Over the past few months I have been traveling more then I ever have in my life.  In April I spent the whole month going from New York to California to Arkansas to New Mexico, having one race after another.  Then I a settled a little and focused on training for Nationals and a race in Minnesota (Nature Valley).

Most recently, I returned from 20 days on the road.  I left Santa Fe, where I have been based since my departure from Tucson in May, and headed north.  I stopped in Boulder to meet teammates and spend a couple days experiencing the riding that so many rave about in that part of Colorado.  I must admit, it
was some great riding.

Pearl Street, Boulder, CO

Then my teammates and I headed out… 6 bikes, lots of snacks and ipods loaded to keep us dancing.  We stopped in Boise, Idaho for the Exergy Twilight Crit, which was super fun.

Of course we HAD to stop at the Idaho sign

I got 18th place, and a good open up for the week that lied ahead…  After leaving Idaho we set out for Bend, Oregon and a 18ish hour drive at that.  But once we arrived it was worth it.

Twilight Criterium, Boise, ID

Mt. Bachelor, Start of Friday’s RR

Going for a swim in the river, Bend, OR

Bend is a beautiful town and spending 6 days of racing there was amazing.  Riding and racing around the Cascades reminded me a lot of the northern New Mexico landscape and vegetation, except with water.  6 days of tough racing had its ups and downs but was definitely a great experience and makes me want to get that much stronger to be better in the next race and next year.  I was lucky enough to spend an extra day in Bend and got to swim in the Descutes river… yea, actually swim, wetsuit and all.  I had never swam up stream in a river before, or even in a river for that matter.  It was hard to stay patient and just keep swimming without freaking out that I wasn’t going anywhere very fast.  But I made it up to the bridge and chilled on a rock, just enjoying the moment.  Then that moment was disturbed by a large young fella saying “I’m gonna jump in, sorry if I get ya wet”… ummm, I’m kinda already a little wet (as I sat half in the river complete with wetsuit, swim cap and goggles).

After our relax day in Bend my teammate and I headed back out.  Just like hitting rewind on a tape, we backtracked to Boise, spending the night at a host ladies house that was nice enough to put up two girls on their long journey home.

Idaho

Then we jammed out the last 13 hr drive back to Boulder feeling like mush as we pulled into my teammates driveway.
If driving back from Bend wasn’t enough we decided to do a 3 day stage race in Salida that weekend after arriving.  So back in the car we were.  For another 3 hours we drove south and set ourselves up for a camping weekend.Aside from crashing, this race probably couldn’t have gone worse (except for the crit).  I missed my TT start time because of bad directions, and then in the road race got a flat on the first of 8 laps… not fun.  The crit was great though as I broke off with 3 to go and then my teammate ended up bringing it in for the win.

That Sunday drive down to Santa Fe couldn’t have felt better.  I went through sunshine, thunderstorms and rainbows to finish off this long epic journey of racing and road tripping.  I love racing and am ready for more… but after living out of suitcase, eating constant race food of chicken and rice, and packing bikes on and off a car, I was ready for a little rest.

Now that I’m back in Santa Fe, and have spent a good week of soft pedaling and sleeping late.  Now I can start thinking about the next adventure and training hard.