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.