USA Cycling Talent I.D. Camp

This week, June 23-28, I am participating in the USA Cycling Talent ID Camp in McHenry, Maryland. I will be keeping a daily blog of my experience at the camp, as they happen; this is that blog. Unfortunately, I was so occupied with all the fun I was having that I forgot to take a lot of pictures, however, I do have a couple. 

Monday: Its about 2:30 in the afternoon and I just arrived at camp. I am helping unload our nutritionist's truck now, there is so much food!.. I sign in, get my binder and jersey, and go to my room to investigate... I am the only one in my room right now, but I have a roommate that will be here soon. I go downstairs to say goodbye to my dad, and begin my week of camp alone... I just now met my roommate, Trevor. Trevor has very similar eating habits to me so I know I'm not the only one that will struggle with the extremely healthy meals that will be served thoughout the next 5 days... We are about to eat dinner now, then we have an educational experience in the building across the parking lot... We just finished the educational experience, which was pretty much learning about the importance of eating and training smartly throughout our lives to stay healthy. It's time for bed! 

Tuesday: We just woke up at 6am, TOO EARLY!! Now we are off to yoga... Yoga was much harder then I expected, probably because it wasn't even 8:00am. I'm at breakfast now, we have skill practice in about a half hour... Skill practice is now over; we worked on track-stands, multiple types/ways of turning, and different balance skills; now we are getting changed and getting lunch, then we are off on our first trail ride...  Well, it rained and our ride was cut short so now we are headed back for some dinner, and then another educational experience: this time about the specifics of nutrition and training. Once again, it is now time for bed. 
Wednesday: Another early morning. This time I'm going to the local grocery store to learn how to buy efficiently and healthily. I also plan on buying some snacks... I bought zebra cakes and powdered doughnuts, YUM! Now we are headed back to the dorms to eat breakfast and get ready for today's ride, which is in Davis. Today is different from yesterday because we will be doing 2 trail rides with lunch in between, instead of skills and then trails. I'm happy about this cause I want to ride more... Our first ride at Davis ended up being about an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to be. Now we have lunch and a talk from Jeremiah Bishop about staying drug free in cycling... He told us about the different the different procedures that he has to go through, such as updating his locations so that USADA knows where he is, and also about how strongly he feels that doping is wrong. It was pretty much the standard anti-drug talk anyone would expect. It's time for our second ride of the day. I'm going on the hill group; I need to work on hills... We got a little lost on our second ride, but that's ok! I needed the extra hills anyway!.. We are back at the dorms, and we are eating soon, then we have an over-the-web discussion with somebody from USADA the importance of not doping... It was pretty much just learning about what is and is not legal, and how to check if a supplement or medicine you take is legal or not... My favorite time of the day is here once again. Sleep. 

Junk food diet for the week

Thursday: Crap, I have plyometrics today. Too tired to even function... Well, that's over with! Nap time!... That nap didn't even exist. But my roommate got me the Cheez-Its I asked him for. Yay for more junk food! Breakfast now, then to the bike shop for some new brake pads, then more skill games!.. That was a lot of games! We have an uphill time trial later today, so I'm stocking up on noodles for lunch, then taking a 1 hour nap... That nap was awesome!! I feel sweet! Ready to ride, let's go... They put a stages crank on my bike... Finished my TT. Learned 2 things: 1) Stages sucks 2) so do road time trials on a mountain bike. But it's over with and now we are getting on the trails... A girl cut her knee pretty bad and needs to get stitches, so our ride was cut short again, but that's ok... Headed back to the dorms now. Tonight Matt Tinkey is talking... The talk was about bike fit and the benefits of cross training/stretching. I'm tired and I have another early morning. Goodnight blog. 

Trevor was very excited about nap time

Friday: It's the last early morning. We have a morning workout, yet again, and I'm feeling pretty horrible from getting up at 6:00 every morning... I see jump ropes on the floor, oh gosh... The workout wasn't too bad, just a lot of jump-roping and some core work. Now I eat breakfast and get ready to go to Big Bear for our last day of riding... Well, the last ride was pretty rough, and included quite a bit of hiking actually... After the ride and lots and lots of food, Trevor and I have just decided to go tanning in our kits... Tan lines are looking epic... We just got to the beach for a bit of swimming and there is a sweet rock to jump off of. Although we have been given very clear instructions to stay away from it, Trevor and I cannot help ourselves... Sweet... Uh oh, here comes Kristen, and she is not happy. Oh well, it was worth it!.. We are in the car headed back to our dorms and about half of the car is asleep, and the other half is dead silent... We are back home and have a few hours before dinner, so I'm going to take a nap!.. What a nap! Now I'm gonna go clean my bike was some super sweet ProGold products and get it nice and squeaky clean!.. My bike is shiny and the pizza has arrived, let's eat!!.. What do you know, you go upstairs for a shower, and miss some kid drinking a bottle of hot sauce, which I later saw all over the ground! Should I post a pic???... Now we are off to play some shoe-less soccer... Soccer was sweet! Speaking of sweet! ICECREAM!!... It's 9:30 now and people are supposed to be in their own rooms, but instead, Tommy is locked in Josh's bathroom, his mattress and everything is in Lucas's room, and everybody ganged up on Trevor and made him look like a tranny(with face makeup of course)... Since it's almost 10:00 and everybody was supposed to be in their rooms 30 minutes ago, Kristen is not too happy about what is going on. It has been a rough day, I'm rather tired and it's 10:30, so I'm going to bed.

#Hiking

Such Classy Icecream

Trevor the Tranny (not actually)

Saturday: There was an optional workout this morning and I skipped it, as you might have guessed. So I just got up at, it's 7:15. Still too early.  It's a simple breakfast this morning, then I have to finish all my packing and clean up the room... Well, that's all done. Now we are just sitting here and reminiscing about the week... We got bored so we went to play more soccer. I played goalie this time and I wrecked, we won 11-5!.. My dad is here now. It's time to pack up the car, say goodbye to my friends and head home. It's been real.

The Crew