Pre ride

So when we got in town yesterday afternoon, we found the host house and went to trader joes for some grub and got back home for supper. They have a HUGE yellow lab named Barney and he is so sweet! Kristin McGrath is at the same house with me, which works wonderfully, we mesh well together.

So this morning we get up had a great breakfast and then went to the other team house and met up with the other girls and went to check out the TT course, which is going to be interesting! It is 14miles long, half of it is up hill, turn around and go back down the hill and the road isn't that great so finding the perfect line will be key so as not to get bumped all over the place!

All the girls of ValueAct are super sweet and nice. I'm sure it is hard for them when a guest rider comes in and they have to show them the ropes every time......so thanks gals for letting me come play;)

Sorry Michelle, no pictures, I haven't had any time, plus trying to get acclimated to the team and my surroundings.....

Things are about to start flying by and before I know it this race and Nationals will be over:(

Did I mention that I'm having a blast????????

Cascade and Nationals

So I'm headed to Bend, OR as I type, for Cascade Cycling Classic July 21-26 and then Nationals(road and time trial)the following week. Lisa Hunt, the director of ValueAct Capital asked me to guest ride for their team and be a worker for their general classification gals. I was so excited and I can't wait! I shall do my job to the best of my ability:) So that probably means that I won't be looking for any stage or overall victories. All that will be great training and a great learning experience for hopefully future endeavors. I'm staying at a host house that will have 5 of the girls at the house, the other 2 will be at another house. So here I come!

Now I can add 3 more states to my list of where I've been:) Unless dad says, you've been there when you were just a little girl, that doesn't count:) Utah, Idaho and Oregon! I've never been to those and the drive has been so beautiful! The rock formations in Utah, the windmills and flat land in Idaho and I'm not to Oregon yet but I'm sure I will post something cool once I get there!

Then Nationals are after Cascade so we shall see how that goes as well! This will be my first time to do road and time trial Nationals, I did crit Nationals last year and had a blast, so this should be fun too!

Debbie Milne, my Absolute Racing teammate, is coming for Nationals as well! She has just won Master's Nationals in Kentucky just a few weeks ago and now she is coming to Bend to show the yougins how she does it:) It should be interesting, the road race is an 18mile loop that we will do 4 times and has a climb in the loop, not my best course but I will do my best. I'm considered more of a sprinter, not a climber:) Oh well, we shall see what happens.....

Another great opportunity on the horizon is the new cyclocross team I'm joining! I think it is sponsored by Hudz and it is based out of Boulder, CO. I've never done cyclocross but I think the director was interested because I'm an ex soccer player and I ain't afraid of a little mud, bring it on! So that may put a small damper in my homecoming in September but we shall see. I haven't gotten any details yet and even though I've been sent the roster, the only girl I knew(do to my lack of cycling knowledge) was Rebecca Much. She is a hoot! Check out her blog! She is laid back, super sweet, so that should be a good start:) and I'm sure she is a wonderful cyclocross racer.....

I also want to give a shout out to Michelle Williams! Thank you so much for your support! I DO have LOTS of extra parts, wheels, bikes, etc. I am taking my vitamins and eating as best I can but sometimes you just want a scoop of ice cream!! I hope all the Data mangement gals are well! Y'all are on my list of friends to see when I do get home, whenever that will be:) Dinner? Cico de Mayo?

Once Nationals are finished in Bend, it will be time to drive back to Colorado for a week, then fly to Downer's Grove, Illinois for crit Nationals. After that it will be crits until cross starts I guess:)

….and hang out with Brandon! He is flying up to hang out for the weekend!!!! YEAH! I don't know the last time I saw him but it has been a while! He is my best guy friend in the whole world! We met my freshman year in college, he was our student trainer for the soccer team and we've been best buds ever since! There was a group of us and we all still stay in touch, when we can! Brandi White, she is in Flowood, MS now as a physical therapist(another best bud of mine to this day), Amy Mann, she is from Texas and lives there today w/ her cute daughter and is fluent in Spanish, Beth Dreher, she lives in Nashville and beat cancer, Sam Corker, she is back home coaching all the soccer teams, Phil Hartness, born and raised in Starkville, lives there today as a financial advisor, Brandon and myself. True friends are hard to find and once you do find them it is awesome to know they are there for you YEARS later and haven't changed a bit! Love y'all!

Ally, 4th of July, bear, oh my

I would like to introduce you to Ally Stacher.  She is a cool chick that has already explored the world at the young age of 22.  She is a super outgoing, fun loving, hippie, bike riding chick that acquires friends everywhere she goes.  We meshed right away and she is going to be a blast to race with.  The world needs more Ally's.  She has gone back home now but we will be seeing each other again soon, at Cascades.  

Also, last week, Carla Thompson and her sister Alice had dinner with me at Serious Texas BBQ in Durango.  We had a blast talking about everywhere they have been in the last 6 weeks of travel, they seem to be the perfect traveling companions.  It was so good to see a familiar face from back home and have a great dinner with friends.

July 4th was pretty mellow, we had a get together with some friends and enjoyed some good food and a beautiful sunset.  That was about the extent of the festivities, I was  tired from the earlier ride, so I turned in before the fireworks.

This morning was exciting though, I woke up to a bear in the yard.  It got away before I got a picture.  I'm sure he will be back though......to be continued......

Weekend events

So this weekend was a great training weekend:

Saturday I drove over to Durango and did the A ride(as long as possible anyway), which was only 40miles but with lots of climbing in those 40miles.  We finished with a killer sprint and I blew up about the time we were supposed to sprint! haha! My heart was about to explode!!! I was so mad that I didn't get to sprint after such a great ride but none the less, more training in the bag right?!

That afternoon we headed out for Albuquerque for the New Mexico State Crit Championships.  I didn't know what to expect, if racing would be harder, different, whatever out west.  When we got to the course, I recognized a couple of girls from Tour of the Gila and figured I would have my work cut out.  Either way, I needed it to be hard for a productive, butt kickin weekend.  The course was flat, nothing special but the weather was trying to play a factor.  It was raining for a while in the previous races but cleared up for our race and it is so dry here, the road dried up in no time!

There wasn't a big field of us but the race organizers had a box FULL of goodies to hand out during the race and it made the race go from the gun! They offered a prim on the second lap and after I settled in, I hammered it from lap 3:) The group caught me and I rested a couple of laps and attacked again.  It was a lot of fun! And I won:)!

After the women's race I got a bit more water, talked strategy for a minute, then spun around till the start of the men's 3/4 race.  I figured I ought to be a bit more conservative in that race w/ the boys:)  It started the same way as the women's, offering a prize/prim on the second lap and the guys weren't to excited about it, so I went for it! I got it! I sat up and waited for them to catch me cause I knew this was only the beginning of a long 45min +3laps.....

A couple of guys attacked and I was able to stick with em and then a group caught us and the majority of the race was a break of about 10 of us and we stayed away the entire time.  I won a couple other prizes and made it till 2 laps to go and by then I was toast......

All in all a GREAT weekend, today is an easy day, then keep going hard this week!

Here is a pic of the great swag I won!!! I told the race promoters and organizers thank you more than once for all the great stuff!!! How nice!

I also wanted to say thank you to the kickstand bike shop for all the goodies they donated.

Tentative Schedule:)

Yesterday I spent just about the entire morning trying to figure out some sort of race schedule.  I'm not forcing racing but I am itching and looking forward to racing motivates me in my training.  So after a couple of searches locally, figuring out Nationals and hoping for a ride at Cascades here is my plan.....

June 27:Durango group ride(which is like racing due to the individuals who are in this ride).

June 28: Criterium in Albuquerque(4hr drive).

Train and motorpace till July 12, which includes Thursday night time trials and Durango group rides if possible with July 4th.

July 12: Tour de Los Alamos, N.M.

July 17th -19th: Sometime in there travel to Bend, OR for Cascade, stay till Nationals which is there as well till August 2.

August 13: Fly to Downers Grove, IL for National Crits.

Sept. 1: friend flies in so we can drive back to MS on Sept. 2/3

Sept. 5: MSU vs JSU football game

Sept. 6: Drive to Atlanta

Sept. 7: Atlanta 10K race

THEN HOME:) Of course, this is ALL tentative;) haha! Subject to change at any given time.

And one or two pictures of my pup for fun.....oh and some yard art;)

Training

So I haven't had a whole lot to write about lately, I've just been training, hanging out and enjoying the life of a cyclist.  It seems I'm riding so much more now than I ever had and there are days when you don't want to get off the bike and then there are those you don't even want to pedal one more time around.  But thank goodness I have a lot more days that I enjoy that those I don't.  I enjoy seeing what my body transforms to, I enjoy the feeling after an intense workout and I enjoy the satisfaction of achieving another day's goal.

I'm hoping to race again sometime soon, until then I will use group rides and practice time trials as race simulation.  

In closing, I took this picture yesterday with my iphone while I was walking Miller.

Twitter

Well I guess I'm officially tweeting now:) Gotta stay up with the times eh?!  So anyway, they are pretty random sometimes I'm sure, but if you know me that is not uncommon right?

So I was trying to get a guest ride to Nature Valley Grand Prix http://www.minnbikefestival.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx but it didn't pan out, so I'm still ramping up the training.  I was thinking about going to New Mexico for a road race and crit or stay in town and do the group ride in Durango and maybe take in the Dolores River Festival, http://www.doloresriverfestival.com/index.php?content=home.  So many options!:)

Y'all have a great day!