Road Riding in LA

My quick little training trip to LA... Sunday I get into town just in time to jump on the bike and catch this view down by the ocean.

Not too bad!

Monday was a long track session, Tuesday was another peaceful road ride/weights/track, and Wednesday... oh, Wednesday is when it all went crazy.

I set out on my 4 hour road ride from Huntington Beach thinking I would head north and do some laps of Palos Verdes to get some climbing in the legs. That's 45-60 minutes up the beach to Long Beach, get around/over Long Beach Port, climb around beautiful Palos Verdes, and reverse my ride to get back home. Sounds easy?

For the record, there is no easy way to ride a bike around that major port. Trains, 18-wheelers, huge highways, interstates, and no bike lanes. My mama would not have been happy with this decision. So, after a couple honks from 18-wheelers, a flat tire, a dirt trail (after the flat tire- read: no spare left), some new grey hair, a couple peaceful Dave Matthews albums, and 4.5+ hours in the saddle, I made it back to the beautiful Huntington Beach. My adrenalin pumped until 11:00 pm that night.

I will not be riding anywhere near Long Beach Port... or any port for that matter. I am thankful I made it out of that situation safely. Now, back to the track where there are no cars or trucks... only bikes with no brakes!

Cheers!

And, the flip side

The flip side to my last blog is that I have actually been having a ton of fun being at home. There really is no place like home.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I have been enjoying the last handful of weeks.

Yes, it is winter in Boulder. Despite a couple huge snow storms, we have had some super warm days. Elke and I did some hiking up above Boulder.

Mountain biking! My first love. This photo was taken at Valmont Bike Park. Super cool, city owned/built bike park in Boulder. Not such a bad view of the Flatirons from here!

Debating the jump.

For the record, Greg wouldn't let me take any pictures of him. Would have made a great Holiday card to get one of us both. Lame!

This only documents one of the great nights we spent with good friends. Although we ended this night at the all famous Boulderado Hotel, we started this night having dinner at Frasca with a guest chef from Eleven Park Madison in NY, a three-star Michelin restaurant. Kind of fancy but oh-what-a-treat!

Greg and I spent a weekend in Vail with our close friends, Nick and Megan. One day we snuck away to Beaver Creek to watch the Birds of Prey World Cup... skiing on steroids. Wow! That was my first time to see skiing of that caliber up close and personal. I am convinced that Greg and I, genetically speaking, would produce the perfect physical downhill skier. Legs. Butts. Huge.

Although I didn't ski this weekend, it was fun to escape and feel like I was on vacation for a couple days. Thanks Nick and Megan!

What else? Home cooked meals. Baking experiments. Riding and training with friends. Sleeping in my own bed. Big, wet kisses from the dog. Quality time with the man. It was a good couple weeks.

Debbie Downer

I avoid negative people like the plague. Don't bring your sad story, your shitty attitude, or your poor-me pouty face in my direction. Now, it doesn't mean I am not a friend to those who need someone to talk to. I have bitch sessions like the rest of you. But, once it becomes your modus operandi, I don't want to be around.

Well, excuse the absenteeism but I was having a poor me moment. It's been 2 months and, no, I haven't been curled up in a ball in a dark room the whole time. There was no need to write when you don't have much nice to say. Then, once I got out of the habit of updating the blog, it was easy to act like it didn't exist.

Here is the quick and dirty of where I have been...

LA Camp for 2 weeks- extension of "can't get out of my own way Nationals." As many elite athletes so, I ignored so many red flags.

Home for 2 or so weeks- My thinking was... well, you need to train harder. So, I did. And, this is when I curled up in a small ball in the dark room. 2 days prior to leaving for another camp in LA, I couldn't ride my bike more then 20 minutes without crazy bad knee pain. Nice timing.

LA Camp for 2 weeks- I found a miracle doctor who diagnosed exactly what was going one. Thank you Charles Whitney! I wish he had a website I could refer everyone in SoCal to because he is genius. I went from not being able to ride my bike, literally, to being about 80% functional in 2-3 weeks.

Apparently, it wasn't the knee that was/is the problem. It is an old undiagnosed injury from back in March. Did I ever write about my left leg problems from Worlds this past year? Probably not because I don't really like talking negative on this blog or in person. But, ya. This little issue has been lingering around for quite sometime and I always thought my left leg was just weaker or I needed massage or .... 2,000 excuses that any elite athlete uses besides the word INJURY.

Anyway, about 6 doctor visits (in both Boulder and SoCal), 2 PT visits, 2 dry needling visits, way too many massages, and lots of at-home rehab... and I see the light. Thank you Dr. Charles and Boulder Center for Sports Medicine!

Now I have been home again for a couple weeks and it is time to head back to the 60 degree weather of SoCal tomorrow.

Meanwhile, there have been lots of fun happenings at home and lots to catch everyone up on...

How could I forget???

My birthday present from the team! Interviewing me in the middle of testing. Thanks Nicola and Greg :)

Birthday fun with Exergy TWENTY 12's Cari Higgins! from Exergy TWENTY12 on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday to me... ha!

Does this sound like a fun way to spend your birthday?

- Early morning at the track for benchmark testing. Track time 9am-1:30pm.

- Lunch, 2 hrs. downtime, rollers/core, dinner (made my Lauren!)

- Rained ALL day in LA. Really? Does that happen?

- Death of one of the greatest brains and pioneers ever to live. RIP Steve Jobs.

Sound depressing? Well, not to be a downer, but it wasn't a celebratory day by any means. For that, I subtract a year instead of adding one.

But, it ended with this...

That brought a smile to my face.

Last night I stayed up late to order "my" birthday present... two new iPhones for Greg and I. They went on sale at midnight California time and the website was crashed for about 45 minutes. Amazing! One of the few companies in the world that can put something for sale in the middle of the night and have people in every time zone setting their alarms... only to wait patiently for the website to work for 45 minutes... happily pay hundreds of dollars... and go back to sleep peacefully.

Today is a 4 hour ride north of Santa Monica. If nobody is watching, I may stop and go shopping in Santa Monica on the way home. More birthday presents for me :)

P.S. Besides not being with Greg... I wouldn't want life any other way right now. I feel lucky every day!

Take 1

The last day before the big work begins...

So far, I have done a much better job embracing LA. I can't really count the number of nights I spent in this city last winter but I trust it was more then I spent at home. I fought it, cursed it, damned it, etc.

This year has been easier so far. Maybe it's because we are staying in a nicer hotel, one that provides us all with a little personal space. Maybe it's because I know my way around without having to Mapquest my first step out of the door. Maybe it's because I started spending more time in little pockets of heaven like Manhattan Beach. Maybe it's because I swore I would make a life for myself here and not just make it ALL bikes. Any way you look at it, I am not dreading spending most of the winter here... only wish I could bring Greg and Elke!

Thanks to my friend Adam, we got tickets to watch the Chivas play at the Home Depot Center. I love watching soccer!

And so it begins... the bikes from a bunch of USA Cycling athletes await the hard work we all have ahead of us. Bring on the pain because I am ready for the gains!

LA Team Pursuit Camp, Take 1.

Lucky Me!

I'm sitting here in my hotel room and taking account of equipment. As I start the track season, I am just assuring I have everything in place. Bike, check. Wheels, check. New tires, hmm. New aero bars, need adjusting. SRM, when is the last time I had it serviced? You get the picture.

It's a good time to take a moment and thank the sponsors who make this all happen.

Felt Bicycles. Hot damn. The best! Not only are they completely supportive of Team Exergy TWENTY12 on the road providing road bikes and TT bikes but they have stepped up to support us on the track too. I ride the ZW on the road which is optimized to fit women and a DA TT bike which always makes me feel uber fast. On the track, we train and race on the TK1. Look around, all the fast people are doing it? I sincerely want to thank a major bicycle company for caring

enough to put major bucks into designing and building some crazy nice track bikes. Not only that, but they support their athletes by coming out to races and cheering for us. That, my friends, is called support. Thank you Felt and Doug/Ty/and gang.

Zipp Speed Weaponry. Enough said.

This summer I had the privilege of visiting Zipp's headquarters in Indianapolis. Since I have raced Zipp wheels on the track pretty much since I started racing, I was already sold on the fact that, for whatever reason, I really like their wheels. But, after the visit and learning about the research, human time, and quality materials that go into making Zipp wheels (right here in the USA!), I understand why they are the best. The facts are secret and I signed something very official that said they would own my first born if I told their secrets. So there.

I am privileged to ride too many wheels to list. 101s, 303s, 404s, 808s, 900, sub-9, super-9. Ya, exactly! We also use all the Service Course bars, stems, seatposts. Lucky me!

Putting in all in action!

THANK YOU FELT BICYCLES AND ZIPP SPEED WEAPONRY!

Exergy TWENTY12

Big news for the team!

Introducing Exergy TWENTY12 Professional Women's Cycling Team from Exergy TWENTY12 on Vimeo.

Hello SoCal

Well, here, there, and everywhere.

We wrapped up the camp in Colorado Springs and it's kind of been a whirlwind since.

Here's a quick shot of a group ride in the beautiful hills outside Garden of the Gods.

A workout in Colorado Springs with a little extra oxygen for good measure.

2 weeks in Colorado Springs, 1 night at home, 1 day/night in Las Vegas, a handful nights back in Boulder, and the drive out to Los Angeles. I am getting settled here in LA and have a peace now with this city. Although there are things I would rather not deal with (traffic, smog, 4.5 million people, concrete, etc.)... there are things that I can appreciate about living here. (I have now sat and stared blankly at my computer for 3 minutes trying to make that "like" list.) No, really, I have found my little pocket of happiness in SoCal. I have a wonderful friend and house to live in in Huntington Beach, the winter weather actually allows me to train, there is an indoor velodrome, great selection of healthy grocery stores, and the ability to recover and relax between workouts. Being away from home is hard but it allows me to have complete focus.

I will always miss home. Here is a shot from a recent mountain bike ride.

Speaking of focus. I am sitting here on my bed in LA while the first morning of the Omnium is taking place at Elite Track Nationals. Weird, right? Yes, weird.

I LOVE racing my bike. I LOVE the omnium. I am good, really good, at the omnium. But, this winter I am focusing. I am focusing on making the Team Pursuit team for next summer's London Olympics.

"Excellence demands sacrifice." - Kristin Armstrong

We all sacrifice. Greg and I have made major sacrifices (careers for both of us, living in separate cities, lifestyle) in order for me to pursue my cycling career. In the big picture, my sitting out of my favorite races this year at Nationals is a small sacrifice. But, in the moment, it feels like a hard one. Even, as of yesterday, I doubted my decision and almost registered.

Focus. This year is different and I will remain focused on the big picture. I am a perfect A.D.D. athlete but I can and will remain focused on the goal for the next 11 months.

"Excellence demands sacrifice." Thanks Kristin!

Labor on the Labor Day

I don't really get Labor Day. Maybe I should take the time to read about it and figure out exactly why we celebrate labor by not working. With the recent reports in the news about the USA (13 average vacation days and only 56% of people use them), maybe Labor Day is a way to make people take a day off.

Well, not for us! Last week we started our first Team Pursuit camp here in Colorado Springs. It's fun to be back with the girls and get some early season track time in the legs.

With road racing season wrapping up and track racing season on the horizon, there is a lot to be excited about!

More updates with, hopefully, some pictures later in this week!!

Small Glimpse

of what was a lot of work for both us girls and for the awesome crew of Jim and Iri, Brakethrough Media and Panforte Productions.

These are the only photos I have seen so far and I figure they are ok to share since Jim/Iri posted them on Facebook. To see all the other media and photos you will have to wait :)

Oh, and I added this one just to show the winning team for the Aspen Women's Stage Race. From L to R: Alisha, Olivia, KMac, Armstrong, Ali, Me.

Boulder-CoS-Aspen-Vail-Boulder-Cos-Boulder

That was my last week of travel. Looks rough with the number of cities but take a closer look. Aspen? Vail? Boulder? Life is sweet!

I left Boulder to spend some days in Colorado Springs to race.... er, I mean watch some really sweet track racing, Winslow BMW Sprint Grand Prix. World class!

I drove over to Aspen to race the Aspen Women's Stage Race for 3 days. That altitude put a hurt on me. I can't imagine how the girls from sea level felt. It was a successful race for the team- KArmstrong winning the overall and KMac winning the Best Colorado Rider. Some serious beautiful days and nights in Aspen and lots of work to be done for the team off the bike each day. Exhausted but totally excited! (announcements coming soon)

The view from lunch one day in Aspen after the race. Makes me smile.

KMac and O-Wow on a ride in Carbodale pre-race.

From Aspen, I drove to Vail to meet Greg, Nick, and Megan. I know, rough life! Aspen.... Vail... can you pass the Dom please? Thanks to Nick and Megan, we all stayed at the Ritz in Vail for 2 nights. The four of us enjoyed watching some bike racing, riding our own bikes, drinking some wine, eating some good food, and relaxing.

The Pro Cycling Challenge TT started in the Vail Village.

The town was cycling crazy.

Greg and I watching... in the shade!

Nick and Megan making very important business decisions at the Ritz poolside. Seriously, they were.

Greg and I ran into our friends Jon and Beth in the Avon/Beaver Creek area watching some more Pro Cycling Challenge racing. In 2 days, I randomly saw them 3 times.

Home for 8 hours, 5 of which were sleep, and then back to Colorado Springs for some track training. Oh ya, I was tired when I got home last night! After a tough ride with some girlfriends this morning, I am stuck on the couch. The week finally caught up to me and I am ready for my rest day tomorrow! Oh wait, I still need to go to the gym today. Then I can start my resting.

Later!

Up an Over

It's no wonder why people visit Colorado in the summertime. Sitting in the car for 4 hours didn't seem like a chore at all. It was like a vacation.

Yesterday, Nicola and I drove from Colorado Springs to Aspen which took us up and over Independence Pass.

This is one of the routes for this week's USA Pro Cycling Challenge. It seemed hard to me in a car so good luck to all those guys who are pedaling their way.... oh, wait, RACING their way up that little hill. The downhill seems to me like the "challenge" part of this.

For those of you who don't know, Nicola Cranmer is the woman who gets work done for women's cycling. She is the owner/manager of my team but her job doesn't stop there. She is an advocate for women's cycling and development of young riders.

Yes, we took the cheesy tourist picture. Had to.

Today is the start of the Women's Aspen Stage Race which is a 3 day race. It starts with an uphill time trial tonight. Oooohhhh, my favorite!

Yes, I exist.

Usually when I don't keep up with my blog, it is because I don't have anything worthy of bothering you with. My ego is smaller then most bloggers and I tend to underestimate the excitement of my life.

Not so true these days. This summer has been particularly exciting!

Last I updated was June. I hate even admitting that. The couple subtle reminder emails I have received from friends and family has inspired me once again to write.

So, the quick recap:

June:

I ended up 2nd in The Tour of America's Dairyland which was a 10 day Omnium style race. Racing with no teammates and only losing to the legend, Laura Van Gilder. Yes, I was happy with that! Great experience traveling with my friend Jen Triplett too!

From there I went into coaching mode and loved the whole experience. Thanks to USA Cycling for giving me the opportunity to mentor and coach some wonderful 16-18 year olds. Parents- if you want your kids to have a good shot at being quality, classy, respectful young adults, put them in sports!

That was 1 week in Indianapolis, IN (my birthplace) and 1 week in Frisco, TX at Junior Nationals.

July:

One week at home to recover from the WI-IN-TX trip and prepare to leave for Bend, OR to join my team in the Cascade Classic Stage Race. Yes, for those of you who understand cycling, this was a hilly stage race. Doesn't much sound like me? True. It doesn't. The truth must be told- I enjoyed every second of it (well, minus the last road race day) and would do it again in an instant. Racing with my teammates was inspiring! Typically I would have some advantage living in high-altitude Boulder and training in the mountains. But, my month of June at sea level and flat lands put me in the same boat as everyone else. Ouch!

That tough week was followed by a rest week and Greg and I took off for the cabin in Yellowstone. Thank you Rich! This is our secret little retreat cabin. Ha! I said "our" retreat. This is funny since Greg has been escaping here for the last 25 years of his life to meet up with his brother from Montana. So, really, it's the dude's cabin and I only get invited about every 5 years or so. :) Those couple days I didn't do much of anything except.... sleep, read, eat, love on the dog, and shoot some guns. We did see a bear this time around!

We arrived home and the "Mom-a-thon 2011" started the next day. My mom and Greg's mom for 10 days! Perfect timing for my mom to get in town since I promptly got sick. Everyone needs their mom around when they are stuck on the couch for 4 days! I got something called BPPV- Benign Paraoxymal Positional Vertigo. Basically, I couldn't stand or sit without getting dizzy and having nausea. Really, no fun. It just added a couple days onto my rest week but really dampened the fun I had schedule with the Mom-a-thon. Thanks Mom! I owe you.

That brings us to August:

Training and sleeping at home has been AWESOME! I still love Colorado and feel so rejuvenated when I am home.

This weekend I am down in Colorado Springs watching some high level sprint racing at the velodrome. Tomorrow I head up to Aspen for a 3-day stage race with my team. Then, I will stay a couple days in Vail to watch the men's Pro Challenge which is all week in CO. Updates WILL follow!

Transition Time

I played high school basketball and follow college basketball to this day. (The only NBA team(s) I follow are ones in the playoffs. The only ones I cheer for is the one that I may happen to know someone who plays or coaches for them.)

One of my best contributions to my team was my transition. Whether going from defensive to offensive or visa versa, I was always quick and reliable.

Same situation yesterday. Quick and reliable.

I went from racer... finishing up the 11 day TOAD to coach... picking up the first junior at the IND airport last night at 11:30 to kick off a junior Team Pursuit camp here at Major Taylor Velodrome. Quick and reliable.

I had doubts I would somehow make the 9:00 flight from Milwaukee to Indianapolis after our race ended at 4:30 in Madison. There was the award ceremony, the packing of the bikes, the speeding through construction zones, the quick stop for junk food at the undisclosed location off I-94, the meeting of the host family who brought us our bike boxes at the airport, the 1.5 hour drive, etc.

Made it. We checked into the dorm at Marian University last night about 12:30.

I now put on a different kind of "hat" this week and it will be a fun one.

Can't....Stop...Now

Been racing. Lot's of racing.

Right now I am in Wisconsin doing the Tour of America's Dairyland. 11 days in a row of racing. Ouch!

Needless to say I don't have much time and even less brain power.

Here's an idea of the daily schedule:

7:00 wake-up and bribe the body/mind to function with coffee (Alterra coffee in WI rocks!)

9:00 ride for about 1-1.5 hours.

10:30-12:30 only free time of the day for internet, stretching, core, cooking, shopping, napping, cleaning bike, etc.

12:30- usually when we leave to drive to the next race, find town, register, warm-up, etc

3:30-4:30 race. some races have been longer but for the most part these have been 1 hr races

4:30-6:00 cool down, podium, eat, pack car AGAIN

7:30- usually when we get home and cook/eat again... and start planning the next day's schedule.

9:00 in bed, although, i haven't been able to sleep until about 11.

So, for those of you who think this is vacation and we have a bunch of free time. Wrong. We have about 2 hours free time each day. That is like a normal work day for some of you 9-5 people. Same thing.... can't find the time or energy to do much else.

A dear friend of mine (who went to great lengths to coordinate all my host housing this week) asked me one day if I would like to join her for her lunch-break yoga class. Over text, she couldn't hear me laughing but I got a great belly laugh and roll of the eyes out of this one. I know she just thought I was sitting around being bored all morning waiting to race in the afternoon.

Ok... off to pack the car for the 10th race in this series. Pictures and race results to follow- whenever I get enough brain power and time.

C

Still hot

Tulsa Day #2- Still hot and humid. Surprised? Don't be.

Today's race was the one I won last year, 2010. The year before, I crashed hard, 2009. This year, I crashed again, 2011. See the pattern? Odd numbers are bad luck. Ok, that is just how my weird head works.

I still had so much fun out there today besides the last 1o minutes of the race when I crashed, got back in, went until I noticed my brake was locked up in the rear, went to the pit again, got back in... and then it was the last couple laps of the race and I didn't end up finishing where I wanted. Again, just some bad luck.

But, let's talk about the fun part! The racing here is great! Big fields, teams attacking left and right making it fast, fun courses, and good crowds. All makes for great racing.

Fitness is great... I know I can sprint with the best of them... it just will all come together at some point.

Yes mom, I am ok. Some banged up body parts but really ok.

Some pictures below are from Lynne at Podium Insight. This women KICKS BUTT covering cycling in the US. Check out her website www.podiuminsight.com She covers women's as much as she covers men's racing. Love her!

I'm not sure but I think the fields are around 70 women? Great for a non-NRC event.

A little of the action.

Today I was the lone ranger for Peanut Butter & Co. Tomorrow is a new day... we will see who is racing in the morning. See who can throw a leg over the bike and make it pedal. :) Three girls... three crashes in one week. Bad luck! But, we are lucky girls for racing our bikes and doing what we love. So, really, can we consider ourselves that unlucky? Perspective.

Tulsa is Tough

As my fav Willie Nelson says, "On the Road Again."

Some down time at home and now it's business time on the road. First stop, Tulsa, OK where you could cut the humidity with a knife. They call it Tulsa Tough and they don't lie. Three days of crits (yay!) in crazy hot weather (boo!).

There are three of us here... me, Tayler, and Olivia. Check out the article our superb host wrote. There you can see some pictures too since I am lame and never take any. Written from the "host" perspective.

Day #1- 2 of us racing. Tayler is sitting this one out. KDoc, our team doc, is giving the red light for a couple more days while she recovers from a crash last week.

Not great luck for us last night. Sometimes bike racing doesn't come down to the strongest or fittest. Luck plays a part and we had none of it last night.

Olivia went down in a crash and was out. (After 4 hours in the ER, we find out that nothing is broken but she is banged up.)

After the crash, which took out about 25 people, a break went off. I was near the crash when it happened so was out of position to follow the break. So, being alone now, I decided to play it smart and hope some other teams would do work to pull it back. Nada!

I followed one good/hard move to try and bridge the break with about 10 laps to go. Good effort but we didn't make it.

Field sprint for 5th. Damn. Ok, get in position.

I got on a train headed for the front and felt like I was sitting pretty. In the beginning of the last lap, sitting about 6 wheels back and the girl in front of me lost control of her back wheel. It skipped or slid or something. Either way, since I was so close to her, we both went swerving out of control and hitting the brakes. I went from 6th wheel to 20th wheel in 5 seconds. That was something that couldn't be compensated for in the last lap. BUMMER! Bad luck- that's what I'm talking about.

That's bike racing folks. Somedays it works and others it doesn't. The good news is that we are all safe and sound this morning and I have another chance tonight.

This weekend kicks off my road season. After a full winter, 1 week break, and about 1 month of training at home... I am feeling great! I worked out my "1st big crit of the year" nerves last night and the fitness is here... now it is time to find the "luck" part.

More tonight!

Sumfing difrent

I have been changing up training this week and doing things differently (for my Grandma who reads my blog- the title above is my ghetto spelling of "something different." i sometimes speak ghetto to entertain myself.) Ok, back to the 2 other people who read my blog...

Two mountain bike rides in 1 week! That's more times then I have ridden a mountain bike in 18 months. The first ride was with a group of cool chicks. Where can you easily get a group together for a 3 hour mountain bike ride on Tuesday morning? Answer- Boulder. The second ride was today with Greg.

Since Greg started his new working man life, we rarely get long rides together anymore. Today was a beautiful exception. 2 hours and 25 minutes of climbing up, up, up, up, up into the mountains followed by 20 minutes of screaming downhill back into Boulder.

Beautiful! It looks like a fake backdrop from Walmart.

Proof that I can ride dirt!

Coming back into Boulder, I wanted to stop by the creek and soak my legs. (It's like the quick and easy ice bath for recovery.)

Apparently, this is where the Boulder Beach is located. Funny thing- Greg was fully aware of the fact that on any hot day in Boulder you could find half-dressed college kids here. News to me!

He looks scared and he should be. The water is snow melt!

Ahh! The legs will feel better soon.

Happy Birfday to my ghetto homey Tricia! Love you!

Holiday Weekend

Festive weekend in the Flatirons.

Some bike racing... some Boulder Bolder... some Greg making me dinner... some hiking...one nap... some friends... some gardening... lots of coffee...

No cleaning... no being productive... no stress.

Nice little holiday weekend. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

The rest of this week is business. One more tough week in this training block and then I think it is an easy week before I head out for a month packed of road racing. I can feel the road work in the legs. The weight room is taking it's toll. But, this is the feeling I love. Fatigue. Soreness. It means I am doing it right. This is the work pays off in the end.

Springtime!

Oh ya, didn't want to write much after the Omnium at Pan Ams. Truthfully, I haven't even really been able to talk about it much. It ended in a disappointment. But, I will tell you about it sooner or later.

This morning I opened up my blog for other reasons... non-cycling reasons.

The past couple weeks in Boulder have been Seattle-like rain. I could have moved to Seattle 10 years ago but I moved to Boulder... if I wanted rain all day, every day, I would have moved to Portland or Seattle. But finally, these past couple days, the sun has poked through and Boulder has come alive!

You can feel the excitement in the air. One thing that 95% of people who live in this town love... is being outside. So, the second springtime hits, everyone is outside.

outside riding

outside running

outside at the coffee shop

outside mowing lawns

outside walking dogs

outside grilling

outside shopping

outside taking off clothes... ok, mostly near campus

outside climbing

This weekend in Boulder we have the Creek Festival (funnel cake fun), the Superior Morgul Omnium (bike race), and the Boulder Bolder (10k running race). Between racing my bike, grilling with friends, gardening, I think I will find some other reasons to stay outside.

C

P.S. Somewhere inside I am happy that we got that much rain... I know the farmers were dancing with joy and the mountain communities breath some relief because it will lessen the wildfire possibilities.

Points Race Report

The great news is I finished 3rd. 25k points race. For those of you who need explaining... that's 100 laps with sprints for points every 10 lap. You get 5 points for 1st, 3 points for 2nd, 2 points for 3rd, and 1 point for 4th. 20 points for lapping the field.

I have mixed emotions from racing last night. Once again, I am left with the frustration of wanting more. Competitive? Not me :)

The positive part of the race is I finally was able to lap the field. That part of points racing is NOT my strength. Sprinting- can do. Lapping the field- I have tried before but it hasn't worked for me. A move went with 2 girls at the right part of the race and I felt like they had some momentum. I bridged to them and we then worked together to lap the field. That's a first for me in international competition. I was also a lot better at being involved in multiple sprints instead of "going big" for 1 or 2. Last night I think I was involved in about 4-5 sprints.

South America is a different style of racing for sure. No need for excuses- I walk away from this race hungry for the Omnium!

In this photo, we all look proportionate.

In this photo, I look like a giant. That girl is tiny, tiny, tiny.

Team USA walked away with 3 medals- 2x bronze and 1 silver. With only 4 events taking place yesterday, we are off to a good start.

Morning spin

Instead of spending another morning on rollers, indoors, we ventured. Kit and I, hit the streets on this Sunday morning closed circuit. It got my adrenalin pumping for sure- roller bladers, kids who were falling off bikes left and right, walkers, tons of dogs, etc.

The highlight was the BMX park we found.

We were slightly out of place. Kit said I was acting like his dad wanting to take pictures. Shows how easily embarrassed a 19 year-old can get.

Exploration

Yesterday I took about 30 minutes to walk around the city streets near our hotel. It feels relatively safe during the day... I wouldn't do the same walk at night or alone.

Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia with a total population of 3.5 million which includes the surrounding areas. From my view, the only surrounding areas are the mountains. We are high in the Andes, about 5,000 feet but it feels way more tropical to me then the mountains of Colorado. The humidity is pretty high (to me) and there is a late afternoon thunderstorm everyday.

For all you track racing geeks like me.... this all means that the air pressure is pretty similar to LA and therefore, I feel like, the speeds, gears, etc. will be similar to riding at Home Depot Center. Oh, I also take into consideration the "Alpenrose" character this track encompasses, i.e. bumps.

More pics:

Sidewalk stores

Tropical beauty in the middle of lots of urban commotion.

I love checking out homes in the different cities. They say a lot about where I am at that moment.

Does this mean I am possibly not safe at this moment? Hmm... put away the camera gringo.

Local moving company.

I wasn't kidding.

We are surrounded by mountains and security.

One of the keys is to stay hydrated. Check out the coach's post for today and there personal note at the bottom.

Racing starts tomorrow! Points race for me. Scratch race for Kit Karzen. Team Sprint for the sprint boys. 500m for the sprint girls.