Bend was an amazing place, we stayed in the most baller house. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture of it. But it was Dana and Pam's guest house of their huge log cabin-like house, with AC (particularly important during this time), a huge television (with a million channels, said Colin) and a loft with 5 bunk beds. Perfect for ghost stories, but Ian and Steve said they would pee the bed if I told any. We had a lot of free time during which we swam in the river (the DANGEROUS river), watched little boys with nicer bikes than me race their bikes, went for a few short but great rides, and were entertained by our resident magician Ian Crane. It was a great vacation. A few photos:
Moving on, a few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to spend a week at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for a Women's Talent Identification Camp. So of course I took it. I arrived there with 4 other girls, none of which I had met before. I roomed with a girl named Elspeth from Trexlertown, which worked out perfectly since we both just wanted to talk about track racing. The camp was put on my Clay Worthington ("National Talent ID Coach"), Corey Hart (Sport Physiologist), and Kristen Dieffenbach (Sport Psychologist), all of whom are incredible people. The days went somewhat like this:
First breakfast. The food there was great, always all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and tons of choices. It was great for 5 days, but the resident athletes might get sick of it after awhile. After breakfast we would ride until lunch. Two of the days we were field testing during this time. There were 2 tests. The first test day was 2 kilometers. The way the test was formulated (by Corey) required this 2k to be on a 5-8% incline. It was HARD. The second test was supposed to be around 20 minutes, same formula, but ended up being around 30. It was HARDER. These tests measure two things: watts/kilo, and absolute power. Not surprisingly, I have a high absolute power output and a moderate watts/kilo. Meaning, I probably will not be doing any mountain stage races in the near future, but gives me something to work toward. Unfortunately, we did not do the lab tests that I had hoped for. The lab tests involve shorter efforts and measure more sprint-like power. So none of our short power output or "race winning power" was measured. But hopefully this data will eventually help me to find a team, but either way it's nice to have some sense of comparison.
After testing/riding, we would eat lunch and usually have a meeting or a talk. Wendy Peterson, a sport nutritionist, came to talk to us one day. She had a lot of interesting things to say, mostly now I know I should never ask a nutritionist if ranch dressing is really THAT bad for you (it IS, just if you were wondering). Corey, Clay, and Kristen also gave us talks in their respective fields. These topics included USADA, the value of field testing, why we should race track, why we should race in Europe, and some psychology stuff. VERY interesting. I feel like I learned so much that I could never remember it all. Then the last day, Mari Holden, 7 time National Champion, World Champion, and Olympic silver medalist, came to talk to us about her career. It was so cool to hear her talk about her path to the top and mostly great to hear her tell stories. I think meeting people like Mari really remind you that great athletes like her are also people, not too different from me or you. She was cool, and now she's even making her own clothing line. Check it out soon at .
Then dinner. After dinner we either had free time, game night, or went to the movies. I had a great time there and would love to someday go back. I feel really fortunate to have that opportunity and I know it's gonna be extremely helpful in the future.
For now, I'm going to relax a little, take advantage of the short time I have left to ride the track before Collegiate and Elite Nats, and get ready to go back to school. My friend Taco is coming to visit for the week and I could not be more excited. Here are a few pictures from the OTC.
