Joan and the OTC

Q: What did it feel like walking into the Olympic Training Center for the first time?

Joan: It was so amazing! It’s so inspiring when you are there! When you first walk into the Athlete Center there is a really big glass window that covers almost an entire wall.  And when you look out the window you can see all the different buildings, the Aquatic Center and the gyms, and the meeting halls and conference rooms. There is also this really cool wall that says welcome in tons and tons of different languages. When I first walked in I just kept thinking that this was where Olympic athletes trained and that it was just so cool that I got to be there and train also! It was just super awesome!!!

Q: What were the group rides/workouts like? Did you mountain bike or road bike?

A: I was there as a mountain biker although there were a lot more road bikers that mountain – there was 30 road and 10 mountain. The group rides were really fun.  There were several time trials that were hard, and then there was some skills riding and just some normal rides. The trails there were really fun.  The majority of the trails we rode on were single track, but the time trials were on a steep dirt road.  It was super cold there so we didn’t do as much riding as was planed due to ice and snow but the riding that we did do was really fun.  I had never really been riding in ice and snow so it was a new experience. Also there was only one other girl in the whole camp and she got really sick the first night, so after the first day i was the only girl out of lots of guys so that was also different.  All the guys were really fast!

Q: Did you recognize anyone from the racing we do in the summer? Where were the kids from?

A:Ya i did, actually my roommate, who was from Boise Idaho, was actually the girl who got first in my category at Sol Vista! So that was fun because we both remembered each other and we got along really good.  I didn’t really recognize anyone else mainly because most of them were from California, and Florida, and other places farther away.  It was really cool to talk with riders from all over the country!

Q: What was the best thing you learned during the weekend? Is there any secret training tips you can give us?

A: We learned so many things I don’t know if I can pick one. We had people from USADA come and talk to us about drug testing, and pro cyclists, nutritionists, strength training people, people from college racing teams, as well as our coaches who gave us tips about getting invited to European camps. We also practiced a lot of skills where I learned a lot.  We practiced things like how to get out of situations like if your handle bars get caught in some one else’s, and how to keep control of your bike if you are riding in really big, close packs.

Q: Did you see any famous Olympic athletes? What other sports were there training? Could you tell what they played by looking at them?

A: Well I’m actually not really sure, that was one of the really cool things there. You would be in the cafeteria eating or walking around and you would see people and think they could be an athlete. But it was hard to tell because they were not wearing their uniforms so they just look like normal people, so you didn’t really know. You were reminded that Olympic athletes are ordinary people. In the words of one of the coaches “They put their shammy on one leg at a time just like you”. You could kinda tell what sport people played. There were some really big wrestlers, a few runners, and there was also a basketball camp that was going on and they were crazy tall!

Q: What was the food like? How about the housing?

A: The food was awesome!!!!!!! And there was lots of it! We all had ID badges and they had a special key card, so when you went to the cafeteria you just scanned your card and then it let you in. Each day they had different food and apart from short breaks to change breakfast to lunch and lunch to dinner it was almost always open! There was even a grill where you could order a burger or sandwich.  And the nutritional contents of everything served was posted.

The housing was good.  We stayed in one of the athlete housing dorms, which was super cool. Our camp took up an entire hallway of the building. The bathrooms and showers were not in our rooms so you had to walk down the hall for that. We also had room mates. Most people had two room mates, but there was just one other girl so we had a room just the two of us!

Q: Whats your best memory from the weekend?

A:I think that one if my best memories was the last day when it warmed up a little and we rode out to a super awesome trail.  Everything was covered in snow and there was tons of ice on the rocks and trees and it was so beautiful, and the air was so cool and crisp, and we were just flying down this trail, and I was following all the boys and ended up going off a ton of stuff that I normally wouldn’t have done, it was so much fun!!!