In Which Jackie Talks About Getting Back on the Bike After the Off Season and Describes What it's Like to be Her Own Coach.

More to come...

Unfortunately, exams are a little more pressing.

Meanwhile, we can look at Jan:


Apparently I was wrong to assume that Jan's photo makes every heart flutter like it does mine. Dave, this one's for you:

Victoria Pendleton: Gold in the Sprint at the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing

Exams are going alright. I had my Intermediate Engineering Analysis exam yesterday, and I've got Fluids and Mechanics of Materials tomorrow. As I was cramming for Fluids tonight, I read over a section on Dilatant Fluids. These are types of fluids whose viscosity increases with an increase in shear (meaning they're disturbed). I immediately thought of the increase in resistance that occurs when I pedal harder on my fluid trainer. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I haven't been able to do much extra research because I've been studying), but I think my fluid trainer might have a Dilatant fluid inside it :-)

I think I might get an A in this class.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Big thanks to Hal Downing for helping me raise money for Team Florida! I was pretty shocked, though, when he sent my "dating a cyclist" post to just about every cyclist in the Orlando area. Not exactly what I'd choose to be popular for, but I guess I can't be picky. I got so many responses from that post that we may have another coming up soon. In the mean time, I did come up with an even shallower reason to date a guy than his sexy pedal stroke. I thought of it while I was out riding last week.

Say there's a cyclist who you used to date. He's got the shaved legs and good form (I mean, come on, that's why you were with him in the first place), but things didn't work out for other reasons. You haven't seen him in awhile, but the tides have turned. You've heard through the grape vine that he has something new, something that he didn't have before. It's big. It's expensive...it's an altitude tent.

I'm ashamed to admit that trying to get back together with this guy for free altitude tent access didn't sound like a bad idea. I mean, how much time would I actually need to spend with him anyway? He'd always be out riding or gone at class... Fortunately for all the innocent professional cyclists out there, I don't ever plan on stooping that low.

Anyway, folks, I'm back in Orlando for Thanksgiving, and I'm thinking about coming out to the Lakemont ride on Saturday. See you out on the road! Oh, and if you have any questions about the Team Florida Ride-a-Thon fundraiser, email me at jcrowell@ufl.edu.

The Off Season

I know you're not supposed to gain too much weight in the off season, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm 5 lbs. heavier than I was two weeks ago when I last touched my bike. I could get on the bathroom scale and verify, but ignorance is bliss, right? It doesn't help that people just keep handing me food right and left. I'm reluctant at first to accept, but then I think, "Oh, what the hell, it's the off season." My roommate, Amanda made me this amazing dinner the other night. She cooked the pumpkins for over 2 hours in the oven. It was delicious.

There's a lot less laundry to do when I'm not going through a kit or two a day.
I have time for TV! Check out my awesome setup.
I've also found that I'm addicted to accelerating. When I can't touch my bike, I develop this yearning to race something, ANYTHING! This is what I got a hold of...
My father is having a heart attack right about now. So, dad, I've been meaning to ask you, I know I'm not allowed to ride on motorcycles with boys, but you never said anything about me driving it myself ;-)

Headsweats: A Team Kenda Sponsor

Just wait for the pictures to scroll....

Dating a Cyclist #1

What's the most shallow reason to be with someone? For their looks? For their money? Because they have cool friends? Because their pedal stroke is just soooooo smooth and sexy?

If you think about it, when you're riding behind someone in a peleton, there are only three things you can judge: (1) the size of the derriere (2) the type of bike and clothes (3) the quality of bike handling and pedal stroke. Height is definitely difficult to pinpoint. I know I'm not the only girl who's had this experience: you're riding along next to a cute guy, having a great conversation, and you're thinking: "this guy is really cute, and we're having a great conversation." You wonder if he has a girlfriend and, if not, the guts to ask you out. You round a corner, pull into the convenient store, get off your bike, and accidentally bump into this very same guy because you were looking right over the top of his head. Height is definitely out.

But the quality of the pedal stroke tells you something. It tells you how good he is at cycling. If it's smooth, he's good; If he understands finesse on the bike, it might carry over to finesse off the bike.

Alright here it goes:

I was home in Orlando after nationals. I was pretty burnt-out, so I decided to take the "do whatever I feel like doing" approach to training. I did one of the local group rides, and ended up behind this guy who had the most fluid pedal stroke I've ever seen. Before I knew it, I was going on all the group rides just so I could sit on his wheel and drool (yes, I'm a nerd). Did he ever notice how I followed him around the peleton? But it was more than that. When I was on his wheel, I felt like nothing bad could ever happen to me. The fluidity was calming. I was safe.

It wasn't long before he asked me out on a date. With a pedal stroke like that, how could I say no? He picked me up at my house, and we went out for dinner. First impression: his car definitely wasn't as sexy as his bike. With regular clothes on, I almost didn't recognize him. Was this really the same guy? Walking was an awkward task for him, like he didn't know what to do with his feet when they weren't attached to pedals.

We went to a fairly nice place with dim lights and a nice wine list. We talked, but we didn't have much in common outside of cycling. I spent the majority of the evening trying to figure out if he shaved his head just to shave it or to cover up the early onset of male pattern baldness. The lights were dim and I'd only ever seen him with a helmet on.

We went out twice and, needless to say, nothing ever came of it. Actually, he turned out to be kinda creepy. Even so, I'll never forget his pedal stroke. So, tip to the guys: if you wanna score points with a female cyclist (or me, at least), work on your one-legged drills.

St. Pete

Winning


JC and JK, 1st and 2nd

JK wins Sunday

Training down South

I had a pretty frightening experience on my bike yesterday. I guess I need to start by telling you that one of my goals this training season is to find all the dirt roads in Gainesville and ride them. They're a good change of pace, and they make the time go by faster. I went on Google maps, found a road I hadn't been on before, and I decided I would try to find it. I was doing a 3-hour ride that day, so I thought it would be perfect for passing the time.

I rode about 17 miles outside of town and found a road that was approximately in the same place where this road was supposed to be. It was a really rural area with no street signs, so there was no telling if it was the right road or not. I hesitated for a second, but I was feeling adventurous, so I rode off the pavement.

Everything went great for the first couple miles. I was cycling through the beautiful woods, and I didn't have to worry about cars. Then, I turned a bend and the road got really sandy really fast. My bike was fishtailing all over the place. At one point, I almost crashed, but I unclipped and saved myself. I walked my bike for a bit. Before I got back on, I paused for a second and looked around. That's when I realized how ALONE I was. It looked like this in every direction:


Alone in the middle of nowhere Florida. And, of course, that's when all the scary stories about people getting killed in the woods started to come back to me. I remembered this particular one that Jason told me about a serial killer near his house in New England who duct tapped women to trees. An image of the pepper spray I had forgotten, sitting on my desk at home, flashed through my mind. Goshdarnit. Should I turn back or keep going? I checked my cell phone - no service. Was this even the right road? Maybe the it gets better around the next bend. I'm going to die out here.

I frantically got back on my bike and started riding again. I came to a fork in the road that I didn't remember seeing on the map. I took the left fork because it felt like the right one. As I was riding along, I kept saying under my breath "I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die." It set a tempo that kept me going.

I heard several big noises in the woods and pictured a Florida panther tackling me like they do deer on nature shows. Would a panther mistake me as a deer? When I'm on my bike, I'm about the same height/same speed as a deer. When I hit the sandy spots and swerve, I probably look like a sick deer, perfect prey. There was a ditch full of water by the side of the road. What if there was an alligator? Do black mambas live in the Southeast U.S.?

I kept riding and looking over my shoulder, expecting to see a pickup truck full of men with no morals quickly closing the distance between us. I ended up riding down this dirt road for half an hour with no other signs of human life aside from the road itself and a couple 'private property keep out' signs. Eventually, the sand turned to packed dirt, which turned into gravel again, and I popped out somewhere on the Hawthorne trail. I WAS ALIVE! haha. Never been happier to see the trail before.

I really need a training partner.

School, Cycling, Other Things

I'm reading The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. Now I want a pet rabbit. I've been thinking a lot about how superior rabbits are to other pets, especially when I'm sitting in my Fluid Mechanics class and the professor starts talking about conservation of mass, and I begin wondering about magicians making things appear out of black top hats... that brings me to the rabbit. The rabbit's name is Rabbit. It would be all white and fluffy, and it would hop around all cute-like, and it wouldn't smell or scratch me. A lot more satisfying than a fish.


Then I picture fish swimming through the pipes that the professor is drawing on the board. I stare at the pipes for a second before I realize I'm supposed to be paying attention.

This semester, I'm taking Circuits, Fluid Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, Intermediate Engineering Analysis (IEA), and Circuits lab. 14 credits. I've decided that I'm going to be super efficient this semester, pay attention in class, get everything done a week early, and never be stressed out. haha...I make myself laugh.

After the group ride on Tuesday, I came home, ate, showered, and the propped my legs up against the wall with the Fluids book on my chest, all proud of the fact that I was, technically speaking, "multi-tasking." But here I am, a couple days later, sitting at my computer desk, writing in my blog because I don't have the motivation to do the circuits homework sitting in front of me.


Also, I decided I'm going to train for the 2012 Olympics. After spending time at the Olympic Training Center this summer, meeting some Olympic athletes, and watching the Olympics on TV, I can't deny they've been on my mind. Still, it was never really a goal of mine to go until now.

I was standing outside my IEA class Tuesday, when one of my friends asked me to the football game on Saturday. I said, as I almost always say, "No, I don't think I can go."
"Aw, why not? It'll be fun."
"I think I've got a lot of training."
"You can still train, the game doesn't last all day."
"Yeah, but it throws me off schedule"
"What are you training for, anyway?"

It's the end of the season, so I'm not really training for anything, just trying to keep my fitness up. I didn't know what to say because this guy didn't know much about cycling, and I didn't want to delve into the extensive explanation of the road season, and base training, and time off. So I squirmed there for a second, contemplating what to say, until this came out:

"The Olympics."

hahahhaahaha....can't back down now. And I discovered something: who's going to question your decision to train when you tell them you're training for the Olympics?

Tropical Storm Fay is NEVER ENDING!

I turned on the weather channel at one point, and then turned it off. I watched long enough learn from all-too-concerned-weather-blonde that if I had any questions or concerns about what to do during this thunder storm, I could call a 1-800 number.

This is me enjoying the weather with my father:

We were also told to watch out for

(1) Flooding (obvious)

(2) Alligators (kinda legitimate)

(3) Snakes (also kinda legitimate)

(4) Catfish?

(5) and Mold

Yeah, they're stretching it a little far there.

Meanwhile, I've been stuck inside with my bicycle. I'm getting restless.

National Eating (and cycling) Championships

Might as well enjoy myself while I'm here! California lived up to my highest expectations. Huge thanks to my host family: John and Marica. They were amazing.




John grilling shrimp and sausage at the neighborhood cookout.


Not getting any skinnier here...

John and Marica took Kacey and me to the ballet!

Pictures courtesy of Kacey Manderfield!

There's a Crack In My Frame In My Frame

I called Blue today, and they were really helpful. They're sending me a shipping sticker in the mail, and I'm mailing the frame into them later this week.

Yesterday, I was informed that I was not in fact the first to substitute a bag of frozen peas for an ice pack. Joe Friel, author of The Cyclist's Training Bible, actually writes about frozen peas in his book. Great book. Definitely recommend it.

Altoona

On the Attack!

I've gotta do some catching up on my blogging. I've hardly had time to think about my blog let alone update it. Since school ended in May, I've been to:

Colorado
Oregon
Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
Washington D.C.
New Jersey
Maryland
Pennsylvania
New York
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Colorado (again)
and California

and if I go to collegiate track nationals in September, I'll be going to Colorado AGAIN! Three times in four months! I should consider moving there.

Here's some pictures of me kicking ass at the Altoona criterium. My season's been quite a roller coaster this year, so I was happy that could do something.



Podium

Fitchburg

I guess I wouldn't be in this situation if I had a bathroom scale at home...

After my horrible performance on stage 2, I knew something was wrong with me. I got out of the shower that night and stood there, back to the mirror, trying to crane my neck around to see if my butt looked any fatter than it normally does. Maybe a little, but I could just be imagining things.

I got 9th on stage 1 (an NRC time trial!), and had high hopes for the rest of the race. Well, things didn't go that well. I did pretty horrible on stages 2 and got flat out dropped on stage 3. I can't even remember the last time I got dropped like that! We weren't strung out at all. I was working for my teammate, Carla, who had the sprinters jersey, but even so, I shouldn't have been getting dropped up hills like those. I was the one dropping people at Altoona for goodness sake!

So that night, I had to look in the mirror to see exactly how fat my ass really was. I was kinda curious, really. If it wasn't my ass, then I definitely needed to look at my training.

Stage 4 was a relatively flat crit, a good course for me. I had some experience racing on it, and I was a lot more experienced in general than a lot of the other girls. I should have done awesome, like, at least a top 5, but I ended up coming in somewhere near last place. I worked for my teammate as much as I could (we ended up 3rd in the sprinters jersey competition), but that's still no excuse.

I tried to look at the bright side though. Since I didn't do well in the criterium, that meant that the hilliness of the course had nothing to do with my performance. It wasn't that my butt was fat, I was probably just stale from my rest week last week. So, based that logic, I left the race in a good mood and stopped at the grocery store for a cookie.

Also, my teammate and I got interviewed by a local newspaper. Here's a link to the article.

Nature Valley

Nature Valley was humbling. Normally I'm somewhat of a factor in the bigger races, but I just plain couldn't keep up with Kristin Armstrong's pace. I didn't get dropped, but I didn't ride the front either. Even in the criteriums, which are usually my strength, I could only manage to sit in the middle, moving up a few places here and there. I finished mid-pack in the GC, nothing to be ashamed of, but I sure felt worthless.

Two days later, in Trexlertown, I did my first track race in a year. Once again, humbled. I really had no idea what I was doing out there, so I tried to have fun with it. I did my first Kerin ever and missed the final by one spot. I know that everyone in the cycling world has seen this video already, but I figured I'd put it up for those who haven't. This is the Kerin Cup final a couple years ago at the same Trexlertown Track. There's a reason it's famous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnLDr6jRSI

Easy, right?

I'd like to get better at track since I've got collegiate track nationals coming up in September, and I'd like to get better at road so I can get on a pro team soon. I've got a lot of work ahead of me (not including school), I just hope I can handle it all. I was just looking at my class schedule for next semester, and I'm taking Intermediate Engineering Analysis, Fluid Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Circuits, and Circuits Lab. I was thinking about running for the Collegiate Athlete Trustee position that's opening this year, but I'm afraid any more responsibility would make me explode.

Right now I'm just sitting at the house in Kutztown. There's six of us here: me, Mike Niemi and four boys from Atlanta who ride for Kudzu. Jason Snow was here for a little bit, but he left on Sunday to go visit his parents in Massachusetts. The first week I was here, he was on a quest to pants me, which turned into a daily wrestling match, which turned into me slinking around the house trying to keep at 5 foot distance between me and him so I'd have time to run if he jumped. He's a great roommate, and I love him, but I've gotta admit that his absence is somewhat of a relief.

Frozen Peas - who knew?

As I hit the pavement, curled into a ball, and watched a petite woman in an Aaron's kit flip over my bike, the first thing through my mind was: "Rebecca's going to kill me."

Yesterday's race was probably the craziest race I've ever done. In dry weather, it would have been a regular race, but in wet weather it was mayhem. There were at least 140 girls on the start line, but rumors pinned it at around 150 - more starters than the men's field.

It had been raining all day and continued to rain during the race. There were manhole covers, paint, off-camber turns, everything that makes racing awesome for spectators and painful for riders. Fortunately, my director got me a call up to the line, which I'm ever so thankful for.

First crash happened about 30 seconds in, which started a trend that continued until we crossed the finish line. It was kinda humorous, actually. You'd crash, slide, get up, ride to the pit, get back in, and do it all over again. I only went down that once, but my teammate went down three times, and Rebecca went down at least twice (she called me later to chat and reassure me that she wasn't going to hunt me down). In the end, only 46 of the original 140+ riders finished; I was 20th.

I pedaled painfully back to my teammate's RV and, lacking an ice pack, found a bag of frozen peas that I slapped on my butt to keep down the swelling. Are frozen peas cheaper than the average ice pack? If so, I'm definitely sticking with the peas.

Weather Forecast for Stage 1

The crit. starts at 5:20pm

St. Paul, Minnesota

If you've been waiting for the right moment to tell me how much I mean to you ... well, now might be the right time.

Triple Crown etc.

Yesterday was the second day of the Triple Crown. The race was in downtown Reading, which happens to be a pretty ghetto area. I did this race last year too, and both years I've been slapped by the face by the stark juxtaposition of us, the cyclists, next to the residents. The two crowds are about as polar opposite as it can get. Some Readingers, in particular, I'll never forget.

The women's race was hard, but it went well for me. I rode really strong, like top 10 the whole race, and ended up getting 15th. I think we dropped about 45 girls, but you can count for yourself. After my race, I sat with Snow, Kacey, and Yukie to watch the pro men. The men were doing circuits, so they came by once about every 10 minutes. In between times, we sat on the curb and people-watched. Every so often, we'd see someone particularly interesting.

"Take a look at that woman to the right. No, farther to the right, next to the tree..."

Most of the time we pulled the shifty-eyed thing, looking, but trying not to stare. Usually, the people in question were just women dressed in outrageous clothing. Platform heels on monstrous women, butts hanging out, bellies hanging out, pregnant women smoking...you name it. I know the whole leaving home and going to college thing is supposed prepare you for what's out there, but I sure wasn't prepared to see some of the stuff I did. Diversity on a college campus definitely has its limits.

When I was doing a lot of air-travel last month (Orlando-Colorado-Oregon-Orlando), and spending a lot of time in airports, I wanted to do a blog post about airport people-watching, but I didn't really have time. Although traveling can be a pain sometimes, it definitely has its benefits. I get to see places I'd probably never have a reason to see and meet people I wouldn't meet otherwise.

In general, racing is going really well. Unfortunately, I'll once again be sitting on the sidelines at Philly cheering on my teammates. It's kinda a bummer (especially after the way I rode in Allentown and Reading), but there's always next year. Also, if you're wondering about my lack of pictures lately, it's because I left my camera in Gainesville :-( so I have to resort to stuff like

this

That's me sitting in behind LVG. Oh, also I forgot to mention that Ina Tutenberg is amazing.

You know who's also amazing: Morgan Patton. She got 2nd at Kelly Cup and 6th at Somerville and she's from Florida! Way to go!

It's Been Awhile...

There's so much to write about that the thought of sitting down and writing out all of the "and so-and-so attacked on the left" definitely doesn't interest me. Here's some quick little highlights, so I can move on to the interesting stuff.

Went to collegiate nationals in Colorado, the Mt. Hood stage race in Oregon, and did mediocre in both. I got 10th in the division I road race and 8th in the criterium. The altitude killed me. My best result was 8th on Stage 1 of Mt. Hood, and for that I got to wear the best young rider jersey on Stage 2. Then I flew home to Orlando, hopped in my car, and made my way north to Kutztown, PA.

Now that I'm Kutztown, it feels like I never left. Everything is just the same as it was last summer. Even the house we're staying in, the little house on Whiteoak street, is pretty much unchanged. I did laundry today and - what do you know- in the 10 months since I've been gone, they still haven't gotten around to fixing dryer #2. The same little sign is taped to the inside, but the paper has a yellowish tint to it now. It reads: "do not use - clothes will catch on broken rim." It was kind of comforting, seeing it there when I opened the door.

I threw my clothes into the wash, and walked down Main street looking out for any "help wanted" signs. I had this great big plan to get a job while I was up here, but things are looking grim in that department. I've got the triple crown next week, Nature Valley the following week, Fitchburg, and the OTC in July - hardly time to find a steady job. Plus, slaving away for a measly $7-8/hour isn't very appealing when I made about $600 in an hour last weekend. Am I being lazy?

So I walked around Kutztown for quite awhile (which I later regretted because it made my legs sore). I walked down the little alleys past the clothes lines and the flowers. Does this place really exist? After growing up in Orlando, this small-town life is only something I've read about in fairy tales. The cute little houses, the small little diners, the Amish with their horses and buggies. I'm half expecting an evil witch or a scarecrow or a dashing young prince to appear.

(yeah, you know it, Amanda)

So I just got some Skins in the mail a couple days ago. I napped with them on yesterday and my legs felt great today on my ride. Is my mind playing tricks on me or do these things really work? Rebecca said that they don't really do anything for you (and that's her department, so she would know), but a bunch of people I know swear by them. Any thoughts?

Collegiate Nationals

Here we are before the road race start, freezing our butts off. My father found this picture on velonews.com.

Athens Twilight Criterium

So I'm super stoked about my performance in Athens. I made the winning break and took 4th in the sprint. See what the real journalists had to say about it:

Cyclingnews.com

Velonews.com



I knew this race would be pretty tactical. You hear stories, you know, about people starting in the back and never seeing the light of day until they cross the finish line. I promised myself before the race started that that wasn't going to happen to me.

After the scramble to staging, the scramble to the line, the call ups, and finally the scramble to the start line, I found myself in the middle of the group. I knew the first few laps were going to be critical. If I didn't make it to the front as soon as I could, I'd be wasting energy. The race started out super fast. I managed to get to the front in about 5-7 laps despite all the accelerations (why, Lord, does he keep calling out $100 primes!?!?). Once I was there, I tried to keep an eye on things and not let any critical combinations of girls (Aaron's, Cheerwine, Colavita) get away.

I don't even remember when the break went, it's all such a blur. I covered an attack and the next thing I knew, the announcer was saying, "This might be the winning move, Ladies and Gentlemen." I looked behind me and WOW, he was right, there was a pretty substantial gap there.

I worked well in the break, perhaps too much. I remember my coach yelling, "don't do anything stupid!" after I'd been pulling hard on the front for awhile. The sprint was really bumpy and I definitely wasn't prepared for all the skippings around my wheel did while I was trying to go as hard as I could. I took 4th out of 5 in the sprint in front of Tiffany Cromwell from Colavita.

My director was really happy about my race. I enjoyed it and enjoyed racing with my teammates for the first time. I came back home to Gainesville with some money in my pocket, the biggest sprinting bruises I've ever had (see below), and exams to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.


Kinda looks like someone's been givin' my arm a little love...

Food is Delicious

Food is delicous - too delicious. So, I'm starting up FitDay again, check it out. You can see what I'm eating and exactly how much, no lies. If I eat a gallon of ice cream, I'm posting it. Hopefully the public guilt will discourage me from doing it again.

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=velochick23

It's a pretty cool website - try it for yourself.

Tallahassee

I guess it's time for me to post something about the Tallahassee race. How long has it been since it happened? A week? I haven't written until now because I've been really busy with school and training. For some reason, my professors like to assign homework on Monday and make it due on Friday, so my weeks are usually hell. I come back from a weekend of hard racing and I've got to transform myself into a five-day homework machine. This week it was Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Materials, and ProE, all due on Friday.

So, now that I've got some free time, here it goes:

The race starts out slow. I sit on the back, keeping an eye on everyone else. We complete most of the first lap. Nothing happens. Then, at the base of a hill, there's an attack on the left. It's Elizabeth (Ford), and Angela (Atomic) follows. The two girls get a little ways up the road, but I go to the front and keep them in sight. After about five minutes, I happen to look over my shoulder and see there's a 3-to-4-bike-length gap between me and the group. I attack from the front and bridge to the break quickly.

I get there and say, "we've gotta get out of sight NOW!" We rotate smooth and hard, but the group chases harder. They gain on us, but I know this is what I want. I put all my effort into my pulls and (after about fifteen miles) the distances between us grows. Julie panics and tries to bridge solo, we see her, and we go harder. We've been killing it for awhile already but my pulls are still consistent. I suppose all that training paid off. Eventually, Julie gives up and we quickly get a five-minute gap on the group.

We ride the third lap tempo. Liz jumps for first spot through the last turn and I sprint around her on the left for the win. I remember letting out some sort of victory exclimation. I can't deny I was really happy about the win. After all the irritating collegiate racing I've been doing, I really needed it.

Right now, I'm sitting at home in Orlando, taking a break from studying Thermo. We're learning about entropy generation, reversible and irreversible cycles. I can't really figure out how I'm doing in the class. I thought I was doing poorly when I got my last test back and saw I'd gotten a 13/20 on it. Come to find out, the average on that test was a 9.5. Ok, I think, I'm actually doing pretty well.

Not so fast...

Yesterday was the last day you could drop classes for the semester. I took my usual seat near the front. Dr. Sherif walks in (he's got these really thick glasses that almost touch his eyeballs) and starts class. Something seems odd. I turn around in my seat and look back at the lecture hall. The first day of class, we were fighting for seats. Today, half of them are empty. All those kids who got 5's and 6's on the exam dropped, meaning the average isn't a 9.5 anymore...

I guess all I can do is hope for the best. Getting off the computer might be a good idea too.

The Auburn Collegiate Race

I am not happy

Chatting with Kim before the time trial

The mail man suspects something fishy is going on

At the end of the 2007 collegiate season, I vowed I wouldn't race collegiate this year (see my 'collegiate racing' post). This past weekend made me wonder why I chose to forget that vow.

The drive up was peaceful enough. We listened to music and talked and laughed at Shawn's singing (not because it was bad but because of the fearlessness with which he conquered "The Circle of Life"). When we got to the host apartment and realized there wasn't room for all ten of us - that was when the trip started to go downhill. After spending thirty minutes on the phone when I really wanted to sleep, I found a place for three of us with the Cumberland cycling team. The one girl on their team had an entire hotel room all to herself and kindly offered to share it with us.

The time trial went really well for me. It was on a flat course through the Alabama countryside. I was able to remain focused. I averaged 25.4mph over the 7.8 miles and beat second place by over a minute and a half. The road race, on the other hand, was one of the seemingly longest, most annoying races I have ever participated in. It was five versus one between me and Lees-Mcrae. My shifting was screwing up at the beginning and I missed covering the first attack. Over the course of the first lap, I chased the solo break down. The rest of the race I covered all the attacks from the LMC girls. When they weren't attacking me, they were going 8 mph, and that was what really annoyed me. On the bright side, it was great sprint practice. Due to horrible positioning on my part I got second in the sprint.

The criterium went pretty much the same way as the road race. I covered all the LMC attacks and ended up second in the sprint after the Cumberland girl, who I'd kinda forgotten about at that point. Anyway, I'm racing more consistently than I was last year, so I'm not disappointed in the weekend.

So I spent most of the weekend trying to not be upset due to lack of housing, race support, and teammates. I was sick of driving such long distances, sick of cramped hotel rooms, and sick of dealing with LMC.

That's my rant for the week. Now I'm home, and I'm calm. Today I officially switched my major to mechanical engineering, and I got a flip ton of PowerBars in the mail. I got my materials test back (I did well on it), and I finished Hemingway's The Garden of Eden. I was going to try to write this blog entry with a Hemingway-like edge to it, but I failed miserably. I guess it's just not my style.

Homeless in Nashville

What am I doing for my spring break? Am I going to beach to work on my tan? Am I lazing around at home all day and going clubbing at night? Perhaps I’ve been flirting with some cute guys or relaxing in front of the TV.

Well, no, nothing quite so exciting. Instead, I’ve been racing my bike, studying, eating, sleeping, and gradually realizing that I live a unique, interesting lifestyle.

It happens that there were collegiate races in Georgia the first and last weekends of spring break. Instead of driving up for both weekends, we decided to stay in Nasvhille for the five days inbetween.

After the race Sunday, Dave and I drove to Nashville. We couldn't get into the apartment yet so we camped out at a Panera a couple miles away. We’d just spent several hours sweating on a bike, followed by several hours in a car. I was wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt, I was exhausted, and my hair had dried salt in it – I needed a shower badly. Dave and I walked in with our backpacks, made our way through the throngs of sophisticated Vanderbilt students, and sat down at one of the tables to wait. It was then that I first realized what it must be like to be homeless - no home. It wasn’t just that we didn’t have a place to stay – with my odor and appearance I was practically living the part. And to top it all off, I didn’t buy any food there. Instead, I brought in some leftovers that I was saving from lunch and ate those. And for a drink? Dave and I brought one coffee and took turns sipping it.

Eventually the guys rolled into town and we moved into the apartment. The shower felt amazing, and I certainly didn’t look homeless anymore. But I still slept on an air mattress at night and had to pull on all my clothes to keep from freezing to death under my one, small blanket.

The next morning, I woke up, grabbed all my stuff (getting dressed was not necessary since I was wearing all my clothes), and went in search of wireless internet. I walked down Church Street and gazed up at the beautiful buildings. I practically tripped over the Nashville Public Library. It was hidden inside this beautiful building with columns that blended right into the architecture of all the other buildings on the street. The library had just opened.

I made my way to the third floor and found a comfortable place at a table. After checking my email and my facebook, I sat back and looked around. The furniture was very nice – it was obviously a new building. As I looked around, I couldn't help but notice how disheveled-looking most of the patrons were. Then it hit me. Who else would be at the library that early on a Monday morning? The people who don’t have to go to work or school or stay home and take care of the kids, the homeless people. Almost everyone there was homeless, and I was beginning to wonder if I should be included in that group. I looked down at myself. Again, I was wearing baggy sweat pants, a t-shirt, and a jacket. And to top THAT all off, I was wearing a hat that had just been given to me. Next thing I know I'll be begging on the street corner for cash. And after this trip is over, I might be poor enough that I’ll have to.

Collegiate Racing

Last year, I wasn't quite sure why I raced the collegiate calender. I suppose I did it because everyone else was doing it, because my coach said I should, or a combination of the two. At any rate, I can't say I enjoyed it very much. All a collegiate race meant was a long, cramped car ride, a cheap hotel room, and a lot of money out of my pocket. And the prize for winning the race?

...the satisfaction of winning the race.

I can remember several hotel rooms in particular: The Econo Lodge in Alabama with the stains on the sheets, the Motel 8 in Georgia with the musty old-cigarette smell (even in the non-smoking rooms). No one would draft behind us after two days in that place.

The worst part was the traveling. While all the Florida racers were enjoying a weekend off of racing, I'd be driving 500 miles to Alabama and Tennessee to compete in fairly small races that had no prize purses. These were the weekends when I could be staying home, catching up on some homework, and, for once, taking the time to breathe. So the 2007 collegiate season pushed my limits. In the end, I qualified for collegiate nationals and was there when my teammate, Rebecca Larson, won the road race and the omnium. So it was worth it, right? At the time, I didn't think it was because, truthfully, I didn't have much to do with Rebecca's victory.

But now the collegiate season has begun again and, because of last season, I feel prepared. I've been training harder and feeling stronger than I ever have before, and I know what I'm up against. I went into the first collegiate race (granted, many of the top contenders weren't there) and rode circles around the group. At the UGA race last weekend, Lees Mcrae and UGA gave me a run for my money, but I won both Saturday and Sunday. If there's one thing I learned last season, it's how to race my bike, and that learning began with the spring collegiate races.

So here I am continuing to race the collegiate calender. Right now, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Newnan, Georgia with several other team Florida members. We've brought 13 people to this race (Georgia Tech), and we've managed to cram ourselves and our bikes into two rooms. The drive up here wasn't too bad, except for the rain. The rain was from a cold front that we knew was coming through. We packed our warmest clothes and joked about the forecast for a 'chance of snow' never thinking that it would actually snow in March.

I woke up at 6 to leave for the race and couldn't believe it when I looked outside and saw the flurries falling to the ground. I was thrilled because I'd never seen it snow before. But by the time I started my ITT, it had gotten worse and I was ready for it to stop. Still, the way it floats through the air fascinates me. We got some pretty good pictures - I'll post them later.

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