The last three weeks...

Well, my last three weeks of racing has been completely..... AWESOME!!!

My all time favorite race, Cats Hill Classic, was three weeks ago. Last year it was my third sanctioned race and I placed 3rd in 13-14 girls. This year I raced two races 13-14 girls and 15-16 girls and did pretty well in both, actually, I raced AWESOMELY WELL!!! The 13-14 girls race was first. The 13-14 girls and boys were racing together in this race, but picked separately; so, of course, I tried to hang with the guys. Let me tell you, those 13-14 boys are fast.... very fast. On the 2nd lap I was dropped, but I was in the lead for the 13-14 girls race. I soloed the rest of the race and won!

There is something you need to know about Cats Hill Classic, it is such a classic, epic race because of this hill. This hill has a 22% grade. Yes, 22%. Right when you finish climbing this wall, there is a little dip. At first you do not think this dip would hurt; but trust me, after a you ride it a couple times, it hurts.

That same day I raced 15-16 girls, and also won that race, only it was much more difficult. Of course, I tried to stay in with the 15-16 boys but lost them within a lap. I was by myself until the 2nd lap, then a girl caught me and we worked together. On the 3rd lap a prime was called. Remember how I was telling you about how much the dip after the climb hurt, well it is the best place to attack, and that's what I did! I rode the rest of the race solo and won the prime!

The next day I raced two races at Scotts Valley grand prix, womens 4 and jr 13-14 combined field (jr girls and boys race together and are not picked separately). I was 4th in the women's race (I also was second in a two place prime) and was second in the jr 13-14 combined field.

Two weeks ago was the district road race state championships. The course was awesome, there were rollers and then a short climb, at the top of the climb, you turn around and head back down the hill and over the rollers. I won the District/State Championship road race in my jr. field! My teammate, Page Robertson also won her age category!

Last weekend was exciting, extremely exciting!!! I raced Women's 3/4 (the women's 3 and 4 were picked separately) and jr girls 13-14 (that day was the District/State criterium championships). I was up in front the whole race (W 3/4) and only went to the back to rest for a little bit, but decided that it was very sketchy back there and I would rather not crash! So I made my way back up to the front, where I remained for the rest of the race. On the last lap I found my team-mate, Bobbie Jo (she is a W3), and tried to stay on her wheel. On the final stretch I reached 32 mph, and was completely spun out! Some W3's passed me, but no W4's!!! So I ended up winning the W4!!!

An hour later that day, I was racing 13-14 girls. I was a little (a lot) tired from my last race so my plan was to sit in and maybe throw in a few attacks. At 5 laps to go, I attacked and dropped one girl, but, the other stayed with me. I had a feeling that it was going to be a sprint finish. I made the girl pull the whole last lap (since I ended up pulling most of the race). On the final stretch, I gave all that I had left in my legs and sprinted past her. I won the District/State criterium championships!

This weekend we will be traveling down to Davis for the District/State Time Trial championships, I am excited for it! That's what I've been doing for the last three weeks! Next up.... Nationals!!!

Chew On This

This blog has nothing to do with the bike. It is a small persuasive paper that I wrote for school.

 Chew on this…

   Have you ever thought about the chicken you eat? Where the chicken

came from or how it was raised? You might be surprised when I tell you

they do not come from those happy little farms like you imagine. You know the ones with green grass, a small white picket fence, and a big red barn in the back ground. So the question is where does the chicken from fast food restaurants and grocery stores REALLY come from?

    All the meat chickens (broilers) start out in the hatchery. They hatch right on conveyor belts. Soon the males and females are sorted out. Males are considered worthless and thrown into a grinding machine. They are used as dog food, cat food, and as food for the female broilers.  Does that sound healthy to you? 150,000 male chicks are killed a day. The females are then de-beaked:   a laser takes off the ends of their beaks along with a lot of nerve endings that are in the beak.  They do this because the chickens are always competing to get food and water; because of that the chickens peck each other to death.

    Broiler chickens are bred to grow immensely obese in a short amount of time. It only takes 48 days until the chicken is ready for slaughter. 48 days. During that short time they suffer from heart/kidney failure and bone disease due to the speed of their growth.

All chickens naturally have salmonella, it is a type of bacteria, and it is increased when the chicken is stressed. When a chicken is stressed the salmonella has a greater risk of entering the meat, or egg. The houses that the broiler chickens live in can definitely cause stress. Thousands of broiler chicks are crowded into that chicken house, there is little space, and what space there is, is soon unavailable because the broiler chickens grow at such a rapid pace. The chicken houses are dark; loud fans buzz from the ceilings; every chicken has to fight its way through the crowd trying to get to food and water. Sometimes the salmonella consumes the chickens before they are slaughtered and then, we eat their meat.  Does this sound healthy to you? 

It may sound like I am saying the only way to stop supporting the chicken industry is to stop eating chicken; well, I am not. What I am saying is, stop eating commercially farmed chicken. Most people say, “Buy organic chicken meat, it’s much healthier than non-organic chicken meat.” Really, there is no difference between the Commercially Farmed Chicken Industry, and the Organic Commercially Farmed Chicken Industry. They are basically the same. Yes, the Organic Commercially Farmed chicken may live in Chicken houses that have windows; but, that is really the only difference.

It is different at a local organic chicken farm.  The chickens have housing that permits natural behavior; they even have access to the outdoors! The chickens at organic farms are allowed to be chickens, they are allowed to exercise, and they are allowed to be in the fresh air and sunlight just like chickens should be. Those are happy chickens, and happy chickens create good, healthy meat.

    Even though organic chickens live a more natural life, they are slaughtered the same way as the non-organic chickens. First they are hung on shackles, then they are brought to a blade that cuts their throats. Some make it through the blade barely alive; those who make it through alive drown in scalding tanks. Scalding tanks are filled up with hot water, and used to loosen the feathers on the chicken. After that, they are de-gutted, chilled in cold tanks filled with cold water, packaged and shipped off to your local grocery store or restaurant and served up in many different dishes, but now you know where it came from.

   After reading this you may want to make a difference, and stop supporting the cruel chicken industry, but how? It is simple; if you buy non-organic chicken you are supporting the chicken industry. If you buy organic chicken then you are supporting the organic chicken industry. So what do you want to spend your money on, and what is the healthiest road you want to take?

Coming Back...

I am rarely sick; but when I do get sick, it is usually only a cold that lasts about a week or so. Even though I am only sick for a short amount of time I absolutely DESPISE it (especially when it is nice and sunny)! I have always been active. I am always  running around doing something, so when I get sick all of the sudden, I have to lay in bed all day long, listening to everybody outside having a good ol' time. It is torture! Why don't you just hang me from my toes and cut my fingers off one by one, then stab small little needles through my feet ??? Sadly *sigh*, everybody has to get sick once in a while.

I was sick a month ago, for two weeks. Actually, I could have only been sick for ONE week. It was the third morning of coming down with the cold; I was feeling much better that day, but I was not completely better. I went out saying that I felt better and that I thought I was not sick anymore. The whole day I worked in the garden, I worked pretty hard because I was excited. The next day, I was congested all over again! Typical Aliya! Never patient when I am sick! During the two week time of being sick, I still rode my bike on the trainer (I rode very easy), so I would not loose too much of my fitness.

Well... After I was completely better, I went to MTB with some friends... and, crashed! RIGHT AFTER I WAS COMPLETELY BETTER! I had a minor concussion, and a lot of road rashes! Got a BIG dent in my helmet.

So I had to get a new one! I love it because it is blue!!!

Well crashing put me off the bike for two more days, then I had to ride on the trainer for a little while longer. Soon I was on the road again training.

Coming back from getting sick and crashing has been hard. I know what my fitness level was before I was sick and crashed, and now, it is hard for me to preform at those levels. I have gone through my legs feeling like soggy noodles while climbing, usually I can climb pretty well too!

This weekend I raced a sanctioned race, Copperopolis Road Race (RR). It was a fun course but pretty bumpy. I was pretty excited about the race because the last couple days of training, I felt very good! The 13-14 girls were racing with the 13-14 boys. I decided that I would try to hang with the guys for as long as I could, and hopefully all of the other girls would drop off the back so I could just time trial it all the way to the finish. There was this one girl that I never raced against before that looked pretty strong. Her name was Avery Morin. I talked to her before the race and learned that she was a down hill MT biker. I decided then, that I wanted to get as far away from her as possible, before the descend (Which I heard was very tactical). I am not the best descender!

Well my plan was working out very well until 9 miles to the finish. The whole race, I was looking over my shoulder to see if Avery was behind me, soon I was feeling very confident that she was far behind. Then out of no-where she was right next to me! It was like she had a bungee cord latched to my seat post and was pulled her way up! The descent was not as tactical as I though it would be... it is just very bumpy!We flew down it! I was surprised, because she was a little ways behind me when we were going down the hill! I thought well maybe I could loose her. Then, I saw the 1 km to go sign. It was like it popped out of nowhere! Then Avery began to pass me. I picked up my speed so I could stay in the draft and launch myself past her at the finish line! My legs were burning so bad! I could not hang on any longer, I lost her. She finished not to far ahead of me.

I enjoyed that race 1. because I began to feel my body preform like it did again and 2. because I met some new people (oh.. and 3. because I still won a T-shirt)!!! What more could anyone ask for???



Ashley and me waiting for the jr. roll-out!



The jrs waiting for the race to start!



Avery Morin and me talking!!!



The girls in jr. 13-14 category



A great new friend



laughing and crashing: The Tuesday Mtb rides.

For the past three weeks,I have been holding mtb rides every Tuesday at 3:30. We meet at One-Mile, near the bridge and take off! Last Tuesday, upper park trails were open, so of course, we were all over them! We went up North Rim, 'til we came to the 'B' trail!

For all of you who have not heard of 'B' trail, it is insanely rocky,with weird twists and turns. The trail is very narrow and if you fall, you need to fall towards the mountain, if not you will go tumbling down a cliff (you might get to the bottom faster though)! There are boulders in the most random places ready to kill you. 'B' trail is known for brutally breaking bones! Whoever has gone down 'B' trail.... you are FREAKY CRAZY!!! That means I am calling myself freaky crazy, because last Tuesday, we went down 'B' trail! I survived going down 'B' trail, and ironically crashed afterwards!!!

There are so many differences between mnt biking and road biking, and most of the time I mtb by myself.
One thing I learned was you can not go to close to somebodies wheel when you mtb! I was pretty close to one guys wheel, he put on his brakes, and I tried to avoid hitting him, but ended up doing so anyways! When I got up, I really did not feel hurt, the thing that scared me was that I could not remember some things like what day it was. Soon I remembered it was Tuesday ONLY because I had an Algebra 1 class that day!

I came out of the crash with some bruises, bumps, scrapes, and a mild concussion, but I am recovering (of course frozen yogurt immediately afterwards was a big help)!!! Anybody is welcome to come out and ride (They should at least have some basic mnt biking skills though, like shifting)! Thank you everybody who came out last week, had a great time!! See you all next Tuesday!

Oh the Wind and Rain!

Well an excellent weekend of racing has just passed by! I had an awesome time down in Sacramento, racing a criterium, Land Park, and a Road Race, Bariani!



Warming up for the Jr race with some Teini Duro guys.

 Land Park was Saturday. My first race of the day was women's category 4 (W4), it was in the morning, and at that time the weather was not the best, over-cast, but at least it was not raining. The worst part was the wind, it was scary! A couple times in the race I thought the wind would knock me over! The whole race I made sure I was in the draft. I ended up getting 8th place!

 My second race was the Jr's race. The race is challenging because all Jr categories race together and are not picked separately, my goal was to hang in with the big guys four at least 3 laps!!! I did, I hung with them for 3 laps, but after 3 laps I was off the back!!! For the rest of the race I decided that I would keep an easy, consistent pace. Soon I caught some guys who went off the back also. I tried to get them to work together with me but they were like little jack rabbits hopping all over the place!!! It was annoying so I just rode my own pace and ignored them. They would soon blow up and sit on my wheel! Ugh... boys..... Of course it just had to pour rain during the Jr race!

I was very proud with my race Sunday, Bariani road race!!! W4 did three laps, ten miles each lap. It was clear all day long, but the wind... WAS CRAZY!!! I think I would have preferred it to rain with no wind, then to have to deal with those large gusts of wind that pushed me all around! The W4 raced hard each lap until we came to the head wind section, then everybody slowed down to 12 mph! When we slowed down some ladies got very wobbly and were very dangerous, luckily, there were no crashes!  On the last lap there was a break with two women they got away, I was in a chase group that was caught, only one lady got away and bridged up to the other ones that broke away. During the head wind section we caught the two ladies that broke away, but the one that bridged was still off the front. She came into the finish, solo and won. When I came to the finish line I was in a break and won 8th place again!



Here are the race results for W4, I am # 8!!!

 When I did the Aliya Omnium, I was not strong on that second day of racing. This concerned us. This whole weekend I had the right nutrition, that gave me lots of energy for the Bariani road race. That helped a lot. When Mark and I do our training rides, I try to find the draft and I stay in it as close as I can. I have become very good at finding where the draft is. That also helped my a lot during the races because it was so windy.

I am very excited to race more road races soon. Next week I am racing Copper town circuit race and also, some parts of the local Oro-Chico stage race promoted by Rodney Cox.

Here are some more pics from this weekend:

Warming up for the road race!



Start of W4 race!!!



Who is Rodney Cox???

Are you looking for some low-key cycling events? Do you want to have fun racing, along with kicking butt and winning some cool prizes at the same time? Have you heard of R.A.C.E?

The summer of 2009 is when I began racing local criteriums. I loved the prizes and all of the support I received from the cyclists and, of course, Rodney Cox. Rodney Cox... who is that guy? Rodney, he is that dude who promotes all of those cool criteriums! He is also the founder/director of R.A.C.E (Rodney's Amateur Cycling Events). He LOVES cycling!!!! You may ask, Does Rodney promote any other events other than criteriums? OF COURSE!!!!

Criteriums, Flat 10 mile Time Trials (TT's), uphill TT's,  Road Races (RR), Circuit races, Mountain Bike races, and omniums are all available on the R.A.C.E race schedule!  The omniums are outstanding! They are perfect for practicing team tactics or just to have fun racing a whole weekend  in a friendly environment! The Uphill TT's, 10 mile TT's, RR, Circuit Races, and Mountain Bike races are challenging, but the scenery is breath taking. You can fit these events in with your training schedule, too.

Rodney Cox has done WAY more than promote cycling events, he has turned on many people, including me,  to LOVE cycling.

You can always find out what's going on with Rodney and R.A.C.E by clicking on the link below:
http://chicocyclist.blogspot.com/

Team TIBCO camp!

Carpinteria, that is where I was last Friday through Monday. It was beautiful (after it stopped raining), and right next to the ocean. Why was I down in Carpinteria?  Team TIBCO camp of course!!!

When we arrived at our Hotel in Carpinteria, it had just stopped raining. Shortly after, we had most of our belongings shoved in every corner and we were ready to go out and find a restaurant so we could stuff our faces! We found a small little Mexican restaurant, the food was delicious! We then went back to the hotel.


Skylar and me!


When we woke up, the sky was clear and we thought for sure it would be a nice day. An hour later I looked outside again, dark clouds had rolled in. It started to drizzle, I hoped that it would not rain to hard that day, because everybody on Team TIBCO was going to ride (Jrs, pro's, and Team TIBCO II).
When we arrived at the beach house Team TIBCO was staying at, the weather was pretty much the same. I did  not care at the time, I was very excited!

This is me with the team owner, Linda Jackson!

The ride was fine. I cut my ride a little short because I was not feeling the best. I turned back with a group of girls and headed back to the beach house. A little after we turned around, it began to dump buckets of rain on us, everybody bee-lined it to the beach house!

The weather was beautiful the next day and everybody was itchin' to go out and do some long miles. We began the ride with the pros, but then they left to do a long ride while, the Team TIBCO II's (TTII) and Jrs had to practice lead outs. That was fine with me, I learned somethings, but really, I wanted to go out and ride some long miles, same with the other Jrs.

I loved spending time with the team. The Jrs cooked dinner for everyody one night, then Monday morning we made pancakes (Tried to at least)! All the pro's are a ton of fun to hangout with... kind of like a bunch of big sisters.

The next day was Monday, my last day with the team. The Jrs rode out with the pro's but later we split. Us Jrs, were able to do some long miles just like we wanted!



All of the Jrs half way through our ride. There is Skylar, Tara, Page, Alexis, and me!


 We left Carpinteria, at 5:00 in the evening and did not get home until 2:00 in the morning!!!
I will get to race with and see most of my team this weekend at Snelling RR!