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.

About that...

Yep, I have done it again. I promised for more blogging and then I failed.

The truth is that when I was home for 3.5 weeks, I didn’t have that much free time. Week 1, I slept the whole time… day, night, whatever. Week 2, I started training again but was still tired and, therefore, I slept a lot. There was also that whole thing about the real world that got in the way. Week 3, the real world took priority over sleeping.

And that brings us to now… in the southern country of Colombia via a couple days in Los Angeles.

I am preparing for Pan American Championships in Medellin, Colombia which start on May 1^st.

A blog in pictures:

Let the crazy bike travel begin

With 6 athletes and several staff members all flying out of LA, it was a circus.

Once we landed in Medellin, the unhealthy snacks were abundant.

Our bike limo.

View from my hotel room.

Bike rack, South American style.

Yep, that's how we roll.

Famous Tela. Oh, and, she is the only US athlete that speaks spanish.

Outdoor track! The vampire might get sun.

My buddy and old training partner, Michael Blatchford.

Outdoor concrete 250m that rides like Alpenrose. Carnival style!

The velodrome guard dog. I call mine at home Moochie but I am afraid to approach this one... they took off his mouth guard.