Italy Para Worlds 2011

Carrie and I at training. 

I am LOVING the tandem! Going to worlds with Carrie was such a great experience, I learned a lot and we made huge improvements as a tandem team. Italy was beautiful, the weather was great almost the whole time we were there, the track was beautiful and FAST. We did a few rides on the road prior to our races and got to train on the track before the racing started, which was nice to get a feel for the track before having to race on it.

Cappuccino I had every morning

Our first event at worlds was the kilo, although painful I was looking forward to it, as was Carrie. We set our goal to go 1:17, to qualify for talent pool team. The day started off as any race day would for me: lazy morning, good breakfast, some joking around early on to keep the jitters away, oh and COFFEE, lots of coffee. We rode over to the track, I grabbed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Brittany, one of our awesome staff members, and just relaxed while I watched other races. Then it was warm up, I got on the rollers, Carrie next to me on the trainer and Adam, one of the coaches, came to tell us our structured warm up. After warm up it was time to head over to the nervous box, just sitting and waiting for our turn on the track. After what seems to be forever we finally get our turn to shine. We get on the bike, feet clipped in, hands on the bars *beep* 12 seconds to the start, I tell myself "you have done this a million and a half times, don't mess it up this time!" *beep* 5 seconds *beep* 4 *beep* 3 *beep* 2 *boop* GO! 4 laps around! 1 minute 16 seconds! (5 second personal best) I was so pumped we met our goal. We ended up placing 13th, which I didn't even care what place we got, of course I would have loved to do better but we accomplished the time we set out to do, and made talent pool standard. I was pleased with all of it considering we have only been riding together for a month/ month and a half.

Start of the Kilo

We had a day in between our 2 races and we raced the 3k pursuit the final day of racing. I don't know what shook me up so much for this race but I was not as calm and collected as the kilo. We rode over to the track, like usual, watched some races but the whole time I was not calm I couldn't get level headed no matter how many times I told myself "it's only 12 laps!" I was crying and shaking and I finally got on the rollers for warm up and thought I would chill out after that but I was still freaking out a bit. We walked over to the back straight for the start of our 3k and sitting in the hot seat I finally pulled it together. Adam walked the bike up to the gate, Craig went to the turn to call times and then we started all over again, *beep* 12 seconds. We start the race, and come around our first lap and here our targeted time, I was so happy to hear that. The second lap we come around we are nearly a second faster then our scheduled pace, 3rd lap .7 seconds faster. I yelled at Carrie "Just roll with it!!" So we did, and ended having another personal best time, and Craig was happy because his goal for us was to break 4 minutes, which we did with a time of  3:58 

Karrisa, Me, Carrie, and Mackenzie (Pilots and Stockers) 

On top of the racing being awesome, my family was able to come to Italy and support us and luckily I was able to hang out with them for a bit and just catch up. The first day they were there we went to a little cafe/bar thing and had a great time. I was also able to go and see their beautiful apartment they got that over looked a lake. 

My parents, sister and I, all happy!

My sisters and I at the cafe

Vince (2nd in Kilo), Me, and Aaron after a training session. 

Obviously I am sad to say I had to leave beautiful Italy and head back to reality of school...

New Chapter

As my mentor and second dad, Richard Lamb has always said to me "you are turning the page" in my book of life. This means I have accomplished a goal, make improvements, or just in fact move on to a new thing in life.
Currently my new thing is tandem and I am going to Italy in a few days to be the pilot for Carrie at the Paralympic World Championships. Carrie is visually impaired, so obviously she can not ride a bike herself.. so that's where I come in!
I basically ride a bike like normal except I have a little extra weight behind, but the good thing about having another person means we get to go faster!! I call her our motor! hehe
We are a new partnership so we are still working on getting our kinks out but we have improved so much since the beginning. We have dropped like 3 seconds off our standing start lap in less than a month, we can only keep getting better from here.
We have had about 3 training camps here in Los Angeles where the whole team comes and trains for a few days at the ADT Velodrome. The training is awesome, the team is awesome, and we all have so much fun together on and off the bike.
Worlds is on March 12-13 so I will follow on how the experience was and how the racing went!
Here is the website on the event: Click Here

Carrie and I during a training session

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The past months have been a pretty rough for me. I will start at the beginning, back in early October, at the end of Elite Track Nationals. Nationals went ok for me, I got 5th in the scratch race and 7th in the Omnium. I did a pretty risky move in the Keirin and it was either going to work really well for me or I would bomb it, well it ended up not working out so well for me. Live and learn, I suppose. The points race was the final individual event for me. About half way through I got caught up in a pretty bad wreck. I slid for about 30-40 meters down the home straight of the track... I was stopped when I slammed into a metal pole with the side of my neck. OUCH! No, literally OUCH's Doctor Kay ran to my rescue! He was there by my side before I even realized what had happen, holding my neck in place, trying to figure out if I needed to go to the hospital, it was a yes. As the paramedics put a neck brace on me and carelessly flipped me over on the stretcher while grabbing my splintery, bloody side I looked over and saw a crowd of people and I was HUMILIATED! I was taken to the ambulance where my mom rode shotgun and of course I rode in the back with a cute EMT. Following was my entourage. My best friend Andy and my boyfriend Ian where in my car and Ian's mom behind them in her car. After getting to the hospital it all went down hill from there, I wont bore you with the details but it was the WORSE hospital experience ever!! On top of all that, the following day I found out I had cracked the top tube of my bike. Lucky for me, Ian's dad repairs carbon frames and was able to fix mine.
(See look my story had a happy ending.)
Here is a series of pictures that Colleen Cross captured of the crash. (I'm in Blue)

I healed pretty quickly from the crash and after about 2 1/2 weeks I started riding again. One ride  I was doing with Ian. A little more than 1/2 way through the ride I got distracted and looked behind me, while the road slightly curved to the left and I did not I quickly turned around when Ian started yelling my name just to catch a glimpse of the truck that I was about to get very personal with. Then SMACK my face met the back of a pick up truck with a shell on it. This was the worse pain I had ever experienced. I crawled to the grass and kept spitting out blood and bits of my teeth. Desperately trying to save my teeth I was handing them to Ian telling him to save them. A few men saw the crash and came out to help, conveniently one was a dentist and relieved Ian of his bloody teeth holding duty. As I assessed the "crime scene" as I call it I looked over to see my precious Specialized in two. That was the last thing I wanted to think about, another bike broken.  Ian called his mom and she came to take me to the hospital. On my way there I called Travis Smith to find out what hospital his wife, Dina worked at. She called the hospital for me to let them know I was coming. They were so great to me! I ended up walking out of there with 7 stitches in my chin and the relief that I did not have a broken jaw. The next morning I was on the plane to Houston to get teeth put back into my mouth. 

before:

After:

 My bike:

Once again Kyle Davenport came to my rescue and found me a new bike, Specialized Amira.

 Gotta love that man! 

Two other things not bike related:
My dad's dad so my Papa Jake had to got to the hospital for about a week because of some fluid in his lungs. I found this out the day I crashed the second time. He is doing much better now and is at home. 
The final unfortunate event I had to deal with was our family puppy, Eve (barely 1 year old) was hit by a car November 22nd and died immediately, which was best. This was very sad for my entire family especially because my sister, Delaney's birthday was the next day. We all love and miss her very much but she is in puppy heaven now.

On a lighter note, I want to thank everyone that has been so great to me these past few months, you made everything so much easier and I am very thankful! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK  YOU!! 

(like the Chinese take out bags say)

Texas State Championships

This past weekend I traveled back home to Houston to race the track State Championships at the Alkek Velodrome. It was a quick trip. I left LA Thursday night after my one class and a training session at ADT and I returned on Sunday afternoon.
When I arrived Thursday night my mom picked me up from the airport and had shrimp spring rolls in the car for me, gotta love my mom!! It was kind of late so when we got home we went straight to bed.
Friday morning I got up early ate breakfast with my Granny then head down to Sugar Land to Sugar Cycles. I got to see a bunch of friends there and also Kyle gave me a super cool new kit!!
On my way home I stopped by my dad's office to pick him up because he had broken his heal the weekend before. (He has now gone through surgery and everything is good!)
Friday night came very quickly and I headed off to the the track where I got to catch up with a bunch of good friends that I hadn't seen awhile!
My first race was the 200 meter (not my favorite!) I ended up getting a personal best on that track and later I checked my records and found I was only .02 second of my best time ever.
The racing continued all weekend, with a Saturday morning session and evening session. The races were Keirin, Sprints, Scratch, Points, 500 meter, and 3 kilometer pursuit. I won all the races giving me a clean sweep at the state championships!
It was a great weekend of racing with a wonderful group of women!

Other than racing I didn't have any time to do much of anything else, but I definitely enjoyed every minute I got to spend with my family and friends.
Oh, and thank you to all my team mates and other friends that were able to make it out and watch!

I can't believe there is only 1 1/2 weeks till Elite Nationals: https://www.usacycling.org/events/2010/elitetrack/

This weekend was packed filled with action down in Ladera at the Ladera Grand Prix

It was a good race with a lot of face girls. The pack mainly stayed together and came down to a pack sprint. There was a crash with 2 girls at the last turn on the last lap. I was right next to it so I had to feather my breaks a bit while the lead out train that I was on headed up the long uphill, windy finish straight away. I was able to hold of 4th but had to chase a few girls back before the line. 

Kendall Ryan and I in the pack

So, Nationals is in roughly a month and a half away and I have been doing a bunch of training on the track with the Momentum Coaching group that has been going really well. My dad is not going to be able to make it to nationals this  year because he is already committed to two other weekends in October to be gone and to take another weekend off would be pushing it at work. This weekend is an omnium style race at the LA Velodrome. I got to thinking why couldn't my dad come out this weekend? So... I asked him! He actually said yes and is coming to watch me!! :] 

Oh and when he comes he is brining one of our old coffee makers from the house for me!! YAY!!! 

This weekend should be a fun weekend. 

Marymoor- FSA

The races started on Friday July 23 and ended Saturday. 

500m- 41.26 (7th place)

Keirin- didn't go to well. In the heat I was one place out of qualifying for the semi-finals, I was able to get in through the reps. In the semi-finals both heats were super stacked and 4 girls from each went through. Again, I was one place out of qualifying. Jen Featheringill beat me for the 4th qualifying spot by .004 seconds. 
Scratch: 6th place. Sat in majority of the time and sprinted at the end.

the 3rd sprint out of  turn 2 came over the top of everyone almost won but I got nipped at the line by Jennie Reed. Then I can of blew up because there was a counter attack was off the back a bit but suffered so much to catch back on and went straight to the front sat in for a sprint or two and then through   out the race collected a few more points. I was tied going into the last sprint with Reed and Newell for 3rd place. Reed led out the sprint, I got 2nd and I was on Newell's wheel but couldn't come around. So, Reed-3rd Newell-4th Me-5th
Miss N' Out: 6th- tried to sit at the front but it was really aggressive
Points: probably my best race of the weekend! Sat in and made my move on
  to stay up there.. had to keep going back up there. At the end I got pinched at the bottom and had no where to go.

figured out that she was coming into early. We were in the main field the whole time. Both of us were able to grab a point each.Madison with Kendi Thomas: 5th- pretty good my partner and I missed a few exchanges but got in a good rhythm after we
 

500 meter time trial

Kerin Semi-Finals

Jennie, Jen and I fighting it out in the points race.

Women's Madison podium! (11 teams!!)

Haute Links by Hanan Alves-Hyde 

Heather, Me, Travis, and Cari!

Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge

I arrived in Portland on Wednesday after an adventurous day of standby traveling, but I eventually made it there and my luggage soon after. The "that's what she said"s got kicked off pretty early in the game and continued through out the weekend. I have learned, by hanging out with my "older and wiser friends", that I am just an amateur in the game, but I am coming along quickly!
Now racing, the first day (Friday) I did a 3k pursuit and a 500. Second day was the scratch race and madison which I did with Amara Boursaw and we got 3rd! The third and final day started with keirin heats

with only one person advancing, I did not advance. The reps were after the miss & out which I got 5th in.. rookie mistake: never think you are safe. In the keirin rep I was in a super stacked heat with all super fast chicks, I played it smart and conservative and was able to win the rep to advance to the final. I was overly excited. The finish was followed by a fist pump and a squeal.

The final was fast, with fast and smart ladies. I ended up taking 7th. The final race was the points (10 mins after the final). I was pretty tired, but I went in to the race with a positive attitude. I was able to get a few points before 5 women went off the front. I sprinted out of the pack on the final sprint to win the field sprint, knowing other women and I had equal points. I ended 7th in that race as well.

It was a great weekend of racing and great friends.

Next week is FSA/NUUN Grand Prix!

A group of HOT cycling girls at the end of all the racing!!