recall

everything i said about having a good stomach. i take back. we are not friends today.

Wednesday Update

My stomach was less enemy and more friend today. I think it had to do with my new staple diet. I had at least three PB&J today.

Done! Medal in Sprints too. HOORRAAAY! I qualified 3rd and ended 3rd. But, I had a hard road to get there. Today was a mental B___CH. I proved that I have some speed but don't have the years of experience some of these girls have.
I met up with Lisandra (Cuban girl who won) in the semi's. She beat me 2 in a row. The first ride I raced like a scared baby. The second ride was better but she is just better then me.

For the Bronze medal ride I raced Monique from Canada who I have raced before a couple times but never beat. She won the first ride and again I had a "wimpy" moment that was my fatal mistake. I was pissed! I was so mad that tears were forming. I won the next two rides for the Bronze!

For some off the bike news... teammate Lannell was trying new tricks to open up the lungs.

Administered by the hippie team soigner from Crested Butte, Andrew. I get Andrew's alternative methods but the kids from Pennsylvania think he is crazy.

"You want me to what?"

Tuesday Update

Tuesday was another great day! I had a hard time believing it last night.

The day started with the 200 tt and sprints. I qualified with a 11.44 for third. The Columbian was 1st with a 10.9 and the Cuban was 2nd with a 11.0_. The funny part that we were trying to keep a secret (but it is out now) was that I did it in the wrong gear! I was supposed to ride a 50x14 (96ish) and accidently had the 50x15 on (90). For all your non-cyclists, this is a huge mistake and definitely affected the speed. In the moment I was really mad but laughed about it shortly after. A rookie mistake. The mechanic made the first mistake by putting on the wrong gear, I made the second mistake by not checking, and the coach made the third mistake by not double checking. We are take responsibility and move on.

First round I raced a Chilean and won. In the quarters I raced the Brazilian for the best 2 out of 3 and won the first 2. I was real happy with the tactics and execution.

After being at the track all day, I did the scratch for the last event of the night. At first we were unsure whether I should do it. Should I conserve the energy for the rest of the sprint rounds today? Do I have a chance at doing ok since I have never done a scratch race at this level? The coach left the decision to me and I went for it. Thank goodness because I came in 2nd! I lost to the current World Champion, Yumari from Cuba. I have to say that the USA played a perfect tactical race and THANKS KIM GEIST! She deserves the medal as much as I do.

See those rainbow stripes on Yumari... that means she is #1 in the world right now for all you non-cycling people.

I was so excited last night about the 2nd place but when everything calmed down I realized that maybe I could do better. Next time I want to beat Yumari!

Jimmy Watkins, Team USA, killed it in the kilo for a new national record and a gold medal!

This is how you should feel after the kilo. After about 15 minutes, Jimmy came back to life.

Oh, for humor... our great security system at the track. Nothing here that some decent bolt cutters couldn't handle. Thank goodness that half of the Mexico City population is employed as security guards.

Day in Pictures

Well, none from the track. I will update that stuff tomorrow. But, this afternoon I went spinning around this park, racetrack think behind the compound where we are living.

Apparently this raceway is open to the public for exercise.

Lots of fields and courts of all kinds. Nobody around here plays basketball.

Everyone plays soccer. Everything but the field is green grass.

There is even this mini velodrome surrounded by layers of fences.

eBay is world wide. or, Sara, you missing a bike? Someone in South America really likes it.

Big news- the guys with soap, towels, and toilet paper showed up tonight. We were all happy!

Pictures tell a thousand words

Calm before the storm.

Columbia 2nd, Cuba 1st, USA 3rd. These girls obviously got some joke the announcer had in Spanish. I missed it all together.

Those Nike kits are NOT flattering... at all!

quick update

The important part... We got access to Facebook tonight! Whew. Life was getting pretty miserable. Now, I have something for my free time. I was almost done with the book and done with the Suduko from the airplane.

I will post pictures tomorrow because there will be more exciting stuff to share. Here are the quick tidbits that family and friends have been asking...

- staying in dorm like places. I somehow got lucky and got my own room. Oh, and I got lucky and talked my way into a towel and soap.

- eating in a dorm like cafeteria. I am not being to crazy with food choices but having a hard time finding protein. Tonight I ate rice and beans and cooked broccoli. Then snuck some bread to the room to eat with peanut butter. Oh, and there is a yogurt drink that I think I am living on.

- we are staying on this campus similar to the Olympic Training Center and the velodrome is on campus. no real need to leave campus and won't have time for site seeing unfortunately. i hear the city is beautiful and full of culture.

- the track is super nice and really fast. hard wood, 250 m which is round, but not very steep. but, being at 7,000 feet makes the place fast.

- there are 3 women and 3 men from the USA. 4 staff members. good group of people.

Ok, there is more but those were the basics people were asking.

I race tomorrow, Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Tomorrow is the 500m TT... not my best event but I continue to improve on it. Like "the friend" Mande said, "anything that has a TT in it.... uuugh." The friend is right. There is something special about doing a time trial. I would much rather chase someone down. But, tomorrow, it is ON!

Good night :)

Settled

I am waiting for the rest of the team to arrive tonight from the road race. Once I have people to speak English with, I am sure the blogging will slow :)

Actually, my friends from Trinidad have provided some decent conversation. And the Argentinean coach was friendly with English today.

Who is the first person I see when I arrived last night? Lisandra Guerra from Cuba. She is only the fastest girl in North and South American. Nothing like lighting the nerves on fire within 5 milliseconds after arriving. I am sure she is nice (if we could speak with each other) but since I am staying right next door to her I have had a chance to check her out. I want to be like Lisandra when I grow up... chick is buff!

A couple sessions at the track today and it is pretty sweet. Since it is at altitude, the track is should be fast. The hard wood will help too. The banking isn't really steep though which feels unusual.

Looking from our pit into turn 3/4.

From our pit into turn 1/2 and down the tunnel. We are right next to Jamaica.

The other teams that were there today were Guatemala (minus my favorite Guatemalan Paola), Dominica Repulic, Trinidad and Tabago, Cuba, and Argentina. I think that is all I saw today but there are lots more wandering around. Good times!

"No circular en bicicleta"

When it is good to not know Spanish... when the security guards are chasing you telling you not to ride your bike on campus. Whatever!

I just got back from riding the velodromo (see, I am learning a little Spanish) and will post pictures later.

All is good so far besides not knowing I was supposed to bring my own towels and soap. Summer camp 2009!

On again, off again... it's on!

A quick update as I sit in DIA waiting to go to Mexico City for the Pan American Championships. YAY! Finally.

Earlier this year, I was chosen to represent good 'ol USA at Pan Ams... in May. Swine Flu got in the way and they have been rescheduled for this coming week. The bummer is the change in plans really messed up the road racing season for me. (You can't really go from climbing mtns in stage races to tearing it up in a 200 m tt. Long road miles are good but at certain points of the training year and not a couple weeks before a track race as a sprinter.) The good news in the change of plans is that I am R.E.A.D.Y.

The adventure begins. Flying with bikes is always an adventure. I check in and give them my credit card to charge for flying with a bike. They inform me that the credit card machine they have doesn't work and I will have to pay cash. I inform them that I have pesos but not enough dollars to cover the amount. They inform me I need to go to the ATM. I inform them that it will cost me about $5 extra to get cash out of the machine. I inform myself to stop being cheap in order to make sure my bikes get there. I walk around DIA to find the ATM machine that doesn't accept my card. It doesn't work... and not because I don't have money in my account but because the machine is broken. I go back to inform the airline that I can't get cash and they inform me that I better find another ATM machine. On the DL I slide my bike box to the TSA guys to take with them since it has already been tagged. As I am walking around searching for another ATM and not having luck, I decide that since my bike has already been taken, I have my luggage tags, and I can't find an ATM, that I am going to the gate. Oh well!

As tough as I want to be with the old "it's their problem their credit card machine doesn't work", it sure will be my problem if they decide to hold my bike back in Denver. Crossing my fingers! Then again, this is why I am traveling a couple days early.

I hope to keep in touch! Stay tuned.

Cari

Na-Nu Na-Nu

Odd fact... I live a couple doors away from the Mork and Mindy house. True.

Don't let your babies grow up to be sprinters

I have spent the last couple weeks in training with my enduro boys and today was the first day back with the sprinter boys. Oh, the differences!

1) crude language o-plenty

2) there was farting going on today

3) smelly no socks

4) stuff always breaks on a sprinters bike

5) won't even sit on the same bench for a picture... and flips me off

6) BONUS- I don't have the biggest legs and butt on the track. the gorilla on the right wins.

Video

Little video interviews from the Hellyer race in San Jose.

PROMAN talks.

I hate my own voice on video.

Good times! Oh, minus the crash that happened right after that.

Just your basic morning view while walking the dog at home in Boulder... couldn't resist sharing the photo.

Happy 4th!

I think it was a blessing in disguise that the track was closed/rained out most of the week. My body was not really agreeing with me trying to jump back into normal training. Although the road rash is healing really well, I have had major neck pain. Wait mom! Before you panic, I am sure it is just muscular and not vertebral. (my mom reads this blog and hates hearing about crashing or injury.)

So, I hit the road bike pretty hard this week and visited the original Boulder Velodrome. See the picture below...

This is my super not-so-secret Marshall Rd. which makes for the perfect place to do efforts on the track bike. Other cyclists don't seem to understand that I don't have brakes and sometimes like to swerve in front of me... oh, and, there is the occasional horse crossing that I avoid. Other then that, this is a great road for no brakes and no gears and it doesn't require me driving 4 hours.

The mom in-law was in town this week and the husband was out of town. It was girl time! On the 4th we went to a farm dinner at Munson Family Farm. Super cool night! Dinner outdoors with fresh produce and cooked right there on the short bus.
Papa Munson picking our lettuce for the night's salad.

The husband volunteered his time these past 5 days in LA at the Junior Track Nationals. There were 2 kids off the Flatiron Flyers (new website!) competing in their first track nationals and Maddie who I coach also competing. Several other juniors from Colorado made their debut... love it! Thanks Boulder Velodrome for producing some wonderful new talent!

the rest of the weekend...

I personally don't enjoy reading blogs without pictures. Call me simple. But, I was lame and forgot my camera over the weekend. Some great photos from the Hellyer AVC here. I will try and keep the rest simple.

I raced again on Saturday... didn't feel great. Showed up after 3 hours sleep on Saturday morning for the sprint tournament. Did my typical warm-up and felt surprisingly ok. Did my jumps out of the saddle and that is when I started falling apart. I couldn't stand up without pain.

Poor Karl Erickson, friend from Colorado. He rolled up next to me and asked how I was doing. The first familiar face and I just lost it. Couldn't stop crying, went to the infield, he followed (I am sure he is wondering what the hell to do with this emotional female), and the morning went something like that. I was slower on my 200m then I was 2 years ago when I was almost brand new to the sport. ha! I decided to not beat myself up mentally by sitting in the sun all day (100+ degrees), dehydrating, and not getting a break before the night racing. So, I withdrew from the sprint tournament, went home to shower, eat, and nap.

I did manage to make it back that night for the rest of the racing and fun. Although I didn't feel great, it was fun to race and try to help out teammates. Hannan won the scratch and we were all so excited for her!

Notable mentions for the weekend- Jimmy Watkins is looking good! It will be fun to see how he does down in Mexico for the Pan American Champs in a couple weeks... I expect big things!

Sunday I ended up staying around town and racing a crit. Not a great performance out of me. Physically I wasn't all there still. Mentally, I was a big baby for some reason. I was on a borrowed bike (thanks Tim the best mechanic ever). I was glad to get in under my belt though. You can't get all crazy after crashing a couple times and racing on Sunday helped me get the nerves out. Shelley came in 3rd after a courageous performance and I ended up winning the field sprint.

Lesson to all cyclists... you crash, keep riding/racing. It really helps the healing and keeps the stiffness at minimum but also helps the mental part. But, keep the rubber side down!