I'm back!

I realize it's been way too long since my last  post....I really need to work on getting better at this whole blog thing...

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's been a super busy last couple of weeks! I recently finished my last exam of grade 10, and summer has officially begun! 

I'll start with the training camps I've been to lately...

At the end of May, I attended the 2015 OCA Grey County endurance camp. Over the course of 5 days, we rode over 500km, the longest ride being 141km. Yes, you read that right! 141km of mountainous climbing in the beautiful Collingwood, Ontario. I took a week off of school and rode every day with a group of about 10 other cyclists. Not only was the cycling great, but we also had access to nutrition support from Anne Guzman (former pro cyclist/holistic nutritionist) and sweat analysis testing from Heather Sprenger (former pro cyclist). What's a sweat analysis test you ask? Well, before one of our rides, Heather put a patch on our forehead that "collected" our sweat as we rode, and we weighed ourselves on a scale. Then, at the end of the ride, Heather collected the samples, we weighed ourselves again, and she  took the samples to a lab and analysed them to determine how much we sweat, and how much sodium we lose while we sweat. This information can help us know exactly how much electrolytes and water we should be taking in while biking. In a 75km bike ride, I sweat 2.2L......gross eh? 

On Friday, June 19th, I raced in the Kitchener/Waterloo Twilight Crit. (If you didn't know, a "crit", or "criterium" is a type of race that is a short, closed off circuit. Great race for spectators to watch!) The crit took place in the heart of downtown Kitchener, so as you can imagine, it was very exciting. Now, this crit wasn't just any crit. My teammate and I decided we felt like a bit of a challenge....so we entered into the pro women's race. We were challenged alright...the average speed was 39km/hr. (FAST)

Here we were, Ruby (my teammate) and I, 16 year old girls...racing with women who are 25-40 years old with years and years of racing experience. 

After the race, Ruby and I realized how much we could actually push ourselves while put into a situation of crazy fast racing. We both realized that experiences like this make us better cyclists! And hey, Ruby ended up 10th place and I ended up 6th! Not too bad for a couple of 16 year olds! ;)

After the race, I headed to Waterloo for a weekend training camp. The purpose of this training camp was to practice the skills that can help us excell at bigger races. (In our case, Road Nationals and Rimouski). This camp was super hard. Not nessisairly long rides, but like 75km intense rides with lots of intervals and sprinting.

As of right now, I'm packing my things up for Nationals and Rimouski. I'll be gone from June 30th-July 13th, so stay tuned after that for another post! Thanks for reading,

Ali

Special thanks to the Speed Shop in Dundas for your awesome service and help with my TT bike!