What I Have Been Up to this Winter and Spring
After cyclocross worlds in Zolder, Belgium my coach Pete and I decided to take a few weeks off the bike to recooperate from months of intense racing. I spent time getting caught up in school as well as doing a whole lot of nothing, which was quite nice for a change!
Getting back on the bike was a little tough because I got sick a few times and I was not feeling good. Anyways, for my first real block of training I went to Escondido, CA with two of my roommates. During the time in Cali we spent almost every day riding and getting some big base miles in and even a century (100 mile) ride on the last day to cap off our little training camp as we prepared for the upcoming collegiate road season.
Maxx Chance and Garrett Gerchar climbing up towards Mt. Palomar.
I spent mid-March to mid-May in collegiate road racing with the CU Boulder cycling team. Having not raced much road before this season I was not sure what I was in for, but I found the collegiate road racing to be a blast. I ended up learning a ton about road tactics and got the chance to go to Collegiate Road Nationals in Marshall, NC. I competed in the road race as well as the team time trial and never had so much fun road racing. The courses in NC were super sick and the scenery was all really green and beautiful. The racing turned out pretty good for CU. We had a bunch of good rides between the men and women and finished 5th overall in the team omnium.
Following coach Jeff Winkler on the crit course in NC.
About a week after Collegiate Road Nationals I was messing around at a park near my house on my bike and ended up crashing and fracturing the radial head in my elbow. Since then I've spent a lot of time on the trainer as well as hiking to try and stay in shape.
Day 2 on the bike!
I have recently started working nearly full-time at Boulder Cycle Sport on the sales team. It's a great summer job and I'm learning lots about the bike industry and becoming an expert at all the product lines and ins-and-outs of the business. I'm really enjoying it.
At about 3 weeks since injury I've have ridden outside the past three days and the elbow has been solid aside from a little pain here and there along with a little soreness. The body is feeling pretty good and only getting better so I am hoping I can make it out to Mountain Bike Nationals in a months from now!
As always, I'm grateful to the Boulder Cycle Sport / Yogaglo Cycling Team for the fantastic support!