Blazing New Trail

On the 27th. I left knoxville and flew to Grand Junction CO. There, I was met by Sean and our new friend Izzy in the big white sprinter van. Now I am in Ketchum Idaho waiting for MTB nationals this weekend! I am typing this from my phone. I'm pretty proud of myself because I just set up my blog so that I can update it from my phone.

So, the riding out here is pretty epic. You climb up and up for an hour and then you descend awesome trail for ten minutes. Then you go up and do it all over again, and all the while you are surrounded by beautiful, massive mountain vistas.

Thanks to all of our super cool team sponsors. Trek Store Chattanooga www.trekstorechattanooga.com , and US Stove www.usstove.com. I'll be reppin the colors all over the west cost until I have to go back to school in August!

Until next time.
Emily.

Hot Times in Southern GA

This weekend I set out to race on my bike. This particular race was part of the SERC series, and it was at a park near Jackson GA called Dauset trails. This place and I have a love hate relationship, well, mostly hate to be honest. These trails are fun to tule around on, but once you go to race on this stuff, it becomes VERY challenging. All the roots just take it out of me so quickly. As usual, there was a field of crazy strong ladies, and I managed to finish the race. : )

So, probably one of the coolest parts of this race was the drive down. My bf Sean got a sprinter van last week. It is THE COOLEST. It is the ultimate race traveling machine. We will be taking a trip across the country to see what there is to see and do a bunch of races all around. I can't wait for this trip to start. I just have to get through my month of summer school learning about biology. LAME.

Today, I am about to head out to do a fun ride in Townsend Tennessee. This ride is a favorite of a lot of people in Knoxville. It cuts through the Cades Cove loop and has multiple VERY challenging gravel road climbs. So, I guess I need to go get my things together for that. Until next time.

6 Hours of Hate

Well. Hello there my loyal readers. When you last heard from me, I was on a mission to chill. Now, while hard core chilling on a professional level is pretty great, you just have to get out there and do some suffering. As cyclist knows this is just something that we are addicted to. SUFFERING. I don't know why we like it, but we just do.

So, this weekend certainly gave me the opportunity to suffer heavily. Let me just start from the beginning about this weekend....

So, originally I wasn't actually planning on racing. I was going to ride down the Syllamo's revenge with my boyfriend and just go along for the trip.I figured, "I've never been to Arkansas, so why not?" I figured there would be trees, roads, hills and chain restaurants. (Pretty much like Tennessee.) Anyways, I wanted to see for my self. Sean's awesome van (that you can sleep in) is loaded down with all of our gear and a food bag that could cook about three gourmet meals. Also, we decided to bring Sean's dog Tyrone along for the ride. He was sooooo happy!

As we get onto the highway (about two minutes from the house) we begin to notice this disturbing vibration that is vibrating the entire van. We know something is wrong, and then the whole thing just starts rolling all bumpy like. We pull onto the shoulder and discover that the wheel has FALLEN OFF. Like, seriously? How often does that happen? *sigh* So, after much ordeal we totally unpack the van on the side of the interstate, and make like tuna fish and get out of there.

It was too late in the day to get Sean to his race in a timely manner, so that whole plan just had to be aborted. We decided to ease the pain of our defeat by sitting by the pool for the rest of the day. Later that night we cooked dinner with some friends, and I at a steak...what a mistake. That stuff is WEIRD.

Anyways, so at about ten oclock we had the bright idea to get up in the morning and go race the Tsali 6 hour race in Bryson City North Carolina (or as some might say "cak-a-lacky"). After so much chillin for the past while, I wasn't entirely sure how successful this race was really going to be for me. But, I lined up with a positive attitude and just went for it.

The race began with a les mond (sp?) start that was literally like half a mile up a gravel road. When I started running my hands hurt. I thought that was really weird. Running is terrible, and it made me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, but once I got to my pretty little Trek bicycle I felt in my element once again.

I just started pedaling because, well, that's just what you do at bike races. I had no clue where I was in the field, but I found this girl in my category (solo six hour women) who looked like she knew what she was doing as far as pacing herself, and I just stuck behind her. I was feeling pretty good!

Eventually we both stopped in the pits at the same time, and I was ready to leave before she was apparently, so I left, and then I never saw her again! I did six laps in all. 1,2, and 3 were fun, but then I got to a wall for sure and old number 4. I didn't cry, but I came pretty close. haha. So, after a long 66 miles I ended up as THE VICTOR OF THE DAY!

As my prize I received some lubricant for my butt, a two foot tall trophy, and a gift card to thompson. Not too shabby I would say. Oh, and a bottle of champagne, but we all know that I am under 21 and would never dream of sipping on some bubbly. : )

I was really proud of myself today. I paced my self well, and dug deep and kept my hate going the entire time. (We all know that hate is what makes you go fast. lol.) Yep. I really like to say "lol."

Riding bikes sure is fun yall!

Here is the photo documentation.

Ya girl crossing the finish line.
So hungry.

I might be dirty, but at least I keep a nice manicure.

Winning a trophy. Woop!






















Until next time bros!

On a Mission

Wellllll. Hello there. While I haven't been to any races the past weekend, I have had so many amazing experiences that are just waiting to be shared.....not really. haha. But, you obviously want to know, so I'll fill you in.

Well. I finally got done with school and ended up with one A and a whole slew of B's. I would say that I definitely put in a solid B effort in all of those classes where I got a B. Well deserved. So, It's great to be done with that. However, my summer only lasts for two weeks. On May 29 I get to go take a biology class at a community college here in Knoxville. So, for the next two weeks I have made it my personal goal to take as many naps as possible and basically be as worthless as possible and of course do some bike riding.

Last weekend was a fun one becuase a few of my friends graduated from college! Yaaay for them. I am so jealous. I am a mere freshman, and I can hardly even believe that I will ever be done with the drudgeries of school. So, there was much celebration and happiness and TONS of food everywhere I turned.

After the weekend of food and fun ended I realized that it was monday. Hmmmmm. I'm sure that I slept in late and then probably took a nap at least once. I've decided that a day without a nap is basically a lost cause. Also on monday I made some banana bread. However, I forgot to put in the baking powder, so it is very dense. WOOPS. Today has played out in a similar manner. I was napping before 12! Now that is a sign of a quality day. My agenda for the day included meeting my dad for lunch and....well, that was it until an evening group ride.

While I was down town I spotted a bike that I really like at a pawn shop. It is most definitely stolen from some poor hipster in another city. I'm not sure if the price was right, so I'm gonna sleep on it.

I went on the weekly group road ride that I have been attending this evening. We rode 40 miles or something. We probably averaged a good 65 mph.....EASILY. hehe. I have enjoyed doing group road rides. They are new to me, and very different from mountian biking. The pace line is fun, and it makes me feel like an awesome road racer. I think these rides are making me stronger for my races too.
So, there you have it. A peep into the life of a 19 year old who is whole heartedly on a mission to do some hard core relaxing and sleeping until biology fest begins on May 29th.

I went to Tanasi to race my bike Dudes

Hello. Well, this weekend was the Tanasi SERC race. I have been to this place a whole bunch of times because it is pretty close to Knoxville. It is a pretty fun place to ride, but it can be a challenge to race there.

I got there on Saturday, and enjoyed van camping under the “supermoon.” It really was big. They weren’t kidding. There weren’t even any clouds getting in the way of looking at it. On Saturday night we also got to swim in the Ocoee river. It was SO MUCH FUN! I love that river because there are so many little water falls that you can play in. It wasn’t even too cold. I was awoken very early by someone running their generator, but that is alright. I understand. How could anyone be without ac and televsion? I ate a hearty breakfast of peanut butter sandwich with granola. Oh yeah.

We lined up 11 girls. The race was fun, but I guess I rode pretty hard the previous week, and my legs hurt really badly, so I couldn’t go very fast. I still tried my hardest though. I always looked forward to going down thunder rock express.

Apparently some of the racers saw a bear while they were out on the course. I would have been really scared. Maybe that would have helped me ride faster…..?

Now I am back in Knoxville studying for my last final of the semester. I have been in finals week for the past week. So far I have taken one in chemistry and calculus. The only one I have left (tomorrow) is nutrition. I have been studying for nutrition tonight. It is not really all that fun. I would probably rather be sleeping than studying. Tomorrow I get to get a massage though. I am looking forward to that.

So, I guess I will get back to my nutrition studies now. Good Night.

Here is me riding my bike so quickly!

Hello everyone. My life has been going fairly great here lately. I seem to be finding more time to ride, and that is making me feel much better. Regular exercis really is important to being happy and feeling good.

Aside from biking, I have been going to school. I am now in my second semester here at UT. I am making new friends and learning a lot about how to get things done. This semester I have been in organic chemistry. It is really confusing, but it's pretty neat to know so much stuff about all those crazy carbon molecules. Also, I am in calculus. I don't really find that as interesting as chemistry. It seems like a bunch of magic tricks that you do with numbers to me.

One really cool thing from this semester is that the UT Orchestra (wich I am in) played "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky/Ravel. This piece is AMAZING! You should look it up and give it a listen if you have never heard it. It has a really big bassoon solo, and I nailed it! I was so nervous.

On the biking side of things, I am getting excited to get ready for a new season of bike racing! Woo hoo! I'm sure I will be doing the SERC series again. Those races are always so much fun. I have also been contemplating trying my hand at some road racing. Maybe. We will see how that works out. I'm not so good at riding in straight lines in a pack. One thing that is lame though, is that I will be in summer school this year. BUMMER!!!! But, I am still looking forward to racing. It was so much fun last year with our sponsors US Stove and the Trek store. I hope we all get to have a fun year of racing together this year!

YEAHHH!!!!

Helen Georgia!

Hello everyone! Last weekend, I went down to Helen Georgia for some racing. This race was part of the Georgia state series, but it was also a SERC makeup race, and I needed it for my final SERC standing points. The weekend started out with the rather long drive on all two lane roads. It seems there was just not really a good route to get to this place! Once we finally made it though, it was a BEAUTIFUL place! There were hills around, and it was just really pretty.

We made it there in time to get in a pre ride which was REALLY important on this course. It was a fairly challenging one! I had soooo much fun riding these trails. Once I went down the first downhill, I was thinking, "man are these trails awesome!" I was really excited for the race the next morning! After the preride, my two friends and I found a camp site in the extremely crowded camp ground at Unicoi State Park where the race was. I am pretty sure we got THE LAST spot in the entire camp ground. We were very happy to have found it! After getting camp all set up, we had a yummy dinner of tuna and rice burritos, and then hit the hay for the day of racing ahead!

In the morning we woke up and I was ready to race! We got to the course, and I started my warm up, and my legs were feeling pretty good. I was totally looking forward to a long day on some awesome trails.

Race time came quickly as always, and I found myslef on the line about to start. We lined up ten girls. A pretty good field! I had a pretty good start and went into the woods in third. By the end of things I ended up in fifth. I was pretty pleased with myself! I tried my hardest, and I felt like I had clean and steady race. That is what I always aim for, and of course I had FUN! Racing is fun, and that is why we do it!

My bike worked great thanks to the new bottom bracket bearings that the guys at the Trek Store helped me get a hold of. Thanks guys! And thank you soooo sooo much to US Stove and all of our other sponsors for helping us go to these races. We love it!

SERC Race in Huntsville!

This last weekend, I had a really fun time getting to go down to Huntsville for the second to last SERC race. I went down with a few friends from here in Knoxville. It was fun to ride down with them, but I did miss my team mates too! My people and I got down there on Saturday night and had a fun time camping before the race. I made a lot of macaroni and cheese, so that was really yummy to eat for dinner, and there was sooo much. It was awesome. Anyways, with a full stomach, I went to bed to get up early for the 930 start in the morning.

Time to get up came early. I wanted to keep sleeping. haha. But, after I got some food and coffee in me, I was getting excited to race! I hadn't gotten to pre ride the course, so I was slightly nervous about that. I have ridden here before though, so I had some idea of what was coming up. Monte Sano, the park we were at, is a ROUGH PLACE! Those trails are no joke! They are really fun, but if you are not on your toes in some of the really rocky sections, you could really have a pretty nasty fall. I kept this in mind and made it through the race with the rubber side down! I always aim for that.

So, my race went pretty well. I felt like I was trying my hardest, and that's what I always go out to do. My other team mates did really great too! Good job to all of them! So, this was a really fun weekend. It is always a good opprotunity to get to ride some trails that push you a little bit technically. It helps keep you humble.

Thanks to all of our sponsors like US Stove and the Trek store for making this possible for us! We love racing our bikes, and we are so thankful that we have people like yall who will help us do it! And, we also really like how the guys at the Trek Store keep our bikes running. I know I present them with a bit of a challenge at times, but they are patient with me, and all your work is greatly appreciated by me! Thanks again from everyone.

Love, Emily

Tanasi SERC

Well, today was the SERC race at Tanasi. I had been excited for this race all week. I got a late start to Chattanooga on Saturday, but I was very happy to see all of my team mates once I finally got there! I always enjoy seeing them. On Saturday night we had a really yummy dinner, and they even suprised me with an icecream cake that was specially for my graduation! It had my name on it in pink icing! I was so excited! First of all because that was really sweet of my team, and second of all because it reminded me of how excited I am for graduation, which is on thursday! After we all had full bellies we had team picture time...that is always interesting. Finally Mark got us all positioned and hopefully got some good shots. Thank you so much Mark. You are so patient! After picture time, we were all tired and hit the hay for our early morning that was coming up.

Well, for a teenager, 6 am comes pretty quickly. I was not too excited about being up that early, but I knew I had to get up, so I did. Then we were off to the races. We got there right on time, and had time to spare while getting ready. I don't like to be rushed when I am getting ready for races because I forget things that are probably important. Ok. So, I got all set up, and then I was ready to race. I warmed up, and then we were on the start line.

I think we lined up 12 ladies. Even if 12 isn't exactly accurate, there were a lot of women. The Whistlet blew, and we were off. I felt pretty great. I was really enjoying myself. I am usually just happy to be on my nice bike and be in the woods. I have really been enjoying my Trek 9.8. This is my second year on this bike, and it is still just like new. Well, I was feeling really good today, and I was having a blast on the downhills. I felt like I was going really fast! So fun! Well, before I knew it the race was almost over. I had a great race, and I got 5th place! I was so proud of myself. I tried my hardest, and it turned out good for me.

My teammates also had great rides. We went 1, 2, 4, 5. I think that is right. But, the point is that our team was great, and we all had a great time today! Thanks to all of our sponsors for helping us go to all these races and have so much fun!

Southern Girl Up North

I will pick up where I left off after camp...After I got back from camp, I left again for Wisconsin on a tuesday after I had returned from camp on sunday. My team mate Anina picked me up here in Knoxville, and we were off to the big race. We drove and drove and drove. As we drove north we began to see corn...lots and lots of corn. All we saw for hours was corn! I never knew there was so much corn in the world. I really did not know.

After many more hours of corn, and a night in a hotel, Anina and I finally made it to Wisconsin. (America's Dairyland) We were glad to be out of the car and riding the SWEET course. I was glad to be on my bike for sure, but I was slightly annoyed with my bottom bracket...I had no idea how bad it truly was! We got done riding, and we headed to the hotel to meet Kym and Mark. On the way, we stopped and grabbed some dinner at the Pioneer Family Restraunt. Interesting little place. I ordered a wonderful thing called deep fried cheese curds. I was able to check cheese curds off of my Wisconsin to-d0 list. YES! They were delicious. After dinner we arrived at the hotel and saw Mark and Kym's awesome Packers theme room and hit the hay.

The next morning we were all very happy because we were able to sleep in. YAAY! We had a nice morning of breakfast and love time on Emily's bike. (the bottom bracket) Kym took it apart, and we discovered that my bearings were totally seized! Uh Oh. Kym got them all cleaned out though, and everything was fine. I felt soooo much better riding after that! haha.

The next day was race day, and I knew that both me and my Trek 9.8 were totally ready. I took an ice bath and wore my compression tights. Those things made me feel very prepared in my mind and in my legs. I got a great night's sleep and was ready to go morning of the race!

Mark and I went early to set up camp for the team. It was fun to help him set up! After getting the tents up, we got ourselves ready and began to warm up for the race. This is always when my nerves really get going! I was riding around, and my legs felt pretty good! Yaaay! Finally it was time to line up! I found one other junior expert girl. Turns out there was one other. We waited to start, and I was getting really nervous! Finally they called all of the women experts to the line! They started all the age groups together. I was not in a very good position at the line, but when we went off I started passing people like crazy! It was a little bit of a strange feeling for me! We were climbing and I just kept gaining ground. I was feeling good. We got onto some single track in the woods after a while, and I passed yet another fairly large group of girls. I was feeling so good. I just kept telling myself I had to keep it up for the rest of the race. I guess I did that fairly well, because hardly anyone passed me, and I ended up with 7th over all! I was soooo happy.

I also won my age category, and that gives me a spot at Junior World Championships in Canada this fall! How EXCITING! I am so happy. It was a really great race trip. I had so much fun!

Long time away from home riding bikes : )

Ahhh. I have not been very deligent about updating my blog, but I will tell you all about what I have been doing for the last 11 or so days.

Well, it all started with taking the ACT last saturday at 8. I got out at 12:30 or so, and then it was time to round up my dad and get headed down to the SERC race in Jackson GA. We hit the road at about 2:30. Wow. That makes for a late arrival time for sure. We made it down in plenty good time and got a preride in. I some how managed to cut out a large part of the loop, but it turned out to not be a problem because the kind people at goneriding shortened the course because the heat index 105. Anyways, we got done preriding, found a hotel, and ate some yummy food, and went to bed.

We awoke the next morning and headed over to the course. I warmed up and felt like my body was boiling. We lined up, the race began, and I assumed my spot in last and held it for the remainder of the race. It was not a pretty day on the bike for me. haha. I drank a lot, but when I got done I still noticed that my vision was rather blurred. I attribute this to the heat. I guess I was riding my bike, and that is what I love, so it wasn't a total loss. I race my bike because I like it!

After the race, my dad drove me to Kym's house in Chattanooga. As soon as we got there, it was time to leave to go up to USA cycling's development camp in Sewanee. This came as a suprise to me. I did not know that we had to leave on Sunday night. haha. So, we left and got up there that night. I learned an interesting and confusing fact: because of the time zone change and the fact that driving distance is one hour, you get to camp at the SAME TIME YOU LEAVE! WOAH! That blew my mind.

So, camp had begun. I was the only girl at camp, but I still made friends. I'm not scared of boys! First day was not too bad, but I knew it would get harder as the week drew onwards. The second day we took our five minute TT Test. That is five minutes of killing yourself. It hurts! I felt like I gave it my all. That's all I can do.

The week went on and we rode and rode and rode. The next test rolled around. It was a 15 minute test. It also hurts very badly. I did so well on this one that I vomitted at the top! I hear that is a sign of sucess. haha. Only a little bit of throwing up though...the week finished up with more riding and skills lessons. I really enjoyed camp. I really learn a lot there. It my favorite camp I've ever been too, and it is one of the best parts of my summer. I really want to thank Scenic City Velo for helping make it possible for me to go. That really is generous. I also want to thank my team, Grace Law/Trek p.b. Vantaggio for helping me go to camp as well. I had a blast!

Well, after camp was over, I went to yet another race in Clemson SC. That was also a SERC race. It was not quite as boiling lava hot, but it was still hot. We lined up 9 girls I believe, and I got 8th. Yaay. I was proud of myself because I stayed with the group for a pretty good while, and I was quite close to 7th place. I was tired and I raced my hardest, again, that is all I can do.

It has been a really great week full of what I love most...bike riding. I seem to fall in love with riding bikes each time I ride them. Even when it's not one of the best days, I still know I love what I'm doing, and it will stay with me forever.

Cherohala Skyway Fun...or something along those lines

This is my sunburn.

Today, I went with Kym, Mark, and a few others to ride the Cherohala Skyway. Two other people accompanied us, Mark's old room mate, Howell, and Steve a friend of Mark and Kym's. Anyway's the day startedo out pretty early for me today. I had to get up at 7. I guess that wasn't too bad, but I could have definitely handled a few more hours of sleep. I got on the road to Howell's house right on time, but I still did not get there on time at 8:30. I wouldn't say that I was lost necessarily, but I just couldn't find Howell's house. Well, he met me at a Kroger, and we were on the road to the skyway.

We got there on time, despite my difficulty with the directions. Mark, Kym and Steve arrived, and we were off on what was going to be a very lengthy ride. The ride started out along a really pretty road that went along the river. I don't really know what river it was. I knew at some point today. Anyway's, after a while we got to the part that began to not be quite so pleasant as the river road. We started climbing, and we all knew that we would be climbing for, like, 2 and a half hours. So, up we went! For ever and ever and ever. As we went up, we were passed by many speedy motor cycles, but they were pretty friendly for the most part.

Well, not much happened really for a long time you know because, we were just going up a huge mountain for hours. As I went up, I ate my food and drank my water like I have been told to by many people. However, I have failed to do this many times before. I don't think I will ever learn my lesson about all that sort of stuff.

So, finally I got up the mountain. I was soooo glad to have a little bit of time to sit down. My legs felt supprisinglly (I think I spelled that wrong.) good while I was riding up. I did not really expect them to feel good at all. Kym and I had a nice little picnic and girl time at the top of the mountain while we waited for the others to top the climb. As I sat up there, I was thinking that I felt like I was getting burnt. I didn't really pay attention, because I somehow felt like ignoring the problem would make it go away.

After everyone got up to the top of the mountian, we waited a minute, and then we began the long trip back down. You would think that it would just be a nice long descent back to the car after you get to the top, but that is now quite true, and that sucks. Even though there is a lot of descending, there are still some really annoying rollers along the way. As we were riding back, I noticed my sunburn getting worse and worse. I still tried to ignore it.

Finally we were back to the cars, and I was a very happy camper. It was a splendid ride, but it definitely felt good to step off of the bike.There was a nice little sandwich shop right down the street, and we went there to get our post ride meal. I got a really yummy sanwich that had turkey and some sort of cherry sauce stuff on it. It remined me of thanksgiving dinner. I liked it.

And then, Kym and I sat in the river and froze our butts off. That sucked, but I guess I liked it. So, that is pretty much the report on the ride. If you are reading this, it means you read the whold thing, or you just skipped to the last sentence for some reason. Either way, thanks for reading some or all of my report. : )

SERC #2 in Columbia TN

Last weekend was the second race in the SERC race series in Columbia TN. The weekend was a full and fun one for me. First of all, it was the beginning of spring break on Friday after school. I was excited about that for sure. On Friday, I went to a really neat jazz type concert. It was a really fun band to see. Then, on Saturday, I went to go see one of my favorite bands called Vampire Weekend at the Tennessee Theatre here in K-town. It was an AWESOME concert. I had so much fun. However, because of that concert my dad and I had to drive over to Columbia on Sunday morning.

So, on Sunday we woke up at 6 AM and were on the road by 6:30. I was proud of us! We had a perfect drive except for we just sort of took a "different" route than was originally planned. I didn't really make any difference though. We arrived at the race in plenty of time. I was so excited and sort of nervous when I got there that I got dressed way to early. haha. It was a rather cold day when the sun went behing a cloud, but when it decided to come out every now and then, it was quite pleasant.

As we sat and waited for our race to begin, we were really excited to see all the people from the first wave coming through absolutely COVERED in mud form head to toe. I know that really got me excited to race. There is nothing I love better than a peanut butter covered mtb course. lol.

So, I started my warm up, and my legs were actually feeling fairly good. I was glad for that. It sucks to do a warm up and you can just tell that you are gonna ride slow. Anyway's, we all got lined up, andit was a fairly large feild of 16 pro/expert racers. We went off and then the suffering began.

Once we hit the single track, we disovered that there was absolutely no hope of steering our bikes or staying upright pretty much. The trails seemed to take me where ever they wanted to. I was all over the place. I tumbled down a lot of the descents, but it did not ever hurt really. Sometimes it can be a little bit fun to wreck if you don't get hurt. Some of these wrecks were a little bit fun I guess.

After the 3 laps of suffering, slipping and sliding were finished I was totally covered in mud. I like to think of it as getting one of those fancy mud facial things. It had gotten much colder duringt the race, and all there was to clean off with was really cold water out of a hose. I got all cleaned up though, and then I felt warm and good. After the results came out I saw that I got 8th out of the 16 that lined up. I was really proud of that. That is good for me!

I also had a really good pit crew at this race! It was my dad. He did all kinds of stuff to help me get ready for the race, and he helped me out a lot afterwards. It was really nice. Thanks a lot!

Also, my Trek bike did perfectly in all of this mud. I did not ever have one single mechanical problem. That is saying a lot in conditions like those! Thanks so much to Trek and all of our other awesome sponosrs!

I felt like this captured the essence of our team.

Anina, Kym, Scott, and Me on the covered bridge above the falls.

Relaxing in our awesome cabin after a rousing game of Scrabble SLAM!

This weekend was our annual team camp in North Carolina. It is always a really fun weekend, because Scott, one of our sponsors, always comes with us and takes us around riding the awesome trails all weekend.

The weekend started out with carpooling up with Amy. Her GPS led her to my house with no problem, but it apparently did have a problem knowing that I-40 has a rock slide over it. So, we ended up having to turn around and find a new way, which was not the most efficient route, but we made it. We were getting really close, and it seemed like the GPS was working great, and it was leading us to the right place, but when we drove up the gravel road it showed us as the cabin, we found ourselves at the SCARIEST house I could have ever imagined coming to at night. This house was sketchy. There was an ocean of trash surrounding it, and I mean old cars, refridgerators, washers, dryers, and anything else you could imagine. I knew that someone was going to come out of the house with some sort of weapon any minute. As we realized where we were, Amy instructed me to, "lock my doors" as we found a way to turn around in the middle of the sea of trash. It was quite an adventure.

After we got out of the scary trash house, we called Kym, and made it safely to the cabin. We had some delicious burritos, and played Scrabble Slam. It was really nice to see everyone, and we had a great time together. After the Scrabble, and some questionable words, we watched some of the olympics. I finally figured out who this Apollo is that everyone has been talking about! I don't really think he's quite as hot as people think, but he is a very good ice skater. Anyways, after that, we went to be to get rested up for a day of riding.

The next morning, we woke up early in the morning and had a delicious breakfast of bagels and stuff. I was excited to ride, of course, but I had other things to be excited about as well! First of all I was getting my NEW BIKE! I was soooo excited to see it. It was like Christmas morning!

I absolutely love it! It is a Trek 9.8. First of all, it is really pretty. I love the colors. It is a great combination of white, black, and red. It has a really fast and racy look to it. (hopefully it will be more than a look.) It is a carbon fiber hardtail and it weighs, like, 16 lbs. It is sooooo light. It feels great to ride. I am really excited to do a season on a hardtail after a few years on a full suspension. It just feels so fast to ride. I am in love with it.

Anyway's, I got on my new mountain bike, and we all went for a group ride. The tails were covered in snow, but it was early enough in the morning that it was all still frozen. After the sun came out though, the trails started to thaw, and it was lunch time, so we went back to the cabin for some sandwiches.

After that, we set out on a road ride. I did not have a new bike for this ride, but I was still excited to ride with my team. The ride had a lot of climbing, and I guess I suffered from not eating at all during the 4 hours of riding we had done because, I was hurting very bad, and riding very slow by the last big climb. I ate some nuts though and then I was fine.

We got back and had a delicious dinner, and played some more scrabble. The next morning, we woke up for another mountain bike ride. I was excited to get on my new bike again. We rode some fire roads, and then we hit the part of the trail, that had all of the downed trees. : ) We carried our bikes for about 2 hours over the trees, but we all decided that it was WAY better than school or work, and that we were just glad to be with Scott and our team mates.

We made it back in, and then it was time to head home. We had a great weekend, and we really thank Scott for doing it for us. We had tons of fun with you! Thanks!

It's like Christmas!

I went on a really nice mountian bike ride, and it was made even better with my really awesome new shoes! Our team just got the COOLEST new cycling shoes from our sponosors. They are super comfy and they look really really neat. I can't wait to race in them this season.

Also, my new team bike got all built up today! Thanks to the guys at the Trek store! It is a Trek 9.8. I haven't gotten to see it in person yet, but I know that it is going to be sooo great...only 22lbs! My birthday is coming up soon, so a super fast new race bike will be the perfect present!

Rollers, rollers ,rollers.

The winter is really brutal this year! (and every year I guess.) It has been rainy and dreary for about two days now. Ewww. Definitely not good weather for bike riding. I have been stuck on the rollers for a long time now! Hopefully spring will come soon. I am starting to get pretty antsy to get some racing in, I really miss it. Hopefully I will get to go to a cross race this weekend. I have got my fingers crossed! : )

Along with a cross race this weekend, I am alos going to Gatlinburg for a music clinic called All East. It is a really fun event where you get play music with a lot of other really talented highschool students from all over east Tennessee. I am really looking forward to it.

It should be a good weekend with music, riding, and a super bowl party to top it all off!

Hello!

Hey. I'm Emily. I just set this up, and I am gonna try to tell about my bike riding experiences and other experiences in general! It sounds fun! : )