Day 2&3

DAY 2

I don't have much to say about my 2nd day here in California simply because I didn't do much. I accidentally booked my plane ticket on the wrong day so instead of arriving 2 days before the race, I arrived 3 days before the race. Our hosts had work all day and Robin didn't come to CA until 4pm.



So, I hung out all day long, sleeping, watching TV, making food, and doing homework. It was a good thing because I got the rest I needed.



DAY 3

Today was a LONG day. It began with a trip to Velo Pasadena which is a bike shop in downtown Pasadena. We went there to get a safety check on my bike and Robin's bike and if I would've known how expensive a safety check is I probably would risk it all to win it all! Just joking, it was a good idea to get a safety check. Here is a picture of Velo Pasadena:

After the bike shop trip, we went to pre-ride the TT course. The course is a steady 3.8 mile uphill. There was nothing too technical about it and the scenery was pretty, although I will not be looking at the scenery when I am racing my guts out.

Here is a picture of all of the race food, it is randomly thrown in to this blog, but it is still important!

We had a wonderful dinner with some of the people who have been taking care of us. We had pizza but this is not you normal pizza, all the ingredients made in the pizzas were 100% home grown. They made their own yeast! It was very delicious!

Here is Dorthey Wong, she was at dinner last night, she is the woman that has helped cyclocross and other disciplines grow in Southern California. She has helped Alexis Ryan (my best friend) and many other young juniors find their calling to cycling! She is one of the greatest people here in So Cal!

Now its time to get the show on the road and race. I race at 2:39 today (west coast time). Hoping for speedy legs and a fast tail wind up the mountain and NO Mountain Lions chasing me on Glendora Mountain Rd (apparently there are mtn lions waiting to chase ppl on the TT course).

The First Day

I woke up at 3:30am to aboard my 6am flight! The flight went smoothly and I slept like a baby the whole way. I had a 2 hour layover in Houston and then straight to Ontario, CA! I lucked out on both flights with the whole row to myself! I have no idea how that happened. On the second flight, we could watch direct TV so I watched my all time favorite movie Harry Potter (the 7th sequel).

When I arrived in Ontario, I was greeted by Robert and Betty! They made a sign for me and took very good care of me! We went straight to lunch where we went to the China town of Pasadena and we had a type of lunch called Din Sun.

Din Sun is a very fast way to serve a lot of people! Waiters and Waitresses come out with carts (each with a different food on it) and you take what you want off the cart, then the worker stamps your card and that is your order. It is a very effective way of serving because you never have to wait on your server or your food!

Here is a pictures of the table! The most different food that they served were chicken feet.... we didn't get any of those to eat. I felt like I was in a different country!

Afterwards, we went to a tea bar where they Bobo tea. It is basically tea with tapioca at the bottom. I was skeptical at first because I didn't know what tapioca tastes like. I had passion fruit tea with the tapioca at the bottom. When you drink the tea, the tapioca is sucked up through the straw, and then you chew on the tapioca. It was pretty good, it tasted like a bland gummy bear!





Lastly, we went to the Pasadena Tuesday Night Worlds! It was around the Rose Bowl stadium and each lap was about 3 miles long! All along the road it said Horse Crossing.... I thought that was interesting because we were in the city. Bahati was there racing along with 100 other people, I only did a couple laps around easy to save up for Friday!




All in all, I really love California! I think it is awesome and I can't wait for racing! Oh yeah, we have a Starbucks about 2 blocks from our host housing! SCORE!

Bike Fits in Maryland

On Sunday, my coach and I left for an 8 hour road trip to Annapolis, Maryland. We went to get a bike fir from Stu Waring, John Howard's second hand man. Stu is the best bike fitter on the east coast! The drive was more like 9 hours because of all the traffic we ran into going around Washington, DC; oh yeah, it was raining the WHOLE entire drive!! Those poor windshield wipers!

When we arrived, we had a fantastic dinner at Stu's house with some of Maryland's finest cyclists. His wife made delicious dinner of salmon, salad, green beans and rice! The next morning we woke up and headed to the Bike Doctor (a bike shop) for the fit. Robin was the first victim of the fit, and after her, I got my fit. Stu watched me how I walked and he figured out where I am tight, then fixed it on the bike. He showed me examples of a good TT fit and a bad fit. Most importantly, he straightened me out on my road bike!!

The trip was well worth it, not only getting a good fit, but it was an educational experience as well!

A huge thanks to Stu Waring and his wife Christine, and also the Bike Doctor!

And how could I forget, Maryland is known for the dance clubs!!

THANKS UNCLE STU!

Stu, Robin, and (me) in front of the fit station at the Bike Doctor:

Update Slack

This picture is from my most recent race, I got second on a 45 mile road race, thats me on the far right in the red and white. Jackie Crowell, from Team Type 1, took first place. She was not in the picture because she is a couple bike lengths ahead of me, thats how amazing she is!


I have been slacking on updating my blog lately. No I haven't been crazy busy, or given up blogging, I just haven't had a single thing interesting to blog about. Now I think about it, I do have "somewhat" cool things going on. My dad just got married to my new stepmother named Andrea Heller, she moved here from Colorado recently and has an awesome Australian Shepperd named Rena.

I have raced 2 road races so far at the Greenville Spring Training series, getting 3rd the first weekend and 2nd this past weekend. Both races had over 40 women in the field, which is fantastic for women's cycling!

I have been commuting to and from school on my single speed cruiser. It's about a 3o minute ride one way, and I wear my helmet, naturally. Hopefully more kids will ride their bikes to school as the gas prices in Charlotte rise.

I am working very hard in school, I am currently working on my senior exit project, my topic is "Women's Professional sports are ignored in the Equal Pay Act". I feel like its going to be a great project because I am so close to an example of the inequality.

My new favorite quote is "What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger". My US History teacher told us this as we were writing 10 pages of notes!

The more I write this blog, the more I feel like I am writing a Christmas card to my family members, telling them how my year has been going. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog! :)

The Everlasting Lover

We are put on this Earth for only a short amount of time. As our time here ticks down, day by day, year by year; everyday should be filled with love to one another. To love yourself and be wth the ones you love . When you suffer from loss and death, it forces you to think how you can make a difference in the lives of other people. It forces you to tell people you love, "I love you."

No matter what religion you come from or beliefs you have, you would know that Carla had an incomprehensable spirit living within her. She was full of only love. As her hour glass came to a stop, I realize what a difference she has made in my life. I know she would want me carry-on her everlasting love, and the difference she has made for the short time she was here. Her pride and love wll live long in me and other people she has influenced.

10 Do's and Don't's of the Off Season

I am currently creating this blog in my study hall class because I am all caught up on my school work and what would be more important than to address the do's and don't's of the off season! Some of these I have experienced during my off season and some are just for giggles! So enjoy!

1. DO log on to cyclingnews.com to follow the recent cycling news and gossip so you aren't out of touch.

DON'T log on to Facebook to take your personality quiz to find out what kind of bike racer you are.

2. DO eat 2 cookies instead of 1 for desert

DON'T eat a days worth of food at one sitting because you have just ran for the first time in a year.

3. DO a couple of cyclocross races for fun and be sure to crash no more than once!

DON'T take a beer hand-up, unless its under 68F outside, if it's 69F outside you will be disqualified!

4. DO continue to shave your legs every day, no matter what!

DON'T show up at a hot yoga class with hairy legs...... gross!

5. DO clean out your race bag that you haven't touched since the season

DON'T forget that you left your cycling shoes and dirty shorts buried underneath other clothes...... really gross!

6. DO go mountain biking to gain skills for the road.

DON'T go mountain biking during/ after it had just rained, you'll end up like this poor fellow below:

7. DO go out and get a manicure and pedicure, for a " me day". Make sure it's stress-free.

DON'T go and get a mani/ pedi if you're a male!

8. DO send thank you notes to your sponsors, managers and directors, to show appreciation towards them!

DON'T send numerous emails to your director/ manager demanding to find out what color the kits will be, so you can start buying clothes of the matching color!

9. DO core and upper body to off set your unproportional body!

DON'T go to the gym near the body builder guy and see if you can lift the same weights as him.

10. DO wear your DeFeet Slipstream shoe covers in the cold weather

DON'T be seen not wearing them in the winter or else your feet will look like the Abominable Snowman with frostbite on your toes and frozen to death!

I hope you enjoyed this little blog, now you how you should live your off-season!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND FUN, SAFE RIDING!

USA Cycling National Talent ID Camp

This past week (October 7th-11th) I skipped 3 AMAZING days of school to hangout at the Olympic Training Center (OTC). I was invited along with about 40 other MTB and roadies for the National Talent ID camp. The camp is help for elite juniors to prove they have what it takes to be the top, and qualify for some other fun stuff, like the world championships and the Junior National team.

It was going to be a hard week of some uphill power tests, serious skills and drills and a buttload of fun!

On day one, I was kindly welcomed off of the plane with the OTC shuttle and my best friend, whom I have not seen for 3 months, Alexis Ryan. When we arrived to the OTC we had lunch, built bikes, rode, and then a nice 3 hour discussion! When preparing for our ride I misplaced my helmet and everyone had to wait about 30 minutes so i could borrow one of the local's helmets oops.

On day 2, we woke up early in the morning, had breakfast and got ready for the power tests. We had to weigh ourselves, which was fun..... sort of! Then the power tests begun! (Up Cheyanne Canyon) It was a 3 mile some what steep climb. We had 2 tests, 1.5k test and the 5k test to the top. After descending like a Buddhist down the mountain, which i had no vest so i took a cardboard box and stuffed it down my jersey, we had lunch! After lunch we had a 2 hour discussion on collegiate cycling and I swear Carla Swart was in about every other picture on the power point, it was so cool!!! After discussions we had some amazing skills and drills, i learned a lot!

On the 3rd day, Saturday, we headed out for a 3.5 hour ride to work on echelons and pacelines. We had a race simulation-game. We were separated into 3 groups: the break, the chase, and the field. The first group to make it back to the van is claimed the winner. So what happened was, I was in the break group, the 2nd group caught us. I saw the finish line and sprinted, no one else was sprinting until the boys saw the only girl (me) sprinting for the line. That was FUN!!!

So after some lunch and more discussions the girls headed out to the Velo. I have never ridden on the track or on a fixed gear before so when the gave me my track I went on the banks to ride, I got scared and decided to get some instructions before going on the track again! After some paceline drills and doing nice teamwork with Alexis it rained it that was the end of track day! But it was the coolest thing Ive done and Im hooked now!

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me....... we woke up and did 2 hours of skills and drills had lunch and then went right out again to do a 3.5 windy windy windy ride!! luckily I hid behind tall guys and got a good draft! I practiced sticky bottles with Ben Sharp which was cool! It was like a free ride pack to the field!

That night we had individual meetings with the coaches. I had a meeting with Ben and Barney. They told me I was got second place at camp! Just 2 seconds behind my best friend Alexis on the short test and 15 seconds behind her on the long test. We were pretty stoked!!!

The Last Day :(

On the last day, we rode to the Garden of the Gods, which was so amazing! It was the best ride, and a very sad ride because we all had such a fun time and we wont see each other again for a long time. After the ride we had to take some final picture of the OTC and pack our bikes. I said goodbye to my best friend Alexis, it was so sad :(. I got on the shuttle to leave to OTC along with 6 other guys that were all on my flight. I got on the plane to Huston, TX then to CLT and I wanted to cry. I didn't want to leave!

The top 10 COOLEST thing of the week

10. The food, we had an all you can eat buffet of healthy food. Steele cut oats every morning and one day for lunch we had sushi!

9. Loosing my bag with my helmet, money, sweatshirt, and hat on the first day I arrived. Claiming it stolen. And getting a call from Phil O'Donnell, when I was flying home, telling me that I left it on the shuttle. Whew!

8. Snow on top of Pikes Peak on the last day.

7. Meeting amazing people from amazing places and getting to know more kids my age.

6. Talking in German with Dean Hass and Alexis.

5. Having a Dance Club party in the hallway.

4. The top-secret "Alright-Okay" game.

3. Skills and Drills when Coach Mike kept saying word!

2. Riding the Velodrome for the first time

1. Freestyle rapping when all the girls were waiting for the guys to get ready for a ride, and Alexis with her awesome beatbox skills!

Nicknames Created

1. Alexis Ryan - Ricky Bobby, because she has 2 first names (ricky for short)

2. Thomas Wrona - T-Pain, that one is just self explanatory

3. Miguel Byron - Miami, because he is from Miami

4. Jackie Denny - Grand Slam, because her last name is Denny, like the restaurant

5. That on kid - Spongebob, because he like Spongebob, still cant remember his real name

6. Micheal Dessau - Megatron, because their sponsor is transitions, like transformers

7. Danny Parks - ButterLips, because he didnt have any chapstick so everyone told him to put butter on his lips, HAHA

8. My nick name is SON because my real name is AddySON

There were many more nicknames! It was pretty much the BEST camp ever!