Moving Blog

My new blog is at whitneyschultz.blogspot.com!

On Spring Break and Redlands

Life has been going at 1000 miles an hour the past month. LUNAFEST wrapped up nicely with 200% growth from last year and making an additional $2k for the Breast Cancer Fund over the previous year. School has been busy but good for the most part- I am getting a bit of senioritis though, that's for sure.

Racing has been going quite well- I did my first collegiate race of the year (Dallas) and had fun racing with the boys. It is good to get some speed back in the legs. I also attempted Fayetteville with the Cat 3 men, but the race turned ugly with a 25 degrees drop in temperature, hail, rain, and the craziest wind I've rode in...all during the race. Oh and I flatted in the first 10 miles. Luckily, I wasn't the only one, so Patrick from Wooley Mammoth and I encouraged each other to keep going. Not that it ended up mattering, since we finished but the officials DQed us anyways. Lame!

Spring break was great- I just enjoyed a week of relaxing and spending time with friends. Peter was at training camp in California, so he was gone for the most of it. When he got back, we enjoyed a few dates without the pressure of classes and work.

Danielle and I- Spring Break shenanigans and silly faces

My spring break ended up being a bit extended with Redlands where I was guesting with Veloforma. I flew out Tuesday after class and arrived pretty late. Randy Williams was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and take me to Veloforma's host house. They were a great team to guest with- great attitude and all very generous and kind. The races themselves went pretty well and I dramatically improved from last year, so I was pleased (but not satisfied).

Thursday was the hilly TT. I only brought my Gary Fisher road bike so I had no TT gear. It's still a toss up to me whether TT gear is necessary or not for that...maybe aero bars and carbon wheels. I finished 46th which was a lot better than last year...about a minute faster. There is still definitely plenty of room for improvement!

Friday was the Beaumont Road Race, just shy of 70 miles with a new bigger loop added with a longer climb. It went pretty well and I was able to move up at the end and try to lead out Christina. I got swarmed right before the finish, but still managed 25th. She was able to pull off 11th.

Saturday was the crit. Sadly, I ended up starting in the back after they called up the top 20 and the girl in front of me missed her pedal and crashed into two other girls. YAY. Went from starting mid-pack to the back. Pretty much ended up tailgunning the rest as the pace was very high from the gun and girls were getting shelled one by one. I finished with the pack but that is about it. I've got to be more agressive. I wasted too much energy trying to move up from the very back with all the turns.

Sunday was the infamously hard Sunset Road Race. 9 laps, half climbing, half descending. Once again I let myself start in the back and had to spend the whole first climb dodging people getting dropped. I finally caught the front group in the feed zone but then was so blown that I slowly got dropped by 2/3 through the second time up. A couple laps later, I was caught by a big group of 30 or so. They pulled us after 6 or 7 laps of misery. There weren't too many up the road- I think maybe 20 finished in the front, front group.

Sunset Loop (I'm middle-right)

I definitely improved a lot from last year, but there is still lots of room for improvement. I'm looking forward to some more speedwork with racing with the boys and learning to be more agressive. Thanks to Veloforma for such a great guesting experience :-)

This week is pretty chill for riding and school, which is allowing me to catch up with life. Looking forward to going to Dallas this weekend for Easter to spend time with Peter's family.

Racing and Birthdays

Who dunnit?? I'm still trying to figure it out!

It never fails to astound me how fast time seems to fly on by. I guess I've been busy with school, work, training, interviewing, and the occasional time with friends:

Some of my favorite people.

Two weekends ago was the infamous Walburg/Pace Bend weekend here in Austin. All my teammates were in town for the race. Walburg was full of epic adventures as usual- this time with a mild drizzle, cold weather, and giant piles of mud in the road. We rode great as a team. I had attacked and gotten off the front for 12 minutes towards the end of the 1st lap and when a group of eight caught me, my teammate Jen and Colavita's Carmen attacked and stayed away. Lauren and I got to chill in the pack and just cover whatever happened. I attacked with 1k or so to go which made the others have to pull me back just before the sprint. Lauren was able to win the field sprint so the team went 1st, 3rd, and 9th I think. Good day, good teamwork.

Pace Bend was probably my most epic race ever. I got up the road early for a very brief break with Carmen, which was immediately countered. None of the teammates were around for some reason so I had to cover that too which was exhausting. Maybe a lap or two later I flatted and had to wait for the wheel truck and chase back on. Luckily, no one did anything while I was gone. RIght when I was close to catching back on, the Masters started to pass me, so I stayed as far out of the way as possible on the opposite side of the road and then way off the back. I caught back on my field a lap after I flatted. Maybe another lap or two later, there was the race winning break which I bridged up to with Jen McRae. Phew I was pretty worked by that point. We must have been hauling because we gained a bunch of time on the field. I ended up 5th. Afterwards, I found out I had been DQed! It was so confusing- I had no idea why. It turns out some motorcycle official said I was rotating and drafting off the men and using them to catch up with the women. How absurd. Anyone that knows me knows that that is not how I roll. It was really upsetting after all that work finding out it was all for nothing. If they had told me when I was catching up to the field that they were DQing me, I still would have been livid but less so than after the race after my teammates didn't chase me down in the break because we all had no idea I was DQed. Lesson learned- don't flat!

This past week was pretty brutal. There were a bunch of school and group project deadlines, Lunafest is rapidly approaching, and I had 3 interviews! Everything was completed in the end but, boy, it was tough sometimes. Friday night was the big Gary Fisher night. He is sponsoring the UT team with discounted Gary Fisher Cronus's and he came into town to meet us and Hotel San Jose. I guess he has reflectors on all his clothing so whenever you'd try to take a picture, it would end up with stripes! He was definitely a cool guy and the team is fortunate to have such a great opportunity.

Gary Fisher himself with his reflector-covered tweed suit

This weekend I did Lago Vista, although reluctantly. Jen was off at Texas Tech for the collegiate race and Lauren was in Dallas taking a weekend off. Rachel, Louise and I went to Lago. The racing was super negative which makes it very frustrating. I should have just thought of it as solely training instead of thinking about results at all. Saturday I rode back from Lago with Shontelle and Carmen which definitely helped me be less frustrated- I was good and tired when I got home. I had been so frustrated from the day before that I wanted to race with the men but it was full. It was probably a good thing because their field was torn to shreds.

Sunday, Olivia, Danielle, and I went out to Cippolina's on West Lynn for a pre-birthday dinner. It was quite fantastic going out with those two girls and the food was pretty good too. Somehow dinner turned into an almost four hour ordeal! I'm sure we'll be repeating the ordeal soon enough! The birthday was good- I had a great time with friends in the evening! The rest of the day was work work work.

Lunafest is coming up on Sunday- I'm looking forward to it but also will be quite relieved when it is over! I won't get to attend because I have second round interviews that day! I'm definitely bummed I don't get to go to Lunafest but I do need to get a job...

Valentine's Day

Busy week last week, surprise, surprise. It was pretty much work, school, work, school, ride, homework bed, repeat. I did manage to do a few fun things...the highlight was cooking with Peter on Valentine's Day. We made some seafood risotto with bay scallops and shrimp, garlic bread, and salad. Mmm mmm mmm. In addition, we got a few two-bite desserts from Whole Foods (a.k.a. Whole Paycheck). The quite lovely, low-key evening ended with a ridiculous movie on Netflix.

First Race Weekend of 2010

School is now well underway and now racing is too! This weekend was the kick off to the 2010 racing season. The first was in Belterra, a community just southwest of Austin. The course was "L" shaped with small hills on either end of the L with a U-turn at the top. For those that haven't figured it out, I'm racing for Metro again this season. We did well attacking one after the other until a break that was good for us was formed- Saturday it ended up being Lauren with Kelly Benjamin from Colavita. I just sat at or near the front and covered moves with Jen. Once the break was more than well-established, I started attacking again. Nothing stuck, so I waited for the finish to help Jen out. The lead out worked like a charm: I went with 1 mile to go and as soon as we turned the corner to go up the hill to the finish, Jen was able to come around and win the sprint. I pretty much was dead by the base of the hill so I shakingly hobbled my way up, still finishing 10th. We ended up 2, 3, and 10th, plus a crap-ton of primes- bravo Jen. Great first race from all.

Sunday was at the driveway and it was quite chilly!! We did the long course which is about 2 miles. For those who don't know the driveway, check it out at Holland Racing's website. The race went very well again- pretty much the same start with attacks until something stuck- this time with Jen and Kelly Benjamin. Not my lucky weekend for getting away ;-) People were a little more active today being at the front, but not so much with initiating their own attacks. Louise did a great job attacking a bunch! I kept attacking but I never got away alone or with people that wouldn't contest the sprint with Jen, so I stayed with the pack. There was an attack on the last lap which I chased down and went on by to lead out Lauren. Little did I know, we and four others had a huge gap on the field. I nearly died realizing I still had a solid 200 meters to go before the end and that I had to beat the rest of the field. Jen finished 2nd, Lauren 5th, me 8th, and Louise 9th. Not too bad for early February! Great races with great teammates. Nuf' said.

It was great to get a first weekend of racing under my belt. My progress so far as been fantastic thanks to Simon Kessler. I've only been doing speed work for a couple of weeks and I already feel so strong. I can't wait until May/June and beyond! Definitely have some exciting stuff on my schedule this season- guest riding with Veloforma for Redlands, Tour of the Gila with Metro, Collegiate Nationals in May, a bunch of NRC stuff in May/June, last year of U23 Nationals in June, and Europe for the rest of the season.

With school I've felt as if I've hit the ground running. This semester is group projects galore including a very interesting marketing consulting project with a local Austin company. I'm just taking school one week at a time. I'm in some interesting classes this semester and they will all together make me more well-rounded which is the point of school, right?

Work is going well, too. LUNAFEST is looking quite amazing right now. DEFINITELY go if you are in Austin (www.lunafest.org). I can't believe how many absolutely wonderful companies are on board helping out to make this such a great fundraiser for The Breast Cancer Fund and Texas Advocacy Group. It is truly remarkable and definitely gives each of these companies 1000 brownie points in my book for future purchases :-)

I haven't had much time to play as of late- between training, school, work, and applying for real-life jobs, I'm pretty darn busy. This weekend I should get a couple moments to breath and relax and enjoy life, especially Valentine's Day ;-)

Until next time...

Last Semester of Undergrad

Well I've been slacking a bit updating this thing but that is because I've been so busy! Shortly after Fredericksburg, my new job with Luna really took off. I'm helping my boss with LUNAFEST coming up on March 7th, which is a big fundraiser/film festival to raise money for The Breast Cancer Fund and Texas Advocacy Project. What is cool is that both organizations are about prevention- preventing cancer through avoiding its environmental causes and preventing domestic violence. The project has really taken up all my free time, which is fine because I'm definitely learning some valuable skills they can't teach you in a text book ;-)

January 11-14th was the Texas Cycling training camp, my last big project and contribution as Vice President! It was a little bittersweet for me because it's crazy that I am already graduating, but it will be good for me to do a little less for the team so I can find a job. Camp itself was good- we had 40 people go and many were newbies. We had two beautiful days of riding and then the rain hit. Nevertheless, a small group of us- Joey, Josh, Ken, and Clay journeyed out for five hours the first day of rain and three the second. It was a lot of fun to ride with them and they definitely made the long, rainy hours doable.

Immediately when I got back to Austin, I turned around and went to Houston for the Houston Marathon. It was quite the journey in the car that day from Leakey to Austin to Houston, all-in-all nearing 8 hours. The marathon itself was okay- not as many people were interested in talking about the products which made our day pretty lackluster. Our hotel was pretty darn cool and I definitely recommend it if you are traveling to Houston- Magnolia Hotel. It had free breakfast, happy hour, and milk and cookies :-) The decor was super modern and there was a neat roof-top spa which was lovely in the rain at night. On the way back I was having some car problems and my car kept turning off and coasting to a stop while on the highway. It was a bit scary after it happened three times, but then it made it the last 120 miles home. I took it in on Monday- there had been something wrong with the ignition switch.

School started Tuesday- my last semester of undergrad. Where did college go? Not fair. I am looking forward to working, assuming I can find a job with a company that has solid values. My classes are interesting but also perhaps the most demanding I've had in awhile. I'm in a Data Mining, Marking Policies (our capstone, writing course), Consumer Behavior, and Business Ethics. Most of the teachers a very engaging, one to the point of being intimidating. Either way, it will be a very good semester, learning-wise. I'm definitely not one of those students that will take X class because it is easiest, I'd rather take classes that are harder and can teach me valuable skills- I'm paying big bucks to learn after all!

My race schedule is pretty much finalized. I talked it over with my coach, Simon, yesterday. With my more demanding and stricter classes, I can't miss as much school as last spring, so I'll have less traveling until school gets out. My first warm-up race is in two weeks, I can't believe it!
This weekend is all about figuring out how to balance this whole school-cycling-Luna-VP thing...otherwise I'll end up looking like that old lady in the picture...wait a minute...that's me!

Peter and I at Tammy's Murder Mystery Party

Fredericksburg

Peter and I took a little trip out to Fredericksburg. Neither he or I had been out there for enjoyment of the cute little town, rather, we'd driven through countless times and had done a Clif event or two out there. It was lovely to get to finally check out the town, albeit the weather was quite a bit chilly (I refuse to wear long underwear in Texas, although I probably could have used it). I'm pretty sure 50% of the stores were German restaurants or wineries- haha. We also tried to go check out Enchanted Rock since I had never been, but it was closed. We drove out there anyways so I could at least kinda see it from afar. It was a nice little trip with great company :-D

My date

Me

The sheep ran up to us like puppies!

Downtown

There were lots of neat things in the Marketplaz

He's smiling

A present for the town, handmade from Germany

Enchanted Rock is in the distance!

The rest of this week is a bit jam-packed with plenty of riding, working, job searching, and training camp stuff (that is next week!!), thus why I've been up since 5:30am hehe. Have a good week!