Some more of the action

The build up trip has been going super quickly and we are now into our last week before heading back to the chilly winter in New Zealand. The past week has consisted of another nights track racing, which went largely better then last time but still not remarkable.
Then on Wednesday we had our first day of training on the track. It was a TP training day and I must say that doing a TP on this track is a whole different story then what it is in Invercargill. It was one of the hotter days we have had so between efforts it was straight to the tunnel to hide from the sun. We cruised home from  the session on our bikes and my srm said that the temperature was peaking at 46degrees.... not sure how accurate that was but I'd say it was around the mid 30's. 

The track before Tuesday nights racing.

On Thursday I headed out to get lost in the cornfeilds as well as around the crystal cave area. Its pretty crazy you will be riding thinking that you are totally lost then 2 minutes later you will be back on the road you began your ride on! At the end of the ride I was getting slightly lost but luckily was saved by Sophie and Liam who were heading in the opposite direction home... which is where I thought I was heading! 
Friday the weather decided to pack in and rain properly all day so unfortunately our racing was canned but as always there was a just as hard erg session plan B set in place so it was off to Bob's house for a mass erg smashing for the second time. 
On Saturday the whole team headed south to Lancaster to do a local critrium which ended up being the state champs! It was a pretty cool course in the suburbs with all of the roads closed off  so the locals came out o support and I have never seen so many yard sales in one day as what i saw when we were driving to park the car! The race went well and the 5 of us kiwi girls pretty much dominated the whole race, winning all of the primes and Getting 1st (Sophie), 2nd (Cassie) and 3rd (Me). I was glad to finally have a good race and come away feeling positive.

Alysha and I before the crit.

Womans field at the crit start line.

I thought it would be good to show a bit of the scenery that we get to look at while riding on the roads around here! Its really lush around this area with big red sheds and cornfields everywhere!!

 Georgie :)

Week One

It has now been just over a week since first arriving in Kutztown and I am pleased to say it is all going pretty well. We have slowly built up our training over the week to help us cope with the jet lag and to bring us up to a nice and hard weekend. On Friday we got out first look at the track and our first of many nights of racing. The Trexlertown track is a long 333m slowish concrete track and is quite a different track to ride compared to Invercargill's one which we had been riding just under 2 weeks ago. There were a few delays from rain which slowed down the start of racing for the night but eventually we got under way with the races. It was really good to get back to racing but quite a shock to the system! For the night we were paired up in teams to help race for each other, Cassie and I were together and it would be fair to say that with no major placings neither of us had the best of nights races, not that we were to bothered it was some very good training and good fun, plus there are many more racing nights to come. Us kiwis overall did have some good results though and it was evident that we were dominating all the races we were in.

The full team waiting to start racing. (Photo from John/ FB page) 

Photo of racing 

Saturday was another tough and testing day of training, with an easy road ride for about 50mins in the morning to give the sore legs a wee stretch which was quickly followed by a smashing erg session. With hammered legs from racing the night before this didn't make for the most pleasant of training days but I came out of it feeling pretty pleased with my self and you always know sessions that smash you are going to be good in the long run. I had some pretty good timing on Saturday because about 30mins after erg I had a massage to pound out the multiple lumps that were all through my legs.

Starting the erg session...

Sunday was a long road day which included the local derby bunch ride/race which is sort of similar to the mechanics bay bunch in Auckland. It was pretty amazing the amount of riders in the bunch and how quick some of them could go. We rode past the local Amish church and got to see the line up of horse and carts as well as having to pass a few, which is quite scary because you never quite know what the horse is going to do. We also went to Wegmans to do the food shopping on Sunday. Wegmans is a huge food market style supermarket and was very overwhelming with so many choices of food to get.

Wegmans

Monday was our first full rest day and first day of shopping. We headed to the King of Prussia mall which is about a 50min drive from home and the second largest mall in Amreica! It was amazing and the shops were endless. After 3 hours of shopping I think I did pretty well with helping out the American economy.  Then on our way home we quickly went to the outlet mall and had a wee look around there. Once we got home it was time to head to the local favorite 'The Tavern' to celebrate John our managers birthday.

On the way to the mall

Post shopping, the car went a bit slower up the hills on the way home.

So far everything has been going really well and my injury is cooperating with me and not being painful in anyway so I am feeling very relieved about that.
Tonight we are going to the track for some more racing and we will be doing track racing again on Friday and a criterium on Saturday.

Georgie

Kutztown

After some tough months training in the cold, damp and disgusting weather of the NZ winter and battling a couple of mystery cysts in my leg I have now set foot into the American summer in Kutztown PA. Traveling here was pretty easy compared to last year with only two flights 12hrs and 6hrs then a 2 hour drive from Newark airport to our new home. Cassie and I got to Kutztown at about 3.30am local time without bikes but luckily they arrived on the next flight that Alysha, Racquel and John were on so it wasn't to much of a drama. All 5 of us endurance girls are staying in the same apartment and are now living the cyclists flatting life. Today was a 'cold' day getting up to 32degrees ish .... so not looking forward to the hot days!

 Our street 

 New home

 our street again

And again

Today we went for a ride for about an hour around the area to get our legs moving. Riding on the right side of the road is always a challenge but haven't had any close calls yet and hoping to avoid them.

Signs warning about horses and carts...

 Looking foward to getting into some good training in this amazing area's weather and see what can be done to the fitness in the next few weeks!

Georgie :)