JUNE 19-22 RETREAT DETAILS

The MEP Cycling retreat has become one of the things I look forward to most each year. This year was our third time out in Marin, CA exploring the roads, climbs, descents and meaningful conversation along the way.

The MEP Race Team aims to use movement as a team to bond, to push and support one another in the unique way endurance sport offers. Our training will bring us to the edge of these questions; Why am I doing this? Who am I? What is my purpose?

After my first 50km in the On Cloudboom Echo 3, I’ve been impressed overall with the shoes. An impressive first carbon super shoe from the Swiss brand, and I look forward to testing them in an upcoming race.

In July this year, we hosted our second cycling retreat in Marin, CA with an amazing group of people from around the country. Over four days of epic road riding, three nights of deep breathwork, group circles, authentic sharing and connection, we bonded, explored and grew.

The innovative technology delivers an efficient carbohydrate with minimal ingredients and quick oxidization, founded by Maurten in 2015. With the use of hydrogel technology, they relatively new brand has increased the amount of carbohydrates, reduced the risk of gastrointestinal problems, and removed all unnecessary ingredients that don't aid your performance.

The Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next Nature takes Nike’s most elite performance shoe and recreates it with circular design principles. It is Nike’s most sustainably-minded performance shoe to date. Nike Running designers were driven by a core belief within the Move to Zero initiative — Nike’s journey toward zero carbon and zero waste — that a product that makes the world better can also make an athlete better. Cosmic Unity set the bar with 25 percent total recycled content by weight; the Alphafly Next Nature advanced it by reaching at least 50 percent total recycled content by weight, making it Nike’s boldest move yet in merging sustainability and performance. Doing so with the crown jewel of racing footwear was an important symbolic choice.

Last spring I visited Move Lab in Los Angeles for back to back days; doing a Precision Run Analysis and VO2 Max Test. The experiences were both exciting and challenging, with self-doubts coming up around my ability and even how my ACL would stand up to running full out. I got a lot more out of the experience than I anticipated and you can watch the two video episodes below on each of the sessions.

For no reason other than a desire to test my hardiness, I started running. I had never much enjoyed running before and working out even less, but I figured that if I was able to meet the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) requirements, this achievement would be symbolic of personal fortitude. I posit that it is personal fortitude and a quest to test one’s own that leads many adherents to a position of discovery at the mouth of the pain cave in the first place. That’s how I found it. 

A poem by Dr. Mike Spino

In this speech from 1966 at the Esalen Institute, Maslow expounds upon what he calls B values, short for Being-values, among them goodness, beauty, uniqueness, Justice, simplicity, and richness. He also explores motivations, metapathologies, and truth.