Slacker

Yes, I realize...this blog is starting to slack a bit. It will continue to slack, sorry! But this is what I've been up to since my last post.

October 23-26: Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals
After a crazy trip to Banner Elk, I finally arrived Thursday evening. My mom flew in to Raleigh and caught a ride to Banner Elk with my Aunt and Uncle (who live in Raleigh). I stayed with them all weekend in a really awesome condo. It was fun to hang out with them. Racing didn't go so well on Friday. It rained during the race and conditions worsened as the race went on. I don't think it stopped raining at all on Friday. I "burped" my tire, crashed a gazillion times, and wasn't in the game mentally (stressful trip, etc.). I put my game face back on for the short track race on Saturday. It was super muddy. I took off from the gun and stayed in the front 5. Eventually I had picked off all the riders except Carla Swart from Lees McRae. She won, and I never saw her. I finished 2nd, with Eszter from CU charging in 3rd. I was pleased with my race, and don't think it could have gone any better. Carla is a phenomenal rider and won the XC race the day before. She also won collegiate road race, road omnium, several of the track events, and track ominium. Amazing!

October 27 - November 9
Two weeks off the bike. I don't think I've ever had a structered "off season". I've spent a lot of time hiking, lounging around, eating things I shouldn't be eating, doing homework, and neglecting my blog. It's been a good two weeks and I've got to spend time with some of my friends. I even dressed up for Halloween. Nothing too exciting has happened since mountain bike nationals. I did decide to race the Sunday race of Boulder Cup. I hadn't been on my bike for a week. It was a spure of the moment thing. I figured since I had a UCI license, I should at least use it. On the warm-up lap, I crashed in front of Ryan Trebon and Todd Wells. I scraped up my knee, blew up my Gu packet that was in my short leg, and turned in my shift levers. So I showed up to staging with Gu running down my leg and blood from the crash. Good times. Georgia Gould lapped me on her final lap. I got to see her finish, pretty cool. Meredith Miller had an awesome race too (from what I could hear from the announcer). Cyclocross is really hard. Especially when you haven't trained for it. Today I went skiing for the first time. I've gone once in Iowa, but I don't really call that skiing. I went up to Copper Mountain. The only runs that were open were the blue (intermediate) ones. It took me forever to get down the first time. I fell - ALOT. By the end of the day, I started to get the hang of it and am looking forward to going again. Ok, enough words. Here's some pictures. Enjoy :)
Banner Elk, NC

Eszter Horanyi (University of Colorado) returning Short Track National Champion and I getting the first two call-ups.

Muddy short track race.

My bike post-short track race.

Me post-short track race.