Faith

I do this sport for me. Not for my parents, coach or friends, for me.  Cycling has brought me up from my deepest, lowest points in my life and made me into who I am today.  It gave me back my confidence and hope that I never thought would come back to me.  This year has definitely had its ups and downs, considering my multiple injuries I just haven't had the best of luck.  I've been working through the pain, its not as easy but I'm getting the job done.  I know I have a ton of support behind me and I couldn't be any more grateful.  Without my friends and family I wouldn't have gotten through the beginning of this roller coaster year.  One thing that I really depend on is my faith, I know I'm not mentally strong enough to make it in this sport yet, but I do have more than enough faith in myself.  Sometimes I have to take a step back and remember the big picture, I get caught up in the moment at times.  Like any teenage girl I have a big head, and I apologize for the way I act when things don't go my way. I constantly have to remember that it doesn't matter what others think of me, or the way I race, what matters is that overtime my results pay off and there slowly starting too. With school coming to an end and my big "A" races quickly sneaking up upon me, I'm starting to stress more! Luckily ill have a week between my goal race and my finals to wind back down.  I can't wait to step on the podium again!!

Breakthrough

 So this season has definitely started off rough as some may say, between sickness, and injuries I just can't get a break! I recently had a wreck and messed up my elbow pretty bad, I've been in a splint and icing my elbow whenever I can.  April was actually a pretty good month other than my little spill, lots of good milage and racing with some good company!!  I had one of my biggest races, Joe Martin Stage Race.  It was a two day stage race with three races, time trail and road race on Saturday and criterium on Sunday.    The time trail is a pretty challenging course, 2.5 miles with a 6.8% grade, after the time trail I was sitting 21st out of 34... I wasn't to happy with my time but I still had two more races to move up.  A short  3 hours after my TT I was off in my 40 mile road race, as most of you know Joe Martin is known for its hills, luckily I only had one lap.  After the first hill you could tell who the climbers were, surprisingly that day I was a climber.  The field totally blew up, and I was in the lead group for a while.  I ended up getting dropped after an attack and got swept up into the chase group.  I won the sprint of my group putting me in 8th place for the road race and 13th in GC, jumping up 8 places! I was 3 seconds out of the top 10, I had to make that up in my 20 minute criterium that had a pretty hurtful hill in it.  My race began at 7:30am, you could tell everyone was a little sore after yesterdays grueling road race.  The field split pretty quickly, I was in the lead group with about 13 riders.  It was probably one of the most painful races I have done so far but I kept in the lead group and ended up 8th in the crit also. After starting in 21st I jumped up to 10th overall in GC which was my goal! Thankfully I had my amazing boyfriend at the race with me to keep me from losing my mind, I wouldn't have gotten though the weekend without him! I was super happy with the way I raced, there was an amazing field with some tough competition out there which was good!! Joe Martin Stage Race was definitely a turning point in my season, I couldn't be any happier with my results considering I was racing on a bum elbow, but there were no excuses in this race!! I'm super excited for these next few months, all my big races that I have been training for are coming up sooner than I had thought!! I'm ready to step on the podium here real soon!

Start of the time trial

One of my mentors, Kim Petit, and me in the criterium

Going through corner #2

3k from the finish of the road race

The real reason I brought Michael was so he could do everything for me ;)

The Walking Dead

So last week anyone and everyone I encountered told me that I look like the walking dead... I responded with thanks, I feel like it too.  If you live in Tulsa and saw me, you know what I mean.  Sunday, March 30th I had a race in the morning, I woke up with a small fever but I decided to race anyway.  I mean it was only 50 miles, what could go wrong? Well everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.  The p123 women went out with the Mens Masters, I stayed with them for the first 10 miles or so, until we hit the first real climb.  When I got dropped it hit me hard.  I was only half way through the first lap and I felt absolutely horrible.  I tried eating a few blocks, but everything I ate came right back up. So after emptying my stomach three times I was done.  I finished the whole 48 miles, still placing in the money.  My body has never felt so dead, or ached so so so much. Throughout the whole race I had friends come up behind me and try to help me through but I was in so much pain they couldn't really do much. I want to say thanks to Justin Davis and Esther Thais for giving me a few words of encouragement and pulling me until I had to stop again! One thing I learned from this horrible experience is you should never race or train unless your body and mind are feeling 100%, if you do it'll just hurt you in the long run.  I had to take the whole week off, all I did that week was lay in bed and sleep. I tried going to school on Tuesday, I survived 45 min and had to go home. Turns out I had some sort of flu virus, strep throat, AND a mild concussion from hitting my head on my bike stand (yes,  my bike stand, feel free to laugh at that). I would definitely recommend staying away from your bike when your sick and recover!! Sadly I had to learn the hard way!

Spring Break of an athlete

Being an elite athlete, school breaks aren’t really breaks at all, they’re just opportunities for more training. As a teenage girl I still want to enjoy my breaks a little.  This year I went to Florida to visit some family, friends and of course for some time in the sun. Florida weather may have been a little better than Oklahoma’s, but in no way did I escape the wind.  So with all my kits, swim suits and tanning oil, we loaded up my bike and drove down to FL for the week.  We stayed on the shores of Daytona Beach; it was beautiful waking up to the sunset on the waves.  The riding weather was close to perfect everyday; I only got sprinkled on once during a training ride and got poured on during my first race Saturday morning.  I had some amazing friends that I got to get closer with and ride with, which is always my favorite part. Some of the bonds you make in this sport are close to unbreakable. One of my favorite days was Wednesday; I got to race in a practice circuit race in Clermont, Fl.  It was a smooth course with a bunch of good competition; one thing I loved seeing is the amount of junior racers that were out there! I love seeing this sport grow in a good way; they were also pretty fast too. Of course most of my trip was spent riding, but I did have some time for a little fun!  My free time was spent at the beach, watching movies, eating ice cream and mini golfing with my favorite people.  To round off the amazing break I raced Saturday in the Delray Twilight festival criterium.  I race the W123 in the morning and got 5^th racing in the pouring rain! Later that day I did the WP123 and got my butt kicked, it was a great experience to be racing with such talented and knowledgeable women.  I also loved watching some of my closest friends race the mens pro race, 2 hours of crit racing is rough! I was so lucky to get the opportunity to go to Florida and make some new friends and get some more miles in! I definitely want to come back next year and get under the lights at Delray again!

Pictures

Confidence

So the last few weekends I have been away stage racing in Texas, Arizona and California! Stage racing is nothing like you would expect it to be, three races in 2-3 days no big deal right? Well after back to back races it starts to pile up.  My first race didn't go as well as I had expected it to, but it was one of my first times out on the road since the fall! After a few races getting dropped pretty hard by the pros, this last weekend at the Tour of Murrieta I finally started preforming like I should! The 2nd day was a 50 minute crit and I was extremely nervous, I kept reminding myself to trust in my training, and after every attack the pace would slow back down.  5 laps or so into the race I noticed we were dropping girls, fast.  Half way through the race pretty much half of the field was gone, and only 3 of my teammates were left in the race with me. I felt amazing, my legs felt great and I wasn't dying… yet.  I ended up finishing on the back of the lead pack, but next race it will be in the front of the lead pack. It was so awesome to be able to hang in the pro123 criterium as a cat 3.  I finally got my confidence back which is what I was waiting for! Now my racing season can officially start! Confidence is a big part of this sport.  If you tell yourself you can do it, you will. If you talk to yourself in a negative way you're going to preform in a negative way.  It may sound crazy but when your only 25 minutes into a 50 minute p123 crit averaging about 25mph nothing is crazy, I totally talk to myself. Not out loud but in my head, I tell myself I can do anything for 25 minutes, how strong I'm feeling, and to trust my training, I practice chasing attacks all the time.  I was so proud of myself for not just hanging in with the big girls, but for hydrating right, believing in myself and not stressing out! I expect to see myself on the podium very soon.

Remember The Name

Many of you have probably heard the song Remember the Name by: Fort Minor.  As I was listening to this song the other day I was thinking about the ways this relates to my sport, cycling.  The refrain goes this is 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain and 100% reason to remember the name. I broke it down part by part and this is what I got.

10% luck- In any race luck is a big factor, such as the weather, which wheel you take and in some cases the racers that sign up for the particular race.  There’s been races where I grab the wrong wheel during a break away and have to work 2 times harder than I needed too.

20% skill- Skill comes in handy during races, especially criteriums.  Going around a corner at full speed can be scary at times if you don’t have the correct bike handling skills. 

15% concentrated power of will- The pain cave is the only thing I have to say for this one. Focus focus focus.

5% pleasure- The feeling of knowing that all your hard work has paid off.  The feeling you get coming across the line in first place.

50% pain- We all know the feeling you get when you see someone attack in a race, its like you can feel the pain coming on.  Pain is a huge part of this sport, maybe even more than 50%.

100% reason to remember the name- When you look at the registration page and start looing at the competitors you’re racing against, you always remember a few names imperticular, usually those racers are amazing or extremely sketchy.  You want to be the one that pulls up and everybody asks who’s going to get second.