Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals day 1

Sierra and I did the cross country race today. The course was at Northstar resort in Trukee, CA and consisted of 3 laps on a 7.5 mile loop that started with around a four mile climb and then finished with a three mile decent. Sierra finished up 44th and I finished up 25th in division one, not too bad for not doing a ton of mtn biking or climbs. I definitely felt my track legs today, they weren't used to the climbs lol. All and all it was a good day, we spent some time at Lake Tahoe later on. I definitely recommend visiting, it's very scenic! Tomorrow is the short track race.

Track Nationals day 3

We won collegiate track nats!!!! Great job team! The guys won their team pursuit and worked beautifully as a team in the points race with David Williams taking the win! Sierra, Jackie, Anna and I meet the 200 m qualifying times and made it into the match sprints, Anna had several fanstastic rides and ended up 6th, Sierra took 7th, and Jackie 8th. David won the omnium and Jackie placed 4th. Not a bad third day :-) We're on the bus right now driving back to Indy in the rain.

I love the fun atmosphere of collegiate racing, I got to see alot of my friends on other teams and witnessed some great rides. Overall a great time :-)

Track Nationals day 2

Day 2 was a success! The boys did great in the sprints...we rocked the women's team pursuit, we beat our time last year by a second and won! The team pursuit is my favorite race! We felt great! the track felt sooo smooth...we were flying! The points race went really well too! We worked as a team, rode aggressively and scored some points...Jackie ended up 3rd, I got 6th, Megan 7th, and Anna 18th.

Megan crashed early on, a girl came down on top of her. Luckily she was ok! My heart stopped when she crashed, she had a really bad crash in a points race two years ago. She hopped right back in and attacked, she was off the front! Which set me up and Jackie, we went off the front for a bit and Jackie picked up the points...I went of the front with missy from fort lewis and picked up more points and Anna rode really well too, she had some attacks and stayed up towards the front...overall it went really well! We rode today for Sinead Miller, who's out with an injury, we love you girl get better soon!

Track Nationals day 1

Day 1 went pretty well. Jackie got 4th in the 3k, I got 6th, and Megan 7th, I'm not sure how the other girls finished...We all had personal bests! I went out way to hard on my second lap and felt it towards the end of the 9 lap effort, the funny thing was I didn't think I was going very hard although I had a 25.5 second lap when I should of been 2 seconds slower. whoops! My teammate David Williams won the 4k! It was awesome to see! He was the last rider to go and we got to cheer him on to his win! I think we had 5 or 6 guys in the top ten.

The ladies did well in the 500m, Sierra 4th, and Anna 11 I think. Dave brought home 3rd and Adam 5th in the kilo.

Trexlertown

We made it to T-town late last night. My teammate Jackie and I are sharing a room. The track here is amazing! Besides the fact that it is incredibly fast, there's a nice viewing area complete with an awning and tables and chairs, very viewer friendly!
The team did a light session this morning to get our legs opened up for tomorrow. We grabbed lunch and checked in at registration and then had a meeting with the coaches. Now we get to relax and prepare for tomorrow's races: 3k and 500m for the gals and 1k and 4k for the guys. Go Knights!!!

Purdue Short Track

Today I did the short track mountain bike race at Purdue University. A short track race is basically like a dirt criterium or circuit race, they ussually span 20-40 min. and it's all out from the gun!

I felt drained from track regionals the past two days before. I was able to get a lead on the first lap and was fortunate to hold it all the way through the race. I ended up taking first and Sierra grabbed 4th, not bad considering we'vev been focusing our efforts on the track.

The course was awesome!!! It wound around Slater hill on Purdue's campus, it looked much like a cycle cross course. It had a gradually climb a the start with a couple of steep sections followed by a drop off and winding switch backs that snaked up and down the rest of the course to a down hill finsh. Now I'm trying to finish up all my homework before we leave for track nats on Tuesday! T-Town here we come!

Track Regionals day 2

We had individual pursuits on the second day. The women had the 500m and
3k pursuits and the guys had the 1k and 4k. Another solid day for Marian University, we had riders winning every event! Sierra won the 500m and Jackie won the 3k, I came in second, and Megan third. The men swept the their pursuits as well!