Sore

Stupid road bike. That's why I ride mountain bikes.


We went to the animal shelter the other day just to help out, walk some puppies and give them some lovin. I felt bad with all the animals in there and no one to take them home.

It's my hopes to go out there again soon so they have something to look forward to. Other than that, I might switch it up a bit and do some cyclocross training out at our course today, maybe ride some slalom. My slalom riding has been getting better, and have been slowly catching some air on our jumps. I have a couple weeks before our race so I really need to be launchin soon!

See you guys in wisconsin very soon!

Touring is training

Since my body has been saying no to me, I decided to take it easy this week. I've just been touring around, checking out the scenery and taking it easy on my legs.

Here are some things I've seen...

The tabacco being hung and dried in the barn. Obviously this is one of the cash crops...okay, it IS the cash crop of Kentucky.
Our last group ride before the team fell apart.

A little calf in the river.
These gorgeous horses on one ride I do. They will even run along side us when we ride. I absolutely love these guys.

more fun to come

Back for some Iola action

A little unexpectedly, I decided to make the trek back to Wisconsin to do another WORS race. I had to drive back alone since it didn't work out that Kip could do the UCI race, so it was about 10 hours wth me and my lonesome. I got to Sheboygan at about 4:30 and wanted to spin my legs out a bit. I stayed with Brian so it wouldn't be such a killer of a drive up to Iola. Instead of just riding on the road with my mountain bike, I decided just to go over to Evergreen Park and ride the race loop a little bit. Afterall, I do love that course! Got there and rode for about 30 minutes, dominated the equalizer, the norm...I actually felt good which was a surprise from Chequamegon.

Once we got up to Iola on Sunday morning, I felt good. Since my ride the day before went well I thought that my legs had finally come around. The start was fast, hard, and significantly different from Iola in May. It was weird how much harder it was.

The course was a bit slower as everyone's times were about 3 minutes off from before. The sand had accumulated. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I didn't feel well at all. Legs hurt, stomach hurt, everything. Finished up not very good, and felt extremely sick afterwards.

But now that that's over, I'm back in 95 degree weather with legs that don't feel good. I am finally getting over my cold here, am hopefully with bounce back around.

What race do I race next? That is still to be determined...

Chequamegon 40

Bitter cold it was. To have a 60 degree decrease in temperature was a little bit of a shock for me. I didn't expect it to be so cold in Wisconsin!

After about 16 hours of driving we finally got up to Telemark. I met up with my mom and got everything squared away. I registered, met up with some friendly faces, and headed back to the condo to get some sleep. The next day was going to be a big day and I didn't feel prepared for this weather.

I woke up that morning at about 7am, looked outside, saw frost, and jumped back into bed. My stomach hadn't been feeling well the past day or so and it wasn't feeling good then. We headed out to the course, and I was all bundled up. Hand and toe warmers, leg warmers, long sleeve jersey, the works. I don't think I needed as much as I wore, but at least I was toasty.

I can easily make a long, boring story short. This race was decided for me from the minuted they shot the gun. It went, started out fast, hamstrings were not quite there. It hurt bad. Hit Rosie's Field, it hurt bad. Hit OO. It hurt bad. Hit Firehouse climb. It hurt bad. (And I climbed it!!)

Chequamegon 40= It hurt real bad.
(Me an Tiffany on Sunday.)


I figured it was from not riding the past 2 days and being cooped up in a car. I hoped my legs were now opened up for the short track race the next day.

Short track was significantly warmer and happier for me. Only 2 pros in my race! I knew it was a good day with that. I took 2nd in my age group to Jenna Zander, and 5th overall. I did hurt a little, but was pleased when I walked away with some pretty new Optic Nerve sunglasses.

Overall: I was super happy to be back "home" in Wisconsin. I was very disappointed in my finish but my cycling career isn't quite over. While things have gotten rough here in Kentucky, our cycling team is slowly falling apart...Bad stuff. I leave for one weekend and the team has major issues! Maybe I will be back in Wisconsin sooner than I thought?! O well. More on that once I have true facts. Right now, it's all gossip.

Congrats to Jesse for his awesome victory at Cheq. And to everyone else.

Happy Birthday, Russell!!

Purdue

This past weekend we traveled up to Purdue University in Indiana for our second race.

The short track and four-cross were on Saturday right next to the velodrome.

And it's kinda funny, because we literally were right next to it. The short track was on a hill to the left and we raced on a BMX track to the right of it

The day started out with qualifying for the four cross. I'm not entirely sure where I placed for qualifying, but I was put in both a tough and easy race. I had some time before I had to go to the finals for this so in the mean time I had a short track race to do.

Once short track came around, it kind of started out bad for me. Some women B's riders moved up because they missed there race earlier that day. The short track had a winding climb at the beginning where I got caught behind these two B riders. Did I mention they managed to tip over right in front of me too? Well, I used that anger and worked my way up from literally, dead last, to 4th place out of about 13 girls.
After short track it was straight to the finals for four cross. My legs were beat and mentally I was exhausted. I was eliminated in the semi-finals.

That concluded our race day which then put us relaxing and hitting up the bike shops. I was happy with the ground I made up for short track, but disappointed in my four cross results.

Hopefully Sunday would bring me good.

Sunday's course was the cross country course. The laps were...are you ready?...they were 2 3/4 miles long. So we had to do about 6 laps to get a decent race in. Kip and the A's men had to do 8 laps. Ouch. So I prerode the course that morning after a night full of downpour. I found the course fairly dry, but the most tight, twisty, flat course ever. It was just maneuvering around trees on a flat hard packed dirt. That was okay.

I started the race off trying to get into the single track in a good position so a repeat of Sunday didn't happen. I got in it in 2nd place. Two of my teammates passed me in the woods so I was left in 4th place. Unsure of how close the girls behind me were, I pinned it the whole race. It was tough to judge because the course wound back and forth so much it felt like they were always right there.

After lap number 6, a couple of crashes, and exhausted, I finished with another 4th place finish. I was happy with the result.

This next weekend...be ready for Chequamegon!!! Hello Wisconsin!

Camping

We went camping last night out at this place called the Rock House. It was about 20 miles from campus and in the middle of nowhere and Amish country. We got out there late at night so we had to climb the mountain ridge in the dark and set up our tents. When we woke up and could actually see the cliffs and rocks.

The side of the Rock House

Underneath the "Rock House". We camped at the top.

Camping on the ledge.