Hello from Champion, PA; more specifically Seven Springs Resort (7springs.com), home of the 2006 National Championships. This place is fantastic! It's founders were Bavarian so it has an amazing European flow to it. They tried to keep true to the European ski resort theme and succeeded in that. Once you're inside, it has the feel and smell of interior design from the 80's with lots of maple leave prints, wood, and stone. But the rooms are incredibally comfortable. The resort is rougly 14 miles from Donegal, PA which lies right on the (sketchy) Penn Turnpike; simply an hour's drive from Pittsburgh. The little resort nestled in the mountains has almost everything you need close by. They have a selection of restaurants on the far end of the resort, shops ranging from "Pizza and Pastry" to coffee, to outdoors clothing, and even a hair salon. Most of the hotel rooms overlook the ski slopes which right now are completely green with a trail hear and there leading to the top. I can see three different runs from my balcony.

Finally! Let the games begin! The National Championships start tomorrow with the Elite Men and Women, U23 Women, and Juniors Time Trials. The Elites and U23s will be riding a 30km course, rougly 18.9 miles (ish). My impression of the course is...WOW! It's incredibally difficult! The first three miles are spent in Laurel Hill State Park. Asscents of about .5 miles at 6-12% grade followed by similar descents and two switchbacks make up the first three and a half miles until you turn right out of LHSP onto Trent Road for about .3 miles (the flattest part of the course!) You then make a left turn onto Indiantown Road and are on this for the remaining five miles. Indiantown is a narrow two lane road. It is very curvy and has many short, incredibally steep up and downs, with a few long steep rollers and one major (two-lane) highway crossing on the out and back course.

I came up here feeling well prepared. (Prepared for everything except the altitude.) I had followed my training schedule that Chad gave me to the dot! I even did quite a few hill repeats! (Keep in mind that the biggest hill in Hattiesburg is on Bonhomie Rd. I go up it sitting down doing about 15+. Doesn't quite match Auburn's terrain.) I got to the resort Sunday night around midnight after a two day driving (stopping overnight in Gatlinburg, TN- my fav!) I got out to drive the course around midday just to realize that the course profile did not do it justice. I planned to ride the course a little later that day, but then the scattered thunderstorms rolled in. So I spent about half an hour on my (new) trainer. (The old one fell out of my car when I was packing to move to H'burg! [whoops]) Monday evening, I noticed something unfortunate. What I thought were allergies in fact became a bit of an affect from the altitude. I had a lot of pressure in my sinuses and an incredibally sore jaw. I've never really been affected by altitudes, so this caught me off guard. Tuesday, after the rains faded out a bit, I took my road bike out to the TT course to see how difficult it would be. OUCH! The mountains hit me so hard, I couldn't make it out of the Park without putting my foot down a few times. After a while of trying, my asthma (exercise induced (...?!)) started to hit me along with an incredibally high heart rate. So I resolved to go back to my car and sit around for a bit and try it again once I calmed down. I never did. The asthma calmed a bit, but the heart rate still stayed a bit high. (I didn't have on a HRM, but there're those time when you just know when to stop.) I came back to the hotel and decided to give it another go on Wednesday, my last good day to train before the race. After an amazing breakfast at the Slopeside Inn downstairs, I headed out to the course for round two, this time with my TT bike. The same problems came up within the first three miles so again, I headed back to my car. I loaded the car back up and decided to drive the course while I calmed down. Driving the course didn't do me any good...I began to get really nervous about the steepness of the hills and the effects I was already having. I talked to a doctor here at the Resort and told him what was up. He said I may want to talk to my local doctor, but it sounds like I'm having a bad reaction to the altitude and he would not recommend the incredibally tense time trial tomorrow. My local doctor agreed. Honestly, I've never been more heartbroken in my life. This is my last U23 Nationals ever! (And I don't qite plan on moving up to the Elite Nationals...) So what do I do? Health vs. Sense. I've done some reading on the net in the past few hours and according to most doctors, including "High Altitude Medical Advice for Travelers" states that “People with asthma have been thought to be at theoretically increased risk at altitude due to the possible adverse effects of cold and exercise. However, asthmatics have generally done very well at altitude, possibly due to the greatly decreased presence of allergens at high altitude. However, people with asthma should be cautioned to carry their medications with them at all times"...This hasn't worked for me so far, considering I had a mild asthma attack this afternoon and the local drug store refuses to call CVS in Auburn to get my prescription. (Harsh. Yankees?)

For now I'm resolving to sitting on the balcony watching the big guns of Nationals roll in. Teams like Victory Brewing, Cheerwine, Liptons, a few T-Mobile and others. These are the women who I really look up to in cycling and, personally it's awesome to be able to watch them through their preparation and training. I was also watching the FIFA World Cup match between France and Portugal. Awesome! It comes down to France and Italy! Kudos to the French for an early stage win in le Tour and advancing to the finals of the World Cup. Despite the Americans being so highly favored in the Tour, they still have something to cheer about. Vive le France en foot! (I think I said that right...I'll have to check my old notes...)

Adieu from Pennsylvania! (For now.)

Check for pictures eventually at gillejc.smugmug.com