I used to be so excited about christmas, and now I can't believe it's a week away! I feel so NOT ready. Sigh. I'm glad to be out of school - it was getting really stressful the last few days with writing huge papers, etc... So I almost saw 'I am Legend' last Friday night - until I became a legend - a legend in freaky health catastrophes that is. I had some pretty bad chest pain and shortness of breath and I thought I was going to pass out and so I stayed the night at OHSU and the next morning and now I'm armed with some good ibuprofen and narcotics to calm the fluid buildup in my heart. Bottom line: no exercise until next year. Not cool. Seriously. Not cool.
I missed bikram yoga last night - that class is so hardcore! It's 90 minutes of total focus + concentration and sweat but you feel so empowered when you're done. This time of year is always kind of surreal because like now, for instance, I have all this free time, no 300-page reading assignments due tomorrow and now - no training plans. It's kind of crazy how busy it gets once racing starts and especially in the summer - there is NO time and it's just crazy-awesome but I love it. Now I have a stack of pleasure-reading books, food and Full House and Gilmore Girls re-runs to keep me occupied. I'd trade anything to have it be June right now. I probably drive Steven up the wall with how much I love summer and track racing and he's a total christmas junkie. Oops.
My really good friend Kacey Manderfield won the women's collegiate cyclocross championships last weekend - which is AWESOME!!! Goooooo Kacey!
I'm counting down to next year - 2008 will be great.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
WORLD CUP # 1 - Down Under
Australia's favourite for the women's 3000m individual pursuit, Katie Mactier, did not disappoint in tonight's first final, winning her match-up against Lithuanian Vilija Sereikaite to take the first gold medal of this World Cup.
Thirty year-old New Zealander Greg Henderson used a combination of experience, wisdom and patience to fend off former professional roadie, Spaniard Toni Tauler and youthful Australian Cameron Meyer, to glide to a well deserved victory in the men's 30km points race at Sydney's opening round of the 2007 Track World Cup tonight.
Australia won its second gold medal of the opening night when the Toshiba men's team sprint trio put on an awesome display of power to annihilate the German squad in a thrilling final that had the crowd on its feet. After one false start by the German squad that did little to disturb either team, Daniel Ellis burst out of the blocks to once again set a personal best on the opening lap. Ryan Bayley then put in a superb lap to set up Shane Kelly, who finished off with one of the fastest last laps seen in the men's team sprint.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Dyudya, who qualified fastest earlier in the day, dominated his pursuit match against Phil Thuaux, finishing in the same straight as the recently married Australian. Mini Phinney got 9th in the qualifying for the men's pursuit which is pretty awesome.
Dyudya started out strongly and gradually built up time on Thuaux, who explained afterwards that he and coach Gary Sutton had tried something different for the final after he set a personal best time in qualifying. "Yeah what can I say? I never really got on top of the gear. We tried something different tonight than in qualifying, but it didn't work. I think we went in the right direction but maybe need to take it a little further," Thuaux explained
Women's 3000m individual pursuit - qualifying
1 Vilija Sereikaite (Ltu) Safi - Pasta Zara Manhattan 3.36.575 (49.867 km/h)
2 Katie Mactier (Australia) 3.36.784 (49.819 km/h)
3 Karin Thürig (Switzerland) 3.38.293 (49.474 km/h)
4 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.38.596 (49.406 km/h)
5 Sarah Hammer (United States Of America) 3.38.680 (49.387 km/h)
WOw - it's weird seeing Sarah Hammer 5th in international competition, but I'm sure this was not a huge focus race for her and it was her first individual pursuit in competition since the world championships last April. I think that she is really gearing up for the LA world cup and if all goes well, I might be there to watch! :) Dotsie Bausch got 16th and Kele Murdin got 35th in the pursuit qualifying rounds.
Well that's all for right now. More to come in the next few days! :)
Thirty year-old New Zealander Greg Henderson used a combination of experience, wisdom and patience to fend off former professional roadie, Spaniard Toni Tauler and youthful Australian Cameron Meyer, to glide to a well deserved victory in the men's 30km points race at Sydney's opening round of the 2007 Track World Cup tonight.
Australia won its second gold medal of the opening night when the Toshiba men's team sprint trio put on an awesome display of power to annihilate the German squad in a thrilling final that had the crowd on its feet. After one false start by the German squad that did little to disturb either team, Daniel Ellis burst out of the blocks to once again set a personal best on the opening lap. Ryan Bayley then put in a superb lap to set up Shane Kelly, who finished off with one of the fastest last laps seen in the men's team sprint.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Dyudya, who qualified fastest earlier in the day, dominated his pursuit match against Phil Thuaux, finishing in the same straight as the recently married Australian. Mini Phinney got 9th in the qualifying for the men's pursuit which is pretty awesome.
Dyudya started out strongly and gradually built up time on Thuaux, who explained afterwards that he and coach Gary Sutton had tried something different for the final after he set a personal best time in qualifying. "Yeah what can I say? I never really got on top of the gear. We tried something different tonight than in qualifying, but it didn't work. I think we went in the right direction but maybe need to take it a little further," Thuaux explained
Women's 3000m individual pursuit - qualifying
1 Vilija Sereikaite (Ltu) Safi - Pasta Zara Manhattan 3.36.575 (49.867 km/h)
2 Katie Mactier (Australia) 3.36.784 (49.819 km/h)
3 Karin Thürig (Switzerland) 3.38.293 (49.474 km/h)
4 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.38.596 (49.406 km/h)
5 Sarah Hammer (United States Of America) 3.38.680 (49.387 km/h)
WOw - it's weird seeing Sarah Hammer 5th in international competition, but I'm sure this was not a huge focus race for her and it was her first individual pursuit in competition since the world championships last April. I think that she is really gearing up for the LA world cup and if all goes well, I might be there to watch! :) Dotsie Bausch got 16th and Kele Murdin got 35th in the pursuit qualifying rounds.
Well that's all for right now. More to come in the next few days! :)
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Soggy Day
So it's really soggy today and I'm not happy about it. It needs to clear up soon so I can ride the track this afternoon and test out the knee. I won't have my track bike because it's a) it's not built up (sigh) and b) I want to have my road bike so I have the ability to go into lower gears if possible. So please be sunny this afternoon!
I can't say how PT is going because a lot of things have progressed but yet there is still pain whenever I ride or do any kind of resistance so that's not the greatest for bike racing or riding in general. The aqua classes are going well, and I'm not being criticized for every little thing that I'm doing. I will probably race (ride) PIR next Monday in the women's field just to get the feel for how it feels to spin with a pack of women. I'm sure I won't finish the race because it's too long and I haven' ridden more than 30 min. in the last 6 months so yeah, but it should be fun to at least remember what it feels like to line up at the start of a race and practice race tactics.
So for everybody that might now know, I am going to go to Reed in the fall!!! Yay! I'm super excited! I had to fill out a "freshman/transfer" survey yesterday for statistical purposes and they had the greatest questions: "do you think you'll be exploring gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered identities at Reed?" and "should marijuan be legalized"? etc...Hahah...It was fun filling out.
Steven and I went to watch the Mt. Hood crit last Sunday and it was awesome and inspiring! We got there in time to see half of the women's race - where 2 women were off the front with a huge break and eventually match-sprinted it to the end. It was so great to watch! The men's race was wicked up and pretty intense; some little Navigators guy was constantly attacking and counterattacking and easily made up his entry fee 5x over by winning all the big money primes. It made me really want to do this race. I don't know - I dont' really think of myself as a stage racer at all, but I really like Mt. Hood for some odd reason; it just draws me; it's so tough, and scenic and transcending. I want to race it again sometime and do well and have teammates and just do it, especially in the crit. I told Steven we should do it next year - more for training than anything. We better do it soon, because the way it's going and the continous addition of stages and miles, it will be like Tour de Hood in a few years - and I really am not up for any grand tour style races that involve multiple mountain stages, etc...although Danilo DiLuca was amazing in the Giro this year - scary, but amazing.
I can't say how PT is going because a lot of things have progressed but yet there is still pain whenever I ride or do any kind of resistance so that's not the greatest for bike racing or riding in general. The aqua classes are going well, and I'm not being criticized for every little thing that I'm doing. I will probably race (ride) PIR next Monday in the women's field just to get the feel for how it feels to spin with a pack of women. I'm sure I won't finish the race because it's too long and I haven' ridden more than 30 min. in the last 6 months so yeah, but it should be fun to at least remember what it feels like to line up at the start of a race and practice race tactics.
So for everybody that might now know, I am going to go to Reed in the fall!!! Yay! I'm super excited! I had to fill out a "freshman/transfer" survey yesterday for statistical purposes and they had the greatest questions: "do you think you'll be exploring gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered identities at Reed?" and "should marijuan be legalized"? etc...Hahah...It was fun filling out.
Steven and I went to watch the Mt. Hood crit last Sunday and it was awesome and inspiring! We got there in time to see half of the women's race - where 2 women were off the front with a huge break and eventually match-sprinted it to the end. It was so great to watch! The men's race was wicked up and pretty intense; some little Navigators guy was constantly attacking and counterattacking and easily made up his entry fee 5x over by winning all the big money primes. It made me really want to do this race. I don't know - I dont' really think of myself as a stage racer at all, but I really like Mt. Hood for some odd reason; it just draws me; it's so tough, and scenic and transcending. I want to race it again sometime and do well and have teammates and just do it, especially in the crit. I told Steven we should do it next year - more for training than anything. We better do it soon, because the way it's going and the continous addition of stages and miles, it will be like Tour de Hood in a few years - and I really am not up for any grand tour style races that involve multiple mountain stages, etc...although Danilo DiLuca was amazing in the Giro this year - scary, but amazing.
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