Final camp blog

The last couple days of camp were FAST! Meetings, riding, more meetings, photos, then pack it ALL up and hit the road - everyone in different directions.  Jade, Brie and Maura headed to Europe, Annie and Leah drove one of the team cars to Tucson, Janel drove home and the rest of us to headed home.

The last day at camp we had a team BBQ on the beach, drank some adult beverages and just hung out.  So here are some photos to finish er off.....

 We may have another hobo on our team;) ... Maura is funny

 SRAM cruizin down the road

 Team time trial day, full trailer, van, car run through...

 Morning meeting with Challenge tires....

 I call this the Diamondback stack...

 Our awesome team rolling down the road...

 My bed and space...

 We did a commercial shoot one day, it involved food so I was content all day...

 Denise, enjoying some bread

 I had the TURKEY LEG!!!! YUMMMMM.  They were so big that it wouldn't fit in my short sleeve jersey pocket.  We ate 2 out of the 7 :)

 Over and over and over and over again.... for 6hrs.  It will air during Tour of California.

 Good stuff.

 Beach time with both teams....

 These guys are funny.....Tom Zirbel and Mike Friedman

 And maybe one other stop that was scheduled....


Listening: The Rolling Stones - I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Reading: The Sports Gene by David Epstein
Watching: the rain come down
Eating: not much, not much in the house!
Website: http://gearjunkie.com

Camp part 2

Dear mom and dad, so far at camp we've learned how to navigate a ropes course, sing new camp songs, horseback riding, hiking and I'm making you something cool in arts and crafts.......

Nah, not really but remember those days??? I went to camp when I was a kid - YMCA camp and Camp Skyline and we did all those things, along with canoeing, archery and capture the flag.  But at Optum camp it's all about the bike and bonding.  Bikes are still being tweaked, the schedule is chock full of from 8:30am till the afternoon hours but it's all good, every single last drop of it.  So here are some pictures, a little insight to the craziness....

 So when you get all of your clothing, the first thing you have to do is try it ALL on.  This is a lovely shot of my teammate, Amber Rais, mixing it up.

 Jade's national champ jersey looks pretty fly.....

 We spend a lot of time on our phones...

 Amber

 Action team selfie:)

 And again!

 This is Bill, our mechanic, working his butt off on all our bikes

 The new fleet reading for action...

And Bob! Head men's mechanic getting in tons of work as well...

Reading: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Watching: the beautiful sunrise
Eating: a little bit of everything here at camp
Listening: Love Me Again by John Newman
Website: http://www.gomichellie.com/www.gomichellie.com/Michellie_Jones.html  She is one of our sponsor reps....pretty badass to have someone like her represent your product.

Team camp part 1

Good morning from Oxnard, CA, it is day 3 of camp and we are off to a banging start.  We have a whole new staff - mechanic, directors, swanny and it's pretty kick ass.  Bill and Andrew, our mechanics, are working their butts off to get us exactly where we want to be on our bikes, working out new bike issues and setting up our time trial bikes.

Michelle, our new swanny, has given us all rubs, sorted all our clothing(which is a task, since it's a new sponsor) and is off and running like we are old buddies.

Kevin and Pat, well oiled machines they are, we've had meetings, talked training, schedule and what is expected of each rider and talked to each of our coaches.  I feel really good about this year and it's only day 3 of camp.

The girls are the best teammates anyone could ever ask for.  There are only 2 new additions and they have slid in like they have always been a part of the team.

We have new bikes this year  - Diamondback,  new clothing - Mt. Borah and new SRAM 22!

Today we are off to climb 3 canyons, I don't want to give away too much but we are going to put in some stellar work this week and I will be cross eyed and hangry(hungry/angry) by the end of it.  When I'm constantly hungry, I know it's be a productive week - I love that feeling!

So here's to 2014 and all it's glory, see y'all on the road.

Reading: The Boys in the Boat Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Eating: team dinners - 3 groups of 3, rotating dinner duty = lots of yummy food
Watching: the Olympics
Website: my teammate, Janel Holcomb's - http://www.janelholcomb.com
Listening: You Make Me by Avicii

Almost finished up down here

Can you believe that I'm blogging at 5:22am? And I'm not jet lagged, and I didn't need an alarm to wake me? It's true, I've gone from sleeping till 9am to going to bed at 9pm!  It's been a great routine for me, so why change it up, at least until I get back to Colorado and have to wait till 11 to even want to go ride this time of year.

So a couple more days till I pack up(I have a lot of stuff), drive north and sort things at home before heading to team camp in Oxnard, CA.  I've managed to cram a lot of extra curricular activities in with a ton of training, so much so dad asked, "Are you even riding your bike?" Oh yeah dad, I'm riding....

Alisha got us tickets to the U of A hockey game, which we thought was funny, seeing it's in the desert and all.  Apparently they put ice down in the convention center when they have a game and let me tell you, they did not disappoint!  We had a great time.

Yeah, so it wasn't a sellout crowd but we still had fun:)

Alisha, Amber and I decided it wouldn't be a Tucson trip without visiting the San Xavier Mission south of town, it was spectacular!  If I remember correctly, the mission was built in the 1700's, was routinely attacked by Apache indians and at one point the priest allowed people to live in the church and build fires.  This led to the complete covering of all the Fresco paintings with soot until they started to restore the church to it's origins by hand with sponges, one 6inch space at a time. It is still an active church and they are constantly restoring the inside, one small bit at a time while holding tours.  It is so worth seeing if you are ever in town, even Sunset magazine says so;)

 Tour guide...

 The 'cowboy' who decided to have a mission here....

 A representation of 'your life' the center is happiness or something like that..

 Ceilings.

 The walls are 3ft thick, originally just the brick...

 Window coverings..

 Narrow passages

 Original brick...

 Their book they carried around, made out of sheep skin...

 What's left of the crucifix's Jesus....

 Oh hey!

 Model of the building and grounds....

 Headed to the church...

 Church entrance...

 Right side...

 That's the gutter built into the wall behind the tree, I think these things are interesting.

 Door handle hardware...

 Entering into the church

 Baptismal room.

 Pulpit

 Fresco of the Last Supper, in the lower right hand corner there is a devil's head....

 Alter and parts are being restored...

 Looking up at one of the domes...

 Every inch was covered in some sort of artwork!

 Since the Indians and the missionaries couldn't converse back and forth, they basically built the church to give a pictorial description of the bible and the story of Christ.

 From the alter looking out, upstairs is the choir room.

 This is just a part of the chapel outside of the church, the whole room looked exactly like this and when you walked in you could noticeably feel an increase in temperature because of all of the lit candles.

The biggest event for January has to be the Half the Road screening at The Loft this past Wednesday. It's a film documentary about most all of the issues in women's cycling today and it will definitely start a conversation about the past, present and future(God willing) of our sport.  Click on the title to see the trailer and if you want to see this movie, ask your local theater to show it!  The film will make the circuit of film festivals before coming out on DVD(around 5-6months) and yours truly is in the film;) along with: Alison Powers, Emily Kachorek, Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos, Chrissy Wellington(the world's best female triathlete),  Katherine Switzer(first female to run the Boston marathon) just to name a few...

It was an amazing event to be a part of and hopefully we can all look back and say this was a turning point in our sport for the better.

And last but not least, of course, I'm riding a LOT and enjoying the wonderful Tucson weather and my friends - Dave and Alisha.....

 Get a lot of flats down here - the only negative....

 Token top tube/leg shot of my new Diamondback ....

 2 awesome people, my friends - Dave and Alisha....

2 important tools for my work - SRM powermeter and Training Peaks training log.

Camp is next, so check back soon for pics and stories:)

Eating: fruit bowls - cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strawberries, watermelon, pears, apples, grapes, pineapple
Watching: the Frontline story on concussions within the NFL
Reading: still Bill Bryson's One Summer, 1927
Listening: Open Mic with Mike Creed podcasts
Website: http://www.tomfoxphotography.com/home.htm Dad ordered one of Tom's photos for me, I'm pretty excited!