Hellyer Night 1

some good, some bad.

First off, Hellyer was crazy fun tonight with the fans, the music, the cookout, etc. I also love seeing friends I haven't seen since last year racing- Triplett, Heather V, and all the girls!

Second, crashing is not fun. I am over it. I have crashed more this season then in the 3 years I have been racing. Again, not fun.

Sorry- no pics to share yet so I will make this short. Check here for photos though... there is more to come I am sure. There were tons of photographers there.

Keirin. Won the first round. Laura, the Aussie, was in my heat so it was nice to get that under the belt. Straight to the finals. Teammate Shelley took the harder way by going through the rep round but making to the final ultimately. We had a plan. It worked. Shelley got my wheel and protected it. I followed Laura, the Aussie, over and came around. In the end, Laura had me at the line but she got relegated for coming out of the lane. So, it ended with me 1st and Shelly 2nd. NICE!

Points. We had a plan. It should have worked. Laura raced her butt off and crashed me out and won. Wait, did I say that out loud? Coming into the last sprint, Shelley needed to win. I needed to not let Laura win. So, sitting on her wheel. She swings up track and keeps going up track. Why? I don't know. But, there I was, stuck and going fast and nowhere to put the front wheel. Boom! Ouch! Shelley wins the sprint. Wait, double gun? What? Double gun on the last lap? I am off the track and out of the way. Oh well, officials have the hardest jobs and they see it as it comes. So, they restart the race with 5 laps to go. This gives me some time to get the bike fixed and get back going. We ended Shelley 2nd and me 3rd. Laura won.

Did she do it on purpose? No. I can't imagine anyone crashing anyone else on purpose. No way.

Was I pissed? Yes.

Will I race tomorrow? Well, I am schedule to wake up in 4 hours. The leg is throbbing now and keeping me up. I will see how it goes in the morning. There is a sprint tourney in the morning and more racing at night. We will see!

Here's to 4 hours of solid sleep.... PLEASE!

Losing my mind

This Wednesday I flew to San Jose, CA to compete in the Hellyer AVC.

As soon as I got on the bus to the airport I realized I left my phone at home. How will I ever live without the iPhone? I borrowed another passenger's phone, called Greg, and begged him to come chase the bus down and give me my phone. Nope. Didn't work. Luckily we had a friend who was driving out for the race and already bringing wheels for me; my phone tagged along for the ride.

Almost 24 hours without my phone! If you are laughing... you try it.

Then, the next morning after getting settled at the host house, I realize that I forgot my coffee set-up. Seriously, the two most important items when traveling- phone, coffee gig.

I did indeed remember my bike.

Priorities

When I am on the road I miss my dog... I mean, my husband... and, I really miss my coffee. We have mastered our coffee at home. I love my coffee in the morning so much so that I think about it the night before.

Today was my day off. A day to relax and catch up on life. I decided that I needed to go shopping for clothes since I haven't purchase anything new in about a year. Somehow I ended up at the speciality kitchen shop in Boulder to buy some special coffee filters for the house. Had Peppercorn carried these filters I would have walked away from there spending $3 max. Instead, I spent the afternoon and $50 for the best new coffee toys.

My friend Alison recommended the Aeropress for the best coffee on the road. It travels well and I will be testing it out this week when I head to Colorado Springs for some overnight training trips. I also decided to get the travel frother after using my friend/teammate Kate's while staying with her in California once. No more missing good coffee when I am away.

How quickly I was derailed in my shopping trip intended for clothes. Some call it crazy but others think I have my priorities straight. Who cares if I am still wearing parachute pants from the 80's as long as I can make a good latte on the road?

Huge Podium for a little one

My teammate Shelley Olds landed herself in 2nd place this weekend at Nature Valley. The pocket rocket and PROMAN teammates worked their butts off on the 5 day, 6 stage race to not only land 2nd place to Kristen Armstrong but also walk away with the Wheaties' Sprinters Jersey.

Shelley is in fine form and deserves every ounce of confidence she has. :)

Shelley went from 4th GC to 2nd GC on the last day by making the break with Kristen and a Colavita girl. Pocket Rocket on the right in the Wheaties' jersey.

Great job Shelley! The team, the fans, and all of NorCal is proud!

Seriously

Seriously, I am over the rain, hail, and Seattle like clouds.

Seriously, I had a break down at workouts today. Did my warm-up including my "jumps" but my legs just weren't feeling good. One of my coaches, Mark Tyson, said something to me (not really related to my general slowness) and I just started crying. "My legs feel awful. Why? Why? Why?" Thank goodness Tyson used to coach my other coach Missy because she was the craziest sprinter girl ever and he knows just how to handle this.

Tyson sat me down and hugged me. He reminded me that I am in a tough block of training and you have to get slower to get faster. Tyson talked me off the ledge.

I completed my workout without crying... my legs are in a deeper hole now!

Crazy track sprinter chicks! What to do with them?

I thought I lived in the high desert. Usually at this point in the year we are talking about the water levels in the reservoirs, about the high danger of wild fires, and about watering restrictions. This year, not so much. I love how everything is so green still but I am ready for the thunderstorms to be over.

Nothing and nobody was this prepared for all this rain.

Today's ride was supposed to be easy with some sprints. As I finished my sprints I saw the storm coming over the mountains. It turned into a full on time trial home trying to beat the storm. So much for the easy ride part. Oh, and I still got rained on. So much for my clean bike! Proof that I am a sprinter and not a time trial girl.

Last week's project

Since I have been home for a week or so, I have had some time to do "other" things. "Other" means things not related to my own training and racing. Oh, and for some people in my life who don't think I do anything girly... I did get a pedicure this week! Happy? (Once a tomboy, always a tomboy)

Each kid on my junior team, Flatiron Flyers, is required to complete a certain number of community service hours. Last week we did something as a group to help out MESA, an awesome local non-profit. We did a reverse scavenger hunt which means we followed maps/address/written communication to deliver t-shirts to those people who could not make the Canine Classic but paid in advance.

Packing up and ready to go!

Ok, we did it on bikes so it was cycling related. But, the kids and I totally enjoyed doing something to help out MESA. It was a great way to secretly gets the kids to ride 3+ hours.

Flatiron Flyers Delivery Service

Oh, and then the kids got to come back to my house and pick out any/all used cycling clothing from me and other donors. They LOVED this! These two need to grow into their new goods.

Flatiron Flyers LOVE their sponsors! Justin's Nut Butter was a favorite after the long ride.

Hit me while I'm down

I guess I should listen to my body a little more carefully.

After crashing in Tulsa and doing the whole traveling thing, my body was tired.  I denied it the rest thinking I couldn't take that many days without training... I was losing my fitness... Pan American Championships are only a coupe months away... all the crazy things athletes think when they can't exercise for a couple days.

My body was knocking loudly at the door and asking me to rest.  I should have welcomed the rest with open arm since I couldn't really do anything worth training.  Instead, I got my butt back in the weight room to get "swoll" and tried to get some little rides in.  DUH!  Now, I am suffering from a terrible summer cold.  Usually I avoid cold meds.  This time I am taking any pill, syrup, magic powder, anything.... well anything USADA says is cool.  

"Take that!" says the body.

Meanwhile the velodrome in Colorado Spring opened!  Couldn't miss that.  I went down today with Greg and friends to turn circles and celebrate the weather gods.  I cranked out a couple fast times before my body started yelling again.  This time I couldn't deny the warnings (the stopwatch records all) and chilled the rest of the day.

It's late and the cold meds have kicked in.... later!

Tulsa in Pictures

The weekend is done.  We had a great team weekend with Shelley landing 2 out of 3 1st place finishes.  That is huge.

On a personal note, I crashed pretty darn hard on Saturday and didn't ride on Sunday.  Bummer since my legs felt great and I had some confidence going into the weekend.  That's bike racing.

Here is the Hit Squad that swarmed Tulsa.  Shelley, Me, and Rach.

Fixing the helmet before the start of Saturday.  Premonition?  I needed it that day.  90 women started the weekend on Friday.  Sweet!

We spent lots of time hanging out with this guy, Brian.  He owns Double Shot in Tulsa.  Best coffee ever.  Boulder has nothing that compares.

Sunday.  The hill.  I don't know how many girls started on Sunday but only about 20-25 finished.  Ouch!

Fans in Tulsa were out of control.  Each race had its unique fan support.

Get used to it people.

Shelley leading the charge after the crash on Saturday that took out about 30 people.  They stopped the race for about 15 minutes.

I am so proud of Shelley and Rach this weekend.  They (we all) had our own victories.  Such a great group to be a part of!