The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS

Cycling While Deaf: How This CTS Athlete Trains, Wins, and Prepares for the Deaflympics

• CTS • Season 5 • Episode 280

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OVERVIEW
Cyclists rely on their sense of hearing more than you might imagine, to hear traffic coming, to communicate with fellow riders during group rides and races, to listen for gear shifts and labored breathing from competitors, and even to discern wind direction. Dmitry Rossoshansky doesn't hear any of that, nor does he hear your pleas for mercy when he's crushing it at the front! 

In Episode #280 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Dima and CTS Coach Adam Pulford, with the assistance of sign language interpreters Maureen Plonk and Courtney Szymanski, discuss navigating group rides and races as a deaf athlete and a teammate to hearing athletes, along with how he is training for the 2025 Deaflympics in Japan as a Time-Crunched Cyclist with a full-time job, a spouse, and a young daughter.

Note: The female voice you hear is Courtney interpreting as Dmitry communicates via sign language. 

Topics Covered In This Episode:

  • About the Deaflympics
  • Navigating races and group rides without sound
  • Training tools for hearing impaired athletes

Resources

Guest Bio:

Dmitry Rossoshansky's journey as a cyclist began in 2018, inspired by a close friend and fueled by his passion for endurance sports. Cycling challenges his physical and mental limits, pushing him toward growth. Every race, every training session is a testament to the dedication he's poured into the sport. He is based in Hyattsville, MD. and currently races for the DC Velo Limited team, based in DC/MD/VA.

Notable Achievements:

  • Participated in the Deaflympics 2022 in Caxias Do Sul, Brazil
  • Participated in the World Championships 2024 in Swietokrzyskie, Poland
  • 1st Place - MABRA Road Race Championship, Poolesville 2024

Dima aims to inspire others in the deaf community and show that no barrier is too great to overcome. 

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

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SPEAKER_00:

From the team at Seat Guest, this is the Time Crunch Cyclist Podcast, our show dedicated to answering your training questions and providing actionable advice to help you improve your performance, even if you're shot for time. I'm your host, Coach Adam Polford, and I'm one of the over 50 professional coaches who make up the team at Seat Guest. In each episode, I draw on our team's collective knowledge, other coaches, and experts in the field to provide you with the practical ways to get the most out of your training and ultimately become the best cyclist that you can be. Now, on to our show. Training and racing in the sport of cycling is already hard enough for all of us listening here. But what if you were deaf? What if you couldn't hear the sound of free hub bodies behind you? What if you couldn't hear people calling out the pothole in the road? Or you couldn't hear the cars buzzing all around you. That certainly adds a dimension to it all, and here to discuss this and much more is CTS athlete and Deflimpic athlete Dmitry Rosichansky. Dima, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, yeah, I'm honored to be here, really excited for this conversation. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00:

Same as well. But just for our listeners, I want to clarify a few things uh to our audience right now. If you're on YouTube, you get it. Dima's speaking through a couple of interpreters, and one of which is named Courtney. And yes, Dima is a man and Courtney is a woman. You are hearing Courtney's actual voice. So just to clear up any confusion, I also call uh uh Dimitri's nickname is Dima, so I I just kind of naturally call him that. Uh so that that is him, and throughout the interview, I'm just gonna call him uh Dima, okay? Uh and because he's a local athlete, uh I've had the privilege to go out to dinners and get to meet Courtney as she's attended uh a couple things, including uh DC Vellow banquets that Dima, his wife, and my wife have all attended. Also, we have a second interpreter. Her name is Maureen, and she's here to help in the interpretation process. So it is a privilege and honor to have all of you on the show today.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. Okay, so Dima, can you tell our audience a bit more about yourself as they don't know you like I do, and maybe start with uh just where you're calling from today? Uh tell us about your job, your family, and maybe uh what type of rider that you are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure. Um, so I live here in Maryland. Um that's where I'm calling from, about 20 minutes away from DC in a town called Hyattville. Um I've been in the cycling world, I want to say maybe 2018 roughly. Um It was actually my birthday weekend that year. I decided, you know, what I was gonna do for my birthday. I flew to San Francisco, visit a friend of mine, hadn't seen them for a long time. Um, he had a bike. Um he was gonna go on kind of a cycling trip. I said, hey, I'll I'll join along. Let me borrow a bike that you have. Um I've never used a bike with a clip before. It was a very new experience. I said, sure, I'm gonna try it out. Um there was a huge uphill on the course we were on. I didn't know if you know I had the stamina to do it. I felt from that moment using that energy, that stamina, addicted to the whole thing. I bought a bike after that weekend. Um, I didn't start training though until 2019, 2020, roughly. I found Coach Adam Pulford. We got connected, and really the rest of that is history. Um, I worked I um really am focused in uh sprinting, specialize in sprinting. Um, I do have some time trial experience. My favorite expertise um is a lot of you know, physicality, physical contact, um, getting in there. One of my favorite things to do is really get down and dirty. Um, you know, I'm a big guy, which helps that aspect of that specialty, but that's a little bit about me. Uh I work as a data scientist for Booze Allen Hamilton for a couple of years now, with that as a full-time job, plus training. I do have a daughter, she's 10 months old. Um, so adding that into the mix is tough, but I always find time to train. So I'm definitely a time-crunched athlete. It fits my lifestyle. Uh, it doesn't require me to have 20 hours a week, you know, the luxury of having that amount of time to train. Um, but I make it work. I have a wonderful supportive wife who is there every step of the way in this journey. Um, I'm really fortunate to have that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it exactly. And you have such a support network around you with um your whole family, and I think that's some of the magic of what makes it work, as well as just uh your relentless pursuit of this. I mean, if if uh if anybody knows Dima and has raced against him here in the DMV area, you know he's super hard worker, goes really deep. And if you bring him to the line, watch out because he uh he's got a ferocious uh sprint. So um Dima. Um it's true. It is very true. I cannot hold your wheel when when uh when you go full tilt. In fact, you just uh collapsed a bike while you were sprinting, which we don't need to get into, but that was super gnarly. And it was he totally ruined the back end of his bike while he was uh sprinting. It was crazy to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh anyway, Dima.

SPEAKER_00:

First question to you uh on this kind of official interview is there's probably a lot of people wondering how big is the deaf cycling community, and how the heck do you ride your bike when you can't hear anything?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Good question. So the number of deaf cyclists um is not a big number. It's pretty a pretty small community. There's a large number of um, you know, deaf individuals who cycle, who go for different um, you know, rides here and there. Um there are several out there, um, you know, even in the DMV area, also throughout the country. Um, but in specific racing format, I'd say less than 10. Um less than 10 of us who actually specialize in racing. I'm fortunate to live here in the DMV area, DC, Maryland, Virginia. There's you know, great cyclists, great ways to race together. There's three deaf athletes here in the area, so we're able to share a lot of resources, um, share our experience as deaf cyclists, and that really helps me. It helps the other cyclists try to, you know, get our get our footing into the world. Um, another deaf cyclist has been doing it for quite a long time. Um, so we're now in the same category, same level, and that's been a really, really cool experience.

SPEAKER_00:

That yeah, super cool experience. And the second part of that question is I mean, I've come across a lot of people when you know they meet you for the first time, they're like, how does he ride without being able to hear? So, how would you uh answer that to somebody who says, Yeah, how do you not run into somebody? How do you not hear the cars? I mean, tell us a little bit more about uh riding your bike and not being able to hear.

SPEAKER_01:

So, first things first, um we rely on our eyesight. Deaf people are always using our eyes, that visual access. Um, you know, our heads are always on a swivel, looking around all the time. Um, you know, we can't rely on something else, someone else to tell us. We're doing that ourselves. A lot of intuition um is involved with that as well. You know, being deaf, having that experience. Another thing, also, I do use um a bike computer. Um, it communicates from that device different things, Garmin. Um, it's similar to something like that. It's a computer device on the bike that notifies me, communicates me. Instead of instead of having to look around constantly, it notifies me of different movements that are happening. So I can keep my eyes on the road. For racing, for group rides, um, I like to stay in the front. I can see clearly. Um, so that's kind of one aspect of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, yep, that's it. And I've had conversations with you and and Blake. We'll we'll talk about Blake, uh, a good training partner of yours and another athlete that I that I coach, um, of how you guys do have kind of a another a sixth sense, if you if you will, or a fifth sense that kind of bridges that gap. You guys are really in tune with like feeling the Peloton, sensing when something's going to happen, much more than I would say the the typical master's racer out there, you know, and it is very evident.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, right. Just like you mentioned, um, that's one thing I often encourage those who want to race. I say, you know, get in those group rides. Um, you have that connection, that contact experience, um, you know, that good physicality to be able to reach out, you know, tap people on the shoulder, have that feeling of racing in that group ride, and how you apply that to racing is really important.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we'll get into a few more specifics of that here in just a minute. But um, you're preparing for the deaf Olympics.

unknown:

Cool.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's coming up here in just a few weeks of this recording. So tell us more about the Deaf Olympics and the the races that you'll be competing in there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure. So the Deaf Olympics is uh it's been standing, long time standing for 30 years. Um it's very unique, I will say. Um the events that I'll be participating in, I'll explain that first, is the 1,000-meter sprint fastening event because hearing athletes or Paralympics, um, regular Olympics, it's usually on the track, the mellow drome, or those high high-lined walls. In the deaf Olympics, that's not the case. It's just on the street. It's 500 meters there, a U-turn 500 meters back for that total of a thousand-meter sprint. The reason for that um is, you know, there's deaf cyclists all over the world. However, there's not a ton that are professional cyclers going to the Deaf Olympics. Budget is a huge thing for them. Um, having access to a melodrome track. Um, so deaf athletes don't have that luxury compared to other athletes. Again, money, budget, um, thinking about the time to work out, to train, all of those things are key factors involved with that. So there's there's deaf athletes that were that will complete in, compete in two, three events rather than that one specialized event. For the sprint, there's a 200-meter fly, and then there's a time that will begin the beginning of that uh tracking from number one to athlete 20. They will start to go against each other in that tracking for the 500 meters down to the U-turn and make your way back to 500 meters based on whoever wins, they'll move forward. Um, very similar to the rules and regulations on the track that you might expect. The second event is the points race. Again, rules are very similar for the time trial. Um, same thing there. And there's a road race, which is that fourth and final event.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, exactly. And there is a mountain bike race too. I think Blake's uh competing in that one. Yeah. Um, so and that happens the week after, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yep, exactly. And some deaf cyclists will do those four events for road cycling, and then they'll jump to the two events for the mountain bike racing as well. So first for those athletes who are doing six events.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, which, yeah, just a huge, huge 10 days over in Tokyo this year is where the games will be held, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yeah, exactly. The race will actually be happening in Izu, Izu, Japan. Um it's about an hour and a half, two hours south of Tokyo.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. Yep, that's right. Um and I mean, huge, huge effort to get there, all the travel, all the preparation leading up to it. And I'm gonna touch on that too, just because it it leads into the preparation, the high demands, the high stakes of this competition. But I'll kind of zoom out just a little bit here because uh the Deaf Olympics, a lot of people probably have not heard about them. And so what I learned throughout this process is that the Deaf Olympics, they are very separate from the Paralympics. And if if in case people are wondering, and it's for many reasons, including uh the Deaf Olympics, uh they they use a bunch of visual cues, sign language, light, and things like this as indicators to start and stop races, and uh whereas the Paralympics have a wider range of physical disabilities and they have categories based on that um for competition. And uh if you want more details on the whole Paralympic uh Games, you can check out episode number 79, where I uh interview CTS and Paralympic coach Jim Lehman for a deep dive on Paralympics. Uh but the Deaf Olympics, I don't know. I I was reading this earlier, Dima, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the Deaf Olympics actually predate Paralympics by almost 30 years. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're exactly right.

SPEAKER_00:

Which I I think is so awesome, right? And there's I mean, there's uh all the sports that you can think of um that are going on, not just obviously cycling, but track and field and wrestling, I I saw was was on the docket. Um but they they use like like I said, a bunch of visual cues and sign language, and it's a very um uh very separate from Paralympics for for obvious reasons. I mean, it's just a different uh culture, which I think is awesome that we live in a society that we can have something like the Deaf Olympics and have people compete at the highest level across the world to get after it and uh chase some gold medals down.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that exactly. Really cool. Def Olympics, um, how you qualify for Deaf Olympics, you must have at least 55 decibels hearing. Um, it doesn't require you to sign, it's just related to um your hearing test and the specific qualifications needed there.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting. I did not know that either. Okay, so Dima, here's here's a good question uh when I was asking some other um athletes that I coach and and um some other people who wanted to know more about the deaf um uh community is you compete pretty much exclusively year-round in uh with with normal hearing people. Okay, so what are some of the challenges that you face in the races in group rides when you're riding with normal hearing people uh as a deaf cyclist yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, um in the DMV area, um it's a pretty good space because a lot of individuals are familiar with the deaf community. If you go to other states across the country, I think you'll notice more of a challenge. Um, some races, some riders that aren't from DMV that come in here to ride, um, you can kind of sense that, see that. Um, you know, in this area, if I let people know I'm deaf, you know, the hearing rider will, you know, realize, okay, cool. You know, how do we communicate through that? Um, we'll be able to communicate, you know, if we want to attack or if we want to do something in a specific scenario or situation. Sometimes I don't have that communication advantage that other hearing writers might have. I really rely on body language, sensing what's going, um, seeing that repetitive pattern that's happening and kind of tuning in on that, um, trying to see where people are talking. There are some challenges in those scenarios, you know, trying to point to communicate while writing as a deaf athlete. You know, uh, you know, having hearing writers and hearing teammates be mindful of a deaf athlete, you know, that can be a challenge. To communicate, you know, reaching out to someone, touching someone on the shoulder. Many hearing athletes don't have experience to do that. Um, so they might, you know, be a little shocked or jarred when that happens. So I've been through those challenges. There's, you know, many things to work through. Um the bell at the race, you know, for preams specifically. Uh, that's one thing I'd like to change, work on changing. I think it'd be a huge benefit for all riders, not just deaf riders, when a pream is announced. Um, you know, for a 1,000. Yeah. Um, exactly. You know, if there's someone that can't hear it or they're paying attention, you know, for one thousand months$1,000 on the line for a pream, I'm gonna go full out. You know, I'm gonna sprint, I'm gonna go for it. But sometimes I don't know when that's happening. Um, you know, instead of, you know, if they were announced a cookie basket or a cookie something for that, for that, I'm not gonna go for that. But it'd be nice. It'd be nice, like you said, to have some sort of flashing light or something for that visual cue. Or, you know, what again I rely on is the deaf community. Um, we communicate, we kind of sign to each other on the start line or get those things out. If there's a gap, um, we'll you know say, hey, 15 seconds, break away, and we'll be able to communicate that with other deaf riders. Um, so it's nice to see, you know, people will see, I see them on their bikes looking at us like, whoa, that's you know, pretty crazy. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, it it is, it's it's incredible to me. Um but a couple of things that you said is like it's you know, the riders here are pretty cool with uh deaf cyclists relative to other parts of the country. I think it's well, I think it's because we in this area we just have so much culture in general, but in particular we have Galludet University. Would you would you agree in in in saying that because uh Galludet University is uh university for the deaf community? And um that is I don't know, just northeast of here. Um and because that has been a long-standing um university in this area, I think we just have a lot more openness to the the deaf culture. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Absolutely. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I think that it's it's really unique and it's it's also important for people to recognize that. Uh but also, you know, having conversations like this podcast is when you, you know, around the nation or around the world, when you come upon somebody in the deaf community, or if you're talking to somebody and they don't respond to you, maybe you can assume that they're probably deaf, uh of which, you know, a little tap on the shoulder, a little wave goes a long way. Uh and one thing, Dima, that stood out uh something that you said that stood out to me uh was because uh I was kind of raised through the CTS system where we used a lot of hand language uh for indicating everything on the on the road, like something coming up, um you know, slowing, stopping, you know, right turn, left turn. Even to this day, like I'm always using hand signals to do that because uh uh the way we work is we have groups of 20, 30 people at a camp or in a race scenario, and uh not everybody can hear, especially if you're you know 30 wheels back. So that's why we were using you know uh hand signals in sign language. But I do that here, and that was one thing that you said. I mean, this is like five years ago. He's like you you told me it's like I really appreciate that. So I think for anyone listening here, start to use more hand signals for everybody, let alone the deaf community. But I think it goes a long way because we've all been on this group ride. Well, Dima, you probably can't relate to this, but been on the group ride before where people just yell out pothole or yell out on the right, and it's like very distracting and it doesn't really tell you much. It's just a loud noise.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Right. Yeah, exactly that. You know, I think maybe a funny story I'll say. Um, I happened to lead out. Um, and Adam was behind me um in one situation. Um, and I used my voice actually as loud as I could to let you know something was coming up. And many, many of the riders behind us were like, what the hell? We're not expecting it at all. And you know, I went zero to one hundred real quick just to let people know what was going on. So I I've been there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was true. Everybody was like, wait, what what is going on? And I don't know, like I'd never heard your voice before, too. It just like motivated me. I was like, Oh, I better win this sprint. Um better go deeper. Uh yeah, that was that was super cool. That was absolutely cool. Um, but yeah, I mean, there's always ways.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good good memory for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, totally, totally. So, you know, there's always ways to you know communicate with others when you're out there on the road. Um, you know, may maybe real briefly, uh, can you talk about um when we have our pre-race meetings? So uh DC Velo, that's a team that you and I both race on. We have uh pre-race meetings to talk about tactics, how this is gonna go, who should cover what. Um tell us how we do it with you and Blake.

SPEAKER_01:

So typically um we host a Zoom. Um, and that Zoom will usually have uh a feature for captions. You know, you have that in the Zoom platform. Um it's also added Convo uh in Zoom. So um if someone has an account with Convo, which is a way deaf folks can call, um, we can have an interpreter right there in the Zoom, in the Zoom screen to go over, you know, kind of rules, discussions, what we're doing. We do that. Um and then, you know, same day we have that discussion, um, me, Blake will use our phones. And we have an app that has captions there that'll automatically detect one thing there that I will say, it doesn't catch everything. You know, if there's two or three people um talking at the same time, or if someone's a little farther away, it's not gonna catch everything. But if we are close, if you know it's you, myself, Blake, we're all there talking, it'll be able to catch that up. Sometimes, Coach Adam, um, you'll fill me in, what's going on, what people are saying, what I need to do. Um, so that's kind of what we'll do in that pre-race um meeting. During the race, it's all up in the air. We set up, you know, the communication we need, we use our eyes, we see gestures, body language, and kind of go from there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, once the gun goes off, I mean, it's you got to think on your feet. But that actually reminds me of uh Kopy road race a couple years ago where uh I was up in a break with uh Chris, right? The the other uh D3 or deaf cyclist. Um it was Chris and um uh Eddie, Eddie Buckley. And the only reason I bring this up is uh we were in the break and they were giving us time gaps. And so he would you know the moto would come up and just yell and then go back, and all of a sudden I realized I'm crossing here and that through my through my own like hack, like like point to my wrist, like three zero back. Uh he was like, oh, okay. And he super appreciated it, which I think then because he's on a different team, motivated him to work a little bit more. So then you know, we eventually we stayed away, uh, which was super cool. Uh but but again, I think it it comes down to like uh just being a good person, having some empathy, and being like, hey, this this guy needs some help in communication. Meanwhile, somebody like Chris, that dude can hold 400 watts for 30 minutes. So he you definitely want to help him out in a break because he's gonna help you out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. And you know, um, the world tour, you know, all of the cyclists uh don't speak the same language, right? They use gestures um to communicate, and in a gap, um, usually there's a board that's held up um to show those times um on a motorcycle or someone stands to show what's going on. It's clear um that visual um, you know, visual cue happening, which is cool. So I might be bringing that up um to uh you know different boards that can make that happen, um, not just for deaf athletes, but for all athletes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, yep. Excellent point for sure. And just to round that off, I I think that for any listener who, you know, will come across uh, you know, a deaf competitor, just slow down, realize if if they ain't hearing you, that's probably for a reason. And you know, think on your feet, use a different way to communicate with them, and you'll probably develop a friend and uh go even faster for doing so.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot here a little bit to talk more about you personally, and then we'll talk about some tips that uh everybody can apply to their training because you know, we're all crunched on time. Uh you have a wife, a young child now, dogs, full-time job. You actually have a part-time job as a photographer. I don't even know if we'll get into that. Uh but like many listeners, you're busy, you're ambitious, you have big goals, but you don't have a ton of time uh to you know pour into that, especially for in a big event like the Deaf Olympics. So I mean, in some sense, you're the perfect time crunched athlete with those big lofty goals to ask this question. What are some of those tips that you can offer to people listening to help you stay on task so that you can focus and stick to your training program when you're coming up to a big race like this?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yeah, absolutely. So to be honest, um I don't know how exactly to answer it, but you know, I do know some things I put in practice. Um growing up, um, I played sports my whole life, never stopped running, doing, um, playing those sports. So I find cycling um a huge fascination, a huge almost uh, you know, passion of mine. I love doing it, I love being um in the races. And with the Deaf Olympics, you know, I saw that was an event. I said, you know, I want to do that. My goal was to get there. And that kind of led me to figure out um from there, how can I make it with my training? How can I dial this in? Now that I have a daughter, you know, I always make sure that I have time for training. Consistency is really key there. Um, and consistency is not easy, as you know. Um, how to keep up with that consistency. I try to keep telling myself, um, you know, keep uh exploring the bike, have fun. Um, if you're not having fun at the end of the day, you know, you're not gonna continue. You're not gonna be able to keep up your training, you're not gonna hit that goal. Um, and you're gonna suffer somewhere else. So I always tell myself, enjoy those moments, enjoy what you can. And that led me to, you know, it's led me to enjoying my training consistently. The second thing I think is just communication. Communicate with your family, keep that up, and it's just as important. Um, I support my, you know, wife, my family. Um, what's gonna make her happy? What's gonna, you know, continue pushing both of us. It goes both ways.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Agreed. A happy wife, happy life, happy cyclist. And to that end, I I would say, you know, one thing, you know, one thing that is evident is is and one thing I learned about you too is um when you've gotten busy, like uh everybody has excuses. Life gets in the way and training sessions you know, they get they go by the wayside, they don't get done. And uh one of the things I learned with you is when a couple of those sessions weren't getting done, I was like, okay, I don't want to bother him because I know I know he's slammed right now. But through some of our conversations and and you know, butting of heads and coming back, if I don't see a session done, I send you a text. I just like poke you. I'm just like, hey man, like where's that workout? Like, like, hey, do you have any questions about that? So just coming back to the communication. It's like, hey, how you doing? Versus, okay, I know he's busy, don't want to necessarily get in the way. And I think that has increased your consistency, uh, which I think has uh then you know played into fitness, which then goes into uh probably the the number one thing that I realized that you're doing better this. Here is even if we miss a section, you identify the most important section and you prioritize that. Like you get that done, you smash it out of the park normally. And then sometimes like the easy endurance ride, that doesn't get done because work, uh, daughter, uh, wife, uh, build the bike, w whatever needs to be prioritized. So you've done a uh just a fantastic job of getting the bigger, more important workouts done and not sweating the small details, which I think is hugely important.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly that. And, you know, in the past, um, you know, I might have a you know a weird year where I um, you know, I didn't work out or you know, I kind of got into a funk, and I don't enjoy those times, right? Um, so I want to kind of obsess over the details. Um, however, if you do that too much, you're gonna burn out. Um, so as that was happening a year or two later, I decided, hey, I'm just gonna have fun with this. You know, why did I start riding in the first place? There's a reason for that. And just like you mentioned, um, often looking at the training plan, what's the most important ride? I know in my mind I have to do that. I'm gonna communicate with my wife, I'm gonna communicate with my family, whoever other family members can come and support, um, you know, babysit, watch our dogs, whatever needs to do, then then I'm gonna head out for my ride. Um, you have to find a way instead of just saying, I can't, you know, um, and it's just not gonna work out. Yep, yep. I do admit, um, you know, I do look at other riders who have that 20-hour a week training schedule. I uh kind of am jealous of that. But when I realize, you know, what they're doing, it's not all about the hours. It's not at the end of the day, it's quality versus quantity. Um, you know, unless I do, you know, stages, it might be a different story. Um, but I don't do don't do stages.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, like stage is referring to stage racing. That's where the aerobic depth would really play into it. But yeah, completely agree for a lot of the crits in one-day races we do. Um uh the Deaf Olympics is a little bit of an asterisk uh because there are some back-to-back days. However, um I think we've been preparing for it as best we can. So you know, uh one other thing that I think is really important uh when it comes to uh uh when you're time crunched, you need motivation having a training partner. I think is vitally important. And that's where you know Blake and there's been you know a few others, but just like we're blessed here in the DMV area where you can jump in a group, I've said this on the podcast several times, you can jump into a group ride pretty much any single day of the week and get after it, right? There's people riding, there's people riding hard. So you know, that accountability and the level of people to push you like it is wildly important for motivation, uh, for accountability, and you know, for fitness gaining and for tactics, because that's how I I mean I use like basically you and Blake. You know, we just create scenarios of how you're going to uh sharpen each other up, how to help each other out. And then when you go and compete with each other, uh it's it's uh old hat.

SPEAKER_01:

And maybe I'll say this DMV is um a luxury to be able to train in this area because of all of that that you mentioned. We have a lot of group rides, um, high pace, you know, weekends, um lot of opportunities. Myself and Blake were very grateful to have, I'm grateful to have Blake, also Chris, um grateful to have them as training partners. We're able to get together, discuss strategy, how can we win, throw out those game plans, those ideas, um, and really bounce off each other during the race. We're able to, you know, say, okay, who's gonna watch, who's gonna monitor, who are we gonna target, um, who are we gonna mark. Um and this year I do feel a little bit different because I started to talk um, you know, how to win at the end. In the past, as you know, I would stay, you know, stay in the crowd. What am I gonna do? Now I'm kind of gaining that strategy, how to lead out, how to do that a little better. And that's been the most fun in the journey. Um, with Blake, having that opportunity. I'm really excited to see how we do at the Deaf Olympics this year. Um, and we have amazing strong riders on the team. Really excited for everyone to see what we're uh see what we're gonna do and hope we bring back a medal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that is uh I'm looking forward to it. I I think you guys can for sure. And I'm I'm excited to to watch and see what happens. So I guess to wrap this up, and finally, if anyone listening wants to follow you leading into the Def Olympics, that again is coming up in about three weeks from now, um, or the the tail end of uh November, um, where can they where can they find you? How can they follow you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate the question. Uh for sure. Um I'm happy to provide all of those links for social media. Um there's USA Deaf Cyclists, um, deaf cycling, um, and they post uh rather frequently. I'll also add um, you know, another link. Um, I'll be posting as much as I can on my social media. I'm not a huge social media guy. I have a lot on my plate, um, and I, you know, do different things in different areas, but I will be posting there. You can look at the website, Def Olympics. Um, we'll have Adam include that. 2025 um Japan. Um, we'll include all the links, follow there. Um, stay up on Instagram, Facebook, all the social media, they'll be posting. I'll be posting as much as I can um for a live stream. Fingers crossed, hopefully they will have that provided. That is the plan that I've heard as of as of thus far. So watch there if you can. Um, I know uh it's unique about Deaf Olympics. Um, so hopefully we get that access too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure. Now, and if anyone's wondering, I mean, getting to the Deaf Olympics is not cheap. So athletes are pretty much funding the entire trip on their own, uh, even though they have some support on the ground. So uh if anyone wishes to donate and support to uh your team, Dima, or you as an individual, how best can they do that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm happy you asked. Thanks. Yeah, I want to expand a little on that, kind of explain Deaf Olympics as a whole. Um, Deaf individuals don't fall into either of the other categories, Paralympics, Special Olympics, um, same as those athletes don't fall into the Deaf Olympics. They're each their own separate entity. Um and for Deaf Olympics, um, it's such an enriching experience. Same with Paralympics and Special Olympics, as athletes that get to go there, being a part of a whole community of other athletes all over the world with the same culture, deafness, um, such a cool opportunity. Um, and as deaf athletes, we are not funded by um any organization like IOC. Um, we don't get that support, we are on our own. Um, we do have a little bit of support from different spots, but we are out of pocket, we pay for it on our own. Um, we just have that, you know, proud pride to support our country. We do fundraise, um, and we use GiveButter. It's a platform. Um, you can donate if you're interested to the team, Def Team USA, or each individual athlete. Um, you can donate and it'll get spread out between the team if you provide that to the team. And we'll provide that link as well, like Adam mentioned.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to specify that because I I think too, when you're you know over there competing in the USA jersey, it may seem like you're you know fully funded by USA cycling or a governing body or something like this, but it's it's not. I mean, it's it's all coming out of pocket, which uh s sad as it is, I mean, um it that's hard for for uh an athlete to do that. And I know you know many Paralympic athletes um that have you know gone through that process. So it's challenging. So you know, uh again, just more more respect and uh to all of you know the the whole Deaf Olympic team, um, the cycling team and all other sports there, but I just wanted to bring some awareness to how that works. And I guess yeah, in in closing, um Dima, I mean your your story your story is so awesome. I mean, and you are an incredible person. So I I am honored to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for making time out of your busy schedule to join us and sharing your journey with our listeners. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, not a problem at all. I've enjoyed this time. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Well Thanks for inviting me, Adam.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely, and hopefully uh see you out there on the group right here soon.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, thanks, Tima. Thanks for joining us on the Time Crunch Cyclist Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you want even more actionable training advice, head over to trainwright.com backslash newsletter and subscribe to our free weekly publication. Each week you'll get in depth training content that goes beyond what we cover here on the podcast that'll help you take your training to the next level. That's all for now. Until next time, train hard, train smart.

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Adam Pulford

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