zwift app. But if they don't have the app, they can go on zwiftcom and type in or look at, look up, we are invictus, social ride and it's cool I'm putting it on my calendar, my friend right on.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's soaring good I know he told me about it. He said it was amazing he loves seeing the different adaptive athletes and the uh like hand cyclists and all. But this is so cool, absolutely, and that and that's.

Speaker 1:

That's spinning into a probably a little tangent, but um, I'm to be working with Zwift Source because I mentioned to him when I first met him that I don't like training with numbers.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I know, I love it.

Speaker 1:

So right now I'm doing a TriDot trial where I'm looking to improve my army combat fitness test. Yes, through utilizing this um, through utilizing zwift and try dot, the try dot algorithm, and try to train in a way to where it's uh, data driven yes, that's total numbers.

Speaker 2:

Talk how I was thinking I love it. The numbers tell a story, though my friend reserve I'm an only reservist, so and we have our own challenges when it comes to physical fitness right.

Speaker 1:

So I'm trying to figure out a way to hopefully leverage the tridot system the physical fitness needs of the reservist soldiers in the army. So we'll see how that plays out. I'm gonna do it for like two months and now I'll report back heck, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, I cannot wait to hear what you think of it and the results that you uh, no doubtedly, I think you're gonna, you're going to experience some awesome gains right on. Well, zed, I think we um really covered a lot, man, you you've brought. You brought the heat today, even though it's cold there in minnesota. I can feel it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah like I'm over here sniffling like you're definitely an impact player and one to watch out for, and I just think that, um, it's been an honor truly to have you on the podcast. I I want to ask you one last question, something I love asking my guests, because everybody has their own interpretation. But how do you define greatness?

Speaker 1:

This is OK. This is. You know what I feel like this question. I'm probably going to dance around it, but I feel like this question changes for me.

Speaker 2:

Okay, day to day yeah.

Speaker 1:

Because I was listening to your podcast two days ago, the last one that you recorded. I can't remember her name, but she was talking about Coach Jasmine Jasmine. She was talking about some course that she had to climb a hill 16 times, yeah, yeah, Lake, las Vegas, the Luxor.

Speaker 2:

Pyramid. Yes, yes, she's a badass.

Speaker 1:

That is insane. But anyway, in that moment I'm pretty sure that she had an idea of what greatness was before she got to that race. What greatness was before she got to that race, but then when she was climbing, probably like on the sixth time she was like okay, I gotta adjust my definition of greatness. Yeah, so I. That's why I said I'm probably gonna dance around it, but let's get into it. I I think that I think that greatness isn't about being the strongest or the fastest.

Speaker 2:

And I'm trying to keep this like athleticism.

Speaker 1:

I think greatness is about resilience, it's about humility.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And finding purpose within your journey in helping others like that's very important and that's why, you know, with the veloful project, I here's the mission. Here we go. I I feel like our mission is to empower veterans and civilians, because without civilians, veterans would be lost. We would have nothing to protect um and show them that every setback is an opportunity to um to rise above right so so greatness is, is choosing to turn your struggles into a source of strength for others. There you go.

Speaker 2:

That's all I got you finally answered my question from the beginning, and I love it that you tied it at the very end, that was so good I got you Zed. I love it.

Speaker 1:

I love it.

Speaker 2:

So good.

Speaker 1:

This was so much fun. April, thank you for having me on the show. I really appreciate it. Well Zed fun. April, thank you for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Well, zed, how can people follow you? How can they get in touch with you, because I know that there's going to be a lot of people inspired by this episode.

Speaker 1:

So you can find me on Facebook Instagram threads. I'm not really good at using X. I'm terrible at usingx, so I tend to not use it. But you can also find me on linktree at veloflow project and april. I can see you the correct spelling. I have it spelled a certain way yes, because of my german affiliation yeah, yeah it, but um, I can send you that link tree. If you want to put podcast description, I will. You can put it there.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's exactly what we're going to do. We definitely want to make sure people can find you right on, so all right, yeah, thank you so much. What a great episode. You are just amazing, amazing. I can tell your core value. One of your core values is humility, because you definitely, uh, you definitely look to, uh, uh, downplay and I, I, I want to say you're just fabulous, you're fabulous oh, I appreciate it and I feel like you're doing a fabulous job yourself, like the whole grit.

Speaker 1:

The greatness thing is it. It captures my attention because a lot of there's a lot of overlap, yeah, in my journey and your journey. So keep doing what you're doing, april, like keep these podcasts going, because they keep me going.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you, my friend.

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you, thank you.