My Trip to the Olympic Training Center

But first, a very short Nationals report. I got 4th, I suppose that's podium, but I was very frustrated and unhappy about the race. But, that's bike racing, right? And I'm super happy for Sam Schneider, who won. She's incredibly strong and most of the time doesn't get to race for herself. I have always admired the way she races.

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.

The AVCs+FSA

One of the greatest things about track racing on the West Coast is the series of multiple-day track races held throughout the summer. It starts with the American Velodrome Championship in San Jose, California, heads to Portland for the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge, and then up to Seattle for the FSA Grand Prix. If you go to one, you'll probably go to all of them. The racing is hard, the fields are stacked, and the people are amazing. Most of all, everyone wants to have a good time, so the atmosphere is almost entirely positive and stress-free. Last year I went to the Portland and Seattle races, but this year I hit all three, and I couldn't be happier about it.

1. San Jose: I'm in the Bay, Trick.

Jen, Tela, and I headed south in what would soon turn out to be an epic journey. We drove Maggie, the VW bus. Maggie is big, Maggie is beautiful, but Maggie has no air conditioning and only agrees to go 35 mph up hills. For this reason, we split the drive up into two days, pulling over on the side of a road near Grants Pass to pop up the camper and sleep. Unfortunately, we had parked about 15 feet away from a railroad track. That night my dreams were filled with locomotives and hobos jumping from abandoned trains. We arrived the next day, picked up Christine, and drove straight to the track.

This was the first time I had raced on the track all summer. I was happy to be riding for Broadmark and to have the best teammates out there (despite yellow not really being my color). For the first time we had ever ridden together, we worked very well as a team, got some wine primes, and celebrated pretty much the whole time (regardless to whether or not there was anything to celebrate). Thanks to Rick Adams, the promoter of Hellyer Velodrome, we stayed in comfort and luxury in Palo Alto.

The ride home, was....hot. In the central valley we endured temperatures of around 111 degrees for 5 hours straight. We stuck it out though, taking a quick dip in Lake Shasta to try and cool off. When we finally made it to the mountains, we could not have been happier. For a while, I thought I could never be cold again. But since then, I admit, I have been cold at least 10 times.

2. Portland: Let me see your hips swing.

This time, apologizing profusely to Maggie before leaving her in Seattle, we packed up our new travel companion Suzie. Suzie is big and beautiful, too, but she has air conditioning and keeps a constant speed on an incline. Sadly Suzie has no loyalty to us, so it took us about 10 minutes to start her every time we took the key out.

Alpenrose is a terrifying track. Its banking is at 46 degrees and it's 266 meters; small and steep. The most terrifying part is the warm-up. But after that, the racing is FUN. The track forces the races to be fast the whole time. This time I decided to just do the endurance events (plus keirin) and was much happier. Some highlighted results of the weekend include Tela and Jen 2nd in team sprint, Tela third in Sprints, sixth in the keirin, Jen third in the points, Christine 4th, and I actually won the points race! Beating Erica Allar by 1 point. I also got 4th in the scratch. Overall, a very successful weekend all around. Big thanks to Daryl Hemenway, our host, who lives about a mile from the track, made for convenient and quick trips back and forth.

3. Seattle: She's a whooty.

Home track. Home track? Yeah, I guess I can say that now. This was the first and only qualifier that I would be able to attend, so I was pretty stressed about it. But, turns out, the stress was unnecessary. First event: 3k pursuit. I got third, 2 seconds behind Shelley Olds and Jen. Pleased. Now that qualifying was out of the way, I was able to relax, the way I LIKE to race. I ended up qualifying in the scratch and the points, too, 4th in both (but 3rd discounting Laura, who is an Aussie). Jen got 3rd in the points, Tela got 5th in the sprints, and then Christine and Jen got 2nd in the madison! Beating Proman! It was so cool! I did the madison for the first time, too, with Heather VanValkenburg from Portland. I had never done an exchange before, but Heather was super experienced and it's actually pretty natural. I REALLY liked it. Word on the street is that this year they're having a women's madison at Nationals! So I'm trying to convince Tela the Crane to do it with me. But she's turned me down before, so I won't hold my breath.

Really great weekend! And what better way to follow it up than a taco truck visit and then a ride down to Matthews Beach. Perfect.

So what's next?? I'm headed down to Bend this weekend for the U23 Nationals Criterium. I opted out of the road race and the time trial, I am not suited so well for those courses. Then the 5th I'm headed down to Chula Vista, CA to spend a few days at the Olympic Training Center. I'm really really really (times 20) excited for that, but also really really really (times 30) nervous. After that, it's track all the way to October. Though, I am starting to get worried about not being on a track for a month before Nationals. We will see!

Here are some assorted photos:

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Today Tela and I went for an easy ride to Golden Gardens. It's always the easy days that get you. We were transitioning from the path to the road path, and Tela said "Follow that guy." But that guy just happened to LOSE HIS PEDAL at that very moment. My initial reaction was to laugh at how someone could be as idiotic as to lose a pedal mid-ride. My second thought was how I was riding parallel to the railroad tracks that were conveniently placed ON THE TRAIL. And I really had no third thought as I collided with the ground. I got up, brushed that dirt off my shoulder, and kept riding. Not even a half mile later the very same thing happened to an older gentleman. Except he had the misfortune of colliding his face with the road.

So, city of Seattle, two cyclists in a half mile radius...perhaps railroad tracks running parallel ON the bike path is not such a genius idea, afterall.

A Few F'burg Photos

The Fitchburg Adventure

Wednesday: 4 am wake up call. Finish packing bike, bike box weights approximately 900 pounds. Hopefully they don't weight it. Tela Crane nearly gives me a heart attack as she falls asleep after her alarm. No worries though, she arrives. Things go smoothly into the ATL, but then I am hit (not by an ATL gangster) but with a 2 hour delay, which potentially puts me into Boston at 9 pm. I call Duncan. We take off, everything seems fine. We land. Some guy says, "This is not Boston." My seatmates and I exchange worried glances, halfway smiling at this man's ridiculousness. He repeats, "This is NOT Boston. There are no trees around the runway in Boston. Where ARE WE??" Our exchanged glances become more worry-filled. Because no one is telling us anything, I GPS our location...Westchester...NEW YORK. I report the news to the man and my seatmates. Soon the whole airplane is informed, and a near riot ensues. We are told that we overshot Boston by 200 miles and we ran out of fuel and had to land in this place, never ONCE mentioning the actual location. When the plane finally lands in Boston, the brainless flight attendant says, "Thank you for flying Airtran, we hope you will fly again with us in the future." Not even exaggerating, 12 people respond "YEAH RIGHT!"

This entire situation results in the plane not arriving into Boston until 1 am. At this time, I have no friends to pick me up and nowhere to go, so I sleep on the floor. No, actually I sleep on the pad from my bike box. At least 5 airport workers ask me the next morning, laughing, if I had a good sleep on the floor. I laugh, but on the inside I wonder why they think this is remotely funny. I HAVE A RACE TODAY. That's what I want to say, but instead say yes I enjoyed it very much.

Thursday: After a relaxing night of uninterrupted sleep (ahem...) I awake feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Oh wait, I'm still in the airport. But now, there is a steady stream of people walking past me, staring. Apparently none of them have ever had to sleep in the baggage claim. I pull myself together, build my bike, and wait for Duncan's friend Dylan to come pick me up. I try to visualize myself time trialing in 4 hours. Menzel tells me a Clint Eastwood quote to try and help, "You must endeavor to persevere." The early hour plus the lack of sleep results in my inability to understand this quote, so it actually does not help.

Dylan comes. We drive to Worcester (pronounced Wooster) and I transfer to Duncan's car. We go to Fburg. After getting my registration packet at the race hotel and getting to the course I have about 2 hours to get my shit together. Luckily, seeing Pam and Louise seriously cheers me up. I know practically nothing about this course, and the fine weather makes for about 50 feet of visibility at all times. But I have ENDEAVORED and now I must PERSEVERE. I do the time trial. I LOVE THE COURSE. It's not too hilly, and the fog adds a kind of intensity to it. Of course, my time is not super fast, but it's not terrible, especially without a time trial bike and my last night taken into account. I finish about dead center of 120 people. Cheryl Thonney (from Walla Walla) finishes 23rd! And Tricia Bailey 26th! Those are incredible finishes.

NOTE: One of the greatest parts of this trip was that we got to stay in the host hotel for FREE. We were supposed to stay in host housing that Jessi (one of the managers, essentially) of the Lipsmacker team had gotten for us. And the Lipsmacker team was supposed to stay in the hotel. But something didn't work out, and they wanted our host housing, so they paid for our hotel!

Friday: Circuit race-36 miles. The course was 3 miles around, mostly downhill with a killer hill up to the finish. The hill was short but very steep. I admit, I was scared of this course...until we began. The backside and the downhill was SO FAST and so fun. Despite a crash on the 2nd lap, the pack was pretty safe and not too sketchy. We started with around 120 people and ended up finishing with around 50. Because of the nature of the course, unlike Nature Valley, they do not pull people, they simply let them keep riding around in misery, hoping they don't get time cut. Everytime up the hill was hard, but honestly I was expecting it to be harder. I ended the day in 31st, very satisfied with the way I rode. Again, Tricia rode very well in 28th.

Saturday: It's the 4th of July! What better way to celebrate the holiday than with a 67 mile road race?! NOT. This was the hardest race I've ever done, and that's funny, because mostly it was by myself. I got dropped on the first lap...ahem. It was weird, I was all good, thinking the course wasn't going to be THAT hard, until we hit the hill. Oh god. It was horrible and I got dropped so hard, harder than ever before. I thought that I had bonked, but I had eaten a HUGE breakfast. Hmm, whatever. I did not get time cut, and this day certainly made me mentally stronger. I wanted to drop out so much, but my want to race the crit the next day was higher than my want to quit, I suppose. I finished.

After the race, after I rode back to the car (about 4 miles away) slower than a 4 year old would have ridden, Tricia, Cheryl and I decided to go swimming in a water hole. (This is not code for going to a bar) In Mass, apparently, places to swim are called watering holes. And it was free! It felt amazing and was just what we all needed. But the swimming does not end here. I get back to the hotel, sit down for about 5 minutes, until Pam comes in, ready to go swim in the pool. Okay, I'll go. As we are sitting in the hot tub, we start chatting with a little girl. She says that the water park attached to the hotel is FREE and that we can go to it anytime we want. WHATTTT?!? Soo, me, Pam, Brett, and Mike practically run out the door toward the indoor water park. We walk in, no one says anything to us. We go down all the water slides, even a TERRIFYING pitch black one. We go down the lazy river. That's when the security officer came over and told us we needed wrist bands...hmmmm...and kicked us out. We left, telling him we would go get them. Yeaah right. Turns out we had walked in the back entrance and the whole thing is supposed to cost $25! Haha, suckers. That's the last time we trust a little girl.

Sunday: Crit day! The crit is described as "pancake flat" but I guess in New England their pancakes have long hills and long descents in them. Warming up my legs felt like absolute trash. I was unmotivated...UNTIL I saw Duncan straight SLAYING in the 2s race. He was in a break with another guy, and the announcer actually said he looked "just like a Linebacker!" Haha, Duncan? He ended up 2nd, but was SOOO close to winning. His mom was proud.

The race was hard. Not a surprise. Somehow I find myself top 10 in the last lap, and the field splits...I am the last to make the split. Ooooh shit. Me and some Value Act girl get gapped on the backstretch and I wonder if I am going to get passed by the entire field. But then, something miraculous happens, and only TWO people pass me in the finish. I got 12th! And the 2 people that passed me were Ali Powers and Jeannie Longo. I'll take it! I am a very happy camper. Today was a redeeming day after yesterday, and I am happy I made this trip worth coming.

Pictures soon.

Stages 5 and 6

Stage 5: Mankato Road Race, 92 miles, The Queen Stage

This week, as part of the Ryan experience, I did two radio interviews for Mankato. In both interviews, when asked about the hill in the finishing circuit, someone responded with "I don't even want to WALK up that hill!" The race is 80 miles of flat Minnesota farmland followed by 4 brutal finishing circuits in downtown Mankato. Each time around the circuit has about a mile long climb that averages 14%...ouch.

I was worried about this race. I don't get nervous much, and I couldn't tell if it was nerves or the constant over-caffienated state I've kept myself in for a week, but I could barely keep my hands straight. This unhealthy state existed until the glorious final ten seconds, after the national anthem (which almost makes me pee my pants every time it's played on the start line) when they played the JOCK JAMS REMIX. You know, the one that has every high school pump up song on it. That's my jam. Fortunately, this seriously fired me up and I lost all inhibitions about my ability or desire to race for 91 miles. Unfortunately, I heard this song about a trillion and one times in my head for the following 4 hours.

The race was easy, much easier than Cannon Falls. And somehow, in two days time, people learned how to handle their bikes much better. I felt comfortable and able to move anywhere, which is a great feeling in a race like this. After some hydration mishaps, I was surprised when my odometer read 70 miles. Only 20 more. And only 10 til the circuit! There was a break of three off the front, and most teams were represented, so everyone sat around and waited for K Armstrong to do something. She drilled it for a while, but she's one person, and one person can only do so much on a flat and windy road.

Last year upon realized I was going to enter the circuit with the pack I had a religious experience. I'm pretty sure I cried a little, maybe I was a little underhydrated and hungry, but I was so happy I had come this far with the pack. This year, I was happy, but I knew what I had left to do. Four back breaking circuits. I thought they were never going to end. I had to restrain myself from taking a beer feed from a righteous party on the backside of the circuit, but I finished. Only lost 6 minutes or something. Alright. One more day.

Stage 6: Stillwater Criterium, 13 laps

This race makes Nature Valley famous. The course is a little over a mile long, run with criterium rules. It begins at the bottom of Chilkoot Hill and ends at the top. Chilkoot Hill: the hill of all hills. It's short, but at most points it's around 20%. People literally FALL OFF their bicycles. It's sweet though, because fans line both sides of the climb, kind of like in the TDF and if you need help they'll give you a push. Most people have no idea who you are but yell for you as loud as they possibly can. You really feel famous. Even if, like me and many others, you only make it through 5 laps of the race. To officially "finish" Nature Valley, you must complete 3 laps of this course without being pulled. This in itself is a challenge and doing 5 makes me really proud. Maybe some people can't understand smiling at the end of a race you didn't even finish, but I'm incredibly thankful for this experience. Especially since today was officially K Armstrong's last race in the US. I was there, I heard the goodbye speech, I heard K Armstrong cry. But more importantly, I saw her kick everyone ASS today on that hill (you know, because I was watching by that time!).

Some photos from the week:

Yeah girl yeah! Last hill K Armstrong will ever race up in the United States.

What most of our mornings/afternoons consisted of: the computer and Marco.

Our team car/John's new car.

Check out those shiny new white Hudz.

Rita and Marco.

At the baseball game.

Gabe: our resident hipster.

The happiest grim reaper you'll ever meet.

The team.

I am happy Nature Valley is over. I was fortunate enough to have great teammates and a great time, and can't wait to have more experiences like this one. But first, I gotta get back to Seattle. Yeah!

Stages 3 and 4

But first. Check this out, score! The caption read "Kendi Thomas (Ryan Collegiate All-Stars) passes her one-minute man.


Stage 3: Cannon Falls Road Race, 66 miles
We started with the neutral rollout...at 25 mph. In the first 5 minutes there were almost 20 crashes, I slammed on my brakes at least 20 times, and everyone made a conscious choice to abandon all previous notions of good bicycle handling. The race was hard, but it let up somewhere around the middle and we tooled around in the Minnesota countryside for a while. It would have been pleasant, but it seemed every time I looked at my stem notes or the person next to me someone new would be threatening to take out my front wheel. The hardest part of the race was staying upright. Which we all did. About 7 miles before we hit the gravel the pace quickened and people lost control of themselves. There was a huge crash about 4 miles before the gravel, which Sinead and I narrowly avoided, putting a foot down, and fortunately about 20 people missed the turn (there was no corner marshall on the most important part of the course) for the gravel and I ended up about 15th wheel going into the circuits. Thanks to all that gravel riding in Walla Walla, this was the part of the race I enjoyed most. Oh, there's even a photo from cyclingnews.

You can see Sinead in the right of the frame, too.

So we go through the gravel, hit the sketchiest downhill I've ever raced on, and then finally poor out into the circuits. WHOA: the circuits. I had absolutely NO IDEA it was going to be so fast. It was completely strung out, I was holding on to the wheel in front of me for dear life. I glanced back, no one was behind me. Oh shit, I made it to the front group! No big deal, only 5 laps of this circuit. It's sorta flat. Well, I made it through about 1.5 until I realized it was too hard and got blown out the back. I think Tina Pic was mad at me because I kept opening gaps. Oh well. Turns out I should have stuck it out because they sat up about 30 seconds later, but by that time I was too blown to do anything. But on the positive side, my teammates Sinead, Emma, and Erica all came up to me and we finished together. Erica Allar, a Ryan Collegiate alum, won the race!

Stage 4: Uptown Minneapolis Criterium, 25 laps
This was the first year for this venue, and it was a SICK course. It was L shaped and somewhat short, so you were turning pretty much the whole time. This race was so different from Wednesday's race, I had a hard time remembering it was the same pack. Not as fast-only about a 27 mph average, and people were controlling their front wheels (imagine that!). I had a lot of fun, probably should have finished better, but ended up with 46th. I didn't think about dropping out once, and my legs weren't completely destroyed at the end. That's a victory, in my eyes. When we finished there were close to a million fans lining the course and some of them even wanted our autographs! At least half of this million were fixie-doting, rolled cigarette-smoking hipsters, and at least half of that half million were friends of our mechanic Gabe.

91 mile road race in Mankato today. This is the only race that people want to talk to you about. It's long, hard, and the finishing circuit has a mile long hill that averages 14%, but is 22% at times. I do not want to get lapped by K Armstrong.