MySpace


MySpace.com | rss | sign in
Tara



Last Updated: 8/27/2009

Send Message
Instant Message
Email to a Friend
Subscribe

Gender: Female
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 32
Sign: Sagittarius

City: Los Alamitos
State: CALIFORNIA
Country: US
Signup Date: 1/2/2007

Blog Archive
[Older      Newer]
 /  / 
August 26, 2009 - Wednesday 
Hey everyone!!

Please check out www.racefortara.com and I hope you all can make it. This might just be my first DH race back!!!

Thank you to Brian Bolin, Thayne Bolin, Mike Stewart, Daniel & Kim Cress, Andy, Kyle, Eric, and Amber at Northstar www.northstarattahoe.com, and of course a HUGE thank you to Tiffany and Elysa at Giant for Women www.giantforwomen.com. 

See you ALL there!!
tara
5:03 AM 
0 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
August 5, 2009 - Wednesday 
Hey Hey Hey!

Hi, all! I just got back from US National Road Champs in Bend, Oregon and did pretty good. I felt SUPER good and ended up winning the thing even though there were a bunch of wrong course markings and 3 other people got DNF'd (did not finish). I drove up to Bend with my friend Aaron Baker in his big RV and got to the event a couple days ahead of time. 
The next day we pre-rode the course around 5pm just to let the weather cool off a bit since it was in the 90's earlier that day. I was a little confused as to how far I was supposed to race. I went onto the USA Cycling website earlier in the week and it said 24k, but it was pretty confusing. So I emailed usa cycling to ask and they said I was racing 20k. Okay, cool...even better! So when I pre-rode it I made a mental mark of where 20k was since there were NO course markings anywhere.
So the day of the race I had my whole warm-up routine down and found a flat road right by the race to do it on. I wanted to time my warm-up so that I had about 10 min. to get to the start before I took off. Well, I timed it literally down to the second because when I got to the start I had about 30 seconds to go. I get into the start gate and there are these 2 women going back and forth kind of yelling as to when they should send me off and I'm getting more and more confused. Then I ask the US team coach, "I'm racing 20k, right?" and he answers back, "NO, 12k!" So with 20 seconds to my start the distance changed once again. Then I asked him, "Will there be someone at the turnaround point?", and he says, "yes, yes, yes!" I turn around hit the start button to my odometer and take off. 

I had a pretty good pace going and the longer I was out there the better I felt. As I was coming up to the 3 mile mark and where I'm "supposed" to turn around I see one of those rock cairn things on my side of the road and then a guy with a clipboard on the other side of the road. So I yell out to the guy, "Is this my turnaround?!" The guy just looks at me and doesn't say anything. So now I'm totally confused and starting to slow down my pedaling. I decide to go another .2 miles or so and don't see anyone I can ask so in a panic I decide to turn around. Well, the road was narrow and didn't have a bike lane on either side and turning a hand cycle is like trying to turn a semi-truck on a single lane highway!! I tried to make the turn, but ended up in the deep sand on the side of the road instead! So I'm in the middle of my race and stuck on the side of the road in sand. I tried and tried to get out, but I was just stuck! About 45 seconds later I hear a car coming up so I flag it down. It ends up being a guy that worked for the race so he pulled over and I asked him if I was at my turnaround point and he says, "No! It's up the road." So I ask him if he could just get me out of the dirt and point me in the right direction. So he turns me around and by now my heart is pounding because I've wasted SOOO much time turning around, getting stuck, waiting, & turning around again that now I'm sprinting my ass off to try to get to the turn around point. I finally see 3 cones in the road with a guy sitting in a chair and I yell out to him, "Is this my turnaround point?!!" and he says it is. I get turned around one more time and now I'm in full sprint mode to get to the finish, but I've got 3 miles to go. I pinned it back and on the last hill to the finish I hit 17mph. 

I couldn't believe all the confusion and chaos during that race. What a joke!! I ended up winning, which was cool but it was just nuts that day. As it turned out I guess that guy that I yelled out at the first time to ask if it was my turnaround was a parent that had gotten onto the course when he shouldn't have, but regardless usa cycling should have had even better course markings and should have given those 3 riders that got DNF'd a re-start, but whatever. 

So after the weekend I took a few days off and enjoyed the weather with some friends and I'll be back on the training program soon. 

Thank you all for writing in all the time with words of encouragement!!
Till next time...
Cheers!
tara
5:41 PM 
6 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
July 15, 2009 - Wednesday 
Hey all...

I flew back to California a couple days ago with Elladee and we've been pretty busy since getting here. The night we got here we dropped off our things and then went straight over to a friends house for her birthday. I definitely want to catch up with my friends whenever a get the chance. Then starting Monday I was at Project Walk so they could teach Els and I a home program. Basically so she can learn how to properly stretch me and do the exercises that they do there. 

Yesterday seemed like we mostly did stretching, but today was no joke. Michelle my trainer worked me over, but I loved every minute of it! In between my therapy it seems like I've got doctors appointments every hour on the hour, but that's just life.

What else...what else?? Ohhh...the new Mountain Bike Magazine is out on newsstands and I'm happy with how it came out. It's called Social Distortion Article and it focuses mainly on the relationship between my coach James Herrera Pushyourlimit.com and I, but as a whole it is about relationships/friendships when something like this happens. Jasen Thorpe (editor) had a very extensive interview process and it shows. So I hope you like what you read. Oh and if you pick up one on newsstands and there isn't a small picture of me on the cover then my story isn't in that one. It's weird because 10% of the magazines out do not have my article in them. Jasen tried to explain to me why, but I can't remember why but then you just have to find one that does have the article. Or just click on the link I gave you. HAHA!! Damn...I'm tired right now!!!

So I'm in training right now because the US Road Nationals the week of July 28th-August 2nd in Bend, Oregon and I've decided to race it. The race is a time trial so I'm changing up my training a bit. So that should be interesting. This will be my first race since I got hurt so I'm gonna pin it and see what happens. 

Oh speaking of riding. Els and I were up in Whistler a couple weekends ago and did a ride around the lake. It was about 7pm, but it was super hot out and we planned on jumping in the lake afterward. It was RAD! Everyone was out at the lake hanging out and there is even a nudest dock. Obviously where all the nude people hangout. I stayed away from there! Yikes! Anyway, Els and did a loop that us about an hour and then on our way back we came across a single track trail called Tin Pants. She stopped looked at me and said with a shit eating grin, "well, whadya think?" It took me all but 5 seconds to say..."Hell yeah!" I was a little concerned that the trail would get too narrow and I wouldn't be able to fit AND since I was on a road handcycle I obviously had road tires on the bike and on hard packed dirt let's just say it's like riding with ice skates on. The trail was SICK!! I could climb all the climbs and made it around just about every corner by myself. There were a few that were pretty tight and Els had to pick up the front end and pull me around, but no biggie. Once we got to the top there was an amazing lookout that we took pictures from. As Els was taking some snapshots I took off. She wasn't letting me ride in front. I think cuz' she knew I wanted to pin it. :) So as I pedaled away I said, "Let me lead! Let me lead!" I started downhill and I heard her say, "Don't go too fast!!" I was just cruising down, but then gained a bit of speed here and there. I just can't tell you how awesome it felt to be off-road again. I mean I was on the polar opposite of the type of bike I should have been on, but I knew what I was doing. So I came hauling around one of the corners and it was a bit of an S-turn. I did a bit of a fishtail out to the right and was starting to bring it back around to the left when my back right wheel hit something and it popped me up so hard I was riding it out on 2 wheels!! I can only imagine what Elladee was thinking right at that moment! I must have had that thing on 2 wheels for like 10 feet and the whole time I'm thinking, "I got it...I got it...I got it!!!!" In that second of the last, "I got it"...I totally didn't have it. LOL! I ate it pretty hard on a bunch of rocks and I'm just thinkin', "oh man...now Els is gonna be mad at me. Haha. Well, she ran over and turned me back up right and we made sure I was okay. I had a bit of a hematoma on my right thigh, but that was about it. Suweet!! My first crash after my crash.

We made it back to the car after about 2 1/2 hours of riding and it was still warm out. As soon as we made it to the Pharmacy to get a first-aid kit to clean it out I started thinking about how I was gonna get back on that trail with a better bike that is meant for off road. Any suggestions??! :)

K, well we're off to meet some friends for dinner. I hope everyone is out riding there bikes and enjoying the rad weather we're having!

Cheers!
tara
12:27 AM 
12 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
July 3, 2009 - Friday 
Hey all!

I got the heads up from Patrick Van Horn at Giant Bicycles (www.giantbicycles.com) that one of the photos Anne Keller (www.annekellerphotography.com) took of me for the Bike article awhile back is going to be featured in Market Smart. Market Smart is a new book for excellence in Marketing and Design. The book is the best in Age-and Lifestyle-Specific Design. A guy named Craig Mannino of Red Fix 5 designed the poster and it's pretty sweet. Check it out!




In other news I have been traveling quite a bit and was just in Mexico, Boulder, and headed to Seattle tomorrow for a short trip. Busy busy. I have been riding my new race chair a bit and have been out everyday this week on my hand cycle and pretty stoked on that! Oh and last week I was on the island (Victoria Island in BC) and surprised a friend of mine that races and unexpectedly showed up at her high school graduation. She seemed pretty pumped and we had a really fun time. Just to see the look on her face was priceless!!
So once I get back from Seattle I'll be in Vancouver for quite awhile and pumped on that. 
I hope everyone has a rad 4th of July and be safe!!
tara


12:08 AM 
1 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
June 1, 2009 - Monday 
I'm still alive!! Kinda doesn't seem like it's been a month since I blogged, but I guess so. I'm not sure what I've done for the past month, but I know it's been a lot. Hehe. This blog is gonna be on the shorter side of things since it's late and I have an early morning tomorrow. 
Just a couple days after the training camp I had a photo shoot with an organization that I am ambassador for called Life Rolls On. www.liferollson.org. Life Rolls On helps raise money for Spinal Cord Research through various surf and gala events. The shoot was at a studio down in San Diego and with a photographer name Tim Mantoani. Pretty much as soon as he saw my tattoo he focused on that and took some pretty amazing shots. Tim has had such athletes in his studio as Formula One racer Jacques Villenueve, Carlos Sastre, San Diego Charger Shawn Merriman, Bull Rider Ty Murray, Portland Trailblazer Greg Oden, Roger Clemens, Laker Kobe Bryant, and Lance Armstrong. His pics are pretty rad and he's a nice guy too. The shoot went well and the photos turned out really great. I should be getting some of the shots soon so when I do I'll upload some, but he does have one of them up on his home page if you want to take a look. www.mantoani.com. So it's kinda weird how things work out sometimes, but it just so happened that a woman named Ina Saltz that had come out with a tattoo book had called Tim the very next day asking if he had photographed any athletes lately with interesting tattoos. Tim gave Ina my name and contacted me about being in her next book. I was stoked and had actually seen her first book on a friend's coffee table. Check it out... www.bodytypebook.com. I think it's supposed to come out in the fall so keep an eye out! :) Oh and I want to give my tattoo artist and friend Dejah props on the great work she did!

I was going to be flying back up to Vancouver again a few days after the shoot, but first I had an appointment with a doctor at the UCLA medical center. I had heard that this doctor had helped some other patients overturn rulings on surgeries so I made an appointment. It went well and I am actually going back this Tuesday to meet with a Neurosurgeon and see what they say. Again I'm crossing my fingers.
I flew up to Vancouver after my appointment that day and this time stayed for about a week and a half. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I had another awesome time even though I rented a jalopy of a hand cycle and won't be doing that again. 
Since I've been back home I've been getting the word out about the Giant for Women Mountain Bike Ride and Retreat up in Tahoe, California. There are two of them and the first one is July 11-12th and the second is August 15-16th. You can find out more at....http://www.giantforwomen.com/blog/entry/2009_ride_and_retreat_camps/
I hope to see you there!!

I actually had come home for a few reasons. One reason was to do the LA Marathon on the hand cycle, which I unfortunately did not get to compete in because I got really sick the night before. I was pretty pissed to say the least seeing as how I drove out to the LA Convention Center the day before to pick up my packet and everything. Guess I'll have to wait till' next year.

The second was to attend my friend Hal Hargrave's fundraiser to help raise money for not only Spinal Cord Research, but also to help other people with SCI by giving them funds to keep going to physical therapy or being able to buy them medical equipment. Thanks to Hal's organization I was able to get a new Colours wheelchair!! THANK YOU HAL!! Hal was injured within a month of me and is probably 10 years younger than I am, but has a great aspect on what life's about than most people I know that are 10 years older than me. He just has a heart of gold and is dealing with the card he's been dealt and beautifully I might add. I urge you to go to www.lilhal.info to not only learn more about SCI and our injury, but also to make a donation if you feel so inclined. The event was really amazing. It was held at the Hafif Estate where they had a silent auction and listened to some touching speeches in the amphitheater setting. The night was just really cool and I know they were able to raise some money, which helps us all. 

While in town I tried to meet up with as many friends as I could and while I wasn't able to meet up with all of them I was really happy to see the friends that I could. 
Today I had to ask my mom to help me get a bunch of shirts both short and long sleeve, hoodies, lip balm, and posters ready to ship to an event Illinois, which took hours but we finally finished up. You can see the new long sleeve t and other Tara Llanes Road to Recovery goodies at www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com or directly at https://www.tarallanesheartofachampion.com/magento/index.php/clothing. I hope you like the new long sleeve I designed.

Last but not least I want to send a HUUUUGE thank you to The Challenged Athletes Foundation (www.challengedathletes.org) for giving me a grant for my own race chair. I had made the decision a little over a month ago to postpone trying to qualify for the Ironman until 2010. I had to be realistic and at the time I was borrowing my friend Ricky's hand cycle, I didn't have a race chair yet, and I wasn't able to swim because of an open sore on my foot and the chlorine would aggravate it. So between all of those things I knew I was fighting an even more uphill battle than I already was. And even though I knew it made sense to make that decision it was still very very hard. I do understand though that now I have time to get all my ducks in a row and to get my OWN hand cycle, work on technique in my new race chair, and get the proper leg device for swimming. I will keep working and training hard to towards that goal of not only qualifying for the Ironman World Champs, but winning it and I will.

Well, I guess that wasn't such a short blog after all but I have done quite a bit since I wrote last and I'm sure I even left a few things out. I'm off to Vancouver again on Tuesday and will try to write more then!

Cheers!
tara
7:07 AM 
2 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
April 27, 2009 - Monday 

I got an email about a month ago inviting me to a US Paralympics Training Camp at the OTC (Olympic Training Center) in Chula Vista, CA. and I guess I thought it was pretty cool. I mean I wasn’t overly stoked and at the same time was a kind of honored. When you get injured like this there are a lot of emotions and thoughts that run through your head. The reason I wasn’t overly excited was because I had always wanted to be invited to the OTC before I got hurt because I knew it was the best of the best that were there so now being invited just gave me really mixed emotions. I also figured that there were other women that would want to be here and here I am only having ridden for 4 months and get an invite. So I accepted and drove down with my good friend Aaron Baker who was also invited. Neither of us knew what to expect so it was sort of arms wide open kind of thing.


From the second I got here I knew it was going to be physically hard, but I didn't think about emotionally. Right when we pulled into the parking lot to check-in Arielle Martin pedaled by on her BMX bike. She quickly turned around to come say hi to me. For those of you who don’t know Arielle Martin was 1 point away from being the first and only female to represent the US at the Olympics in BMX. Jill Kintner ended up getting that spot, but Arielle is one of the baddest women on a BMX bike. As many of you may know I was doing my best to try and make the Olympic team for BMX months before my injury. Arielle was one of the women I raced against and to see her here and knowing that a year and a half or so ago I was competing against her was ridiculously hard. I never let on that I felt that way while I was talking to her, but it was all I could do to choke back the tears. Not only that, but a good handful of the best BMX men are here getting ready for the Supercross race in Copenhagen and seeing them was hard as well. Just knowing I was “one of them” and now I’m not is mind blowing and clearly something I still need to deal with. You know you think you’re okay and then something unexpected happens and BOOM you feel like you’re at square one again. So emotionally this has been a bit of a roller coaster.


The other reason why this camp is so hard is because it’s SO HARD!! I seriously have a whole new respect for handcyclists. It’s like it finally hit me that I’m pedaling with my arms. I know that probably sounds stupid, but I think to me I was just getting in this bike that looked different, but now that we’ve been doing Time Trials every morning and plan to the rest of the week I am WORKED. I think about what we’re doing and that I used to do all of that with a set of legs and it just blows my mind. When we’re done for the day I still have to lift myself and transfer in and out of my chair, in and out of the shower, in and out of everything and it is exhausting! The riding I was doing before I got here has been more long and steady so my body just wasn’t’ ready for this, but this is going to whip it into shape. I wasn’t’ sure where I would stand after the Time Trial the first day, but as it turns out even though I blew on about mile 5 and had another 4 miles to go I kept a steady enough pace that I think I impressed the coaches a bit. We’ll see if I’m still impressing them by the end of the camp, but I sure as heck plan on it!


I’ve learned a lot in the past few days and I’m know I will continue to learn. The other athletes here are amazing and have endured just as much or more than I have. There are other spinal cord injuries, amputees, and a two women that are legally blind that have to ride with someone to let them know when to shift if a hill is coming up or just to not go off the side of the road! Then there is Craig who was doing some training exercises in Maryland before being deployed to Iraq and a humvee landed on him. Let me repeat that! A humvee landed on him and clearly shouldn’t be alive, but he’s here and just killing it! The different issues and prejudices they have to overcome are so much that I could probably write a blog about them for the next year so I’ll just stop there, but you get the picture.


Every morning we head out on a road that a lot of other cyclist are on and I'd say about 90% of them either give the thumbs up or "hell yeah!" when they pass me, which is awesome. I appreciate that they appreciate how difficult it is pushing that handcycle. Truthfully I am going to work so hard that I am giving them the thumbs up and "hell yeah" as I'm passing them!


Cheers!

tara


www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com



10:20 PM 
9 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
April 26, 2009 - Sunday 
I just finished up my first day at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego and pretty damn worked. We did about a 20 minute warm-up and I was kinda bummed because my arms felt like they were having to work a bit harder than usual. Well turns out my wheels weren't cambered right and it was like riding with your brakes on. Good thing one of the coaches noticed it from the van and got it fairly sorted before we started out time trial. The time trial was 9 miles long and a little rolly. We had a tail wind and I was pretty stoked. I started off okay, but couldn't quite get my shifting down. Shimano put new shifting on my bike and instead of it being up by my front chairings it is down by my seat. Yeah, well let's say I had my fair share of mis shifts and would end up in a pretty hard gear just as I was starting up the hill. Gaawd I hate that! I ended up blowing around mile 5 or so and had to back off a bit before being able to get back in a rhythm for the last few miles. My time was pretty decent so that's good. 


After lunch and a good hour long nap we went back out for a spin, which was good because I needed it. Tomorrow we're going out for more time trials so I better get to bed. I"m exhausted!


Cheers!

tara

4:10 AM 
7 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
April 24, 2009 - Friday 
I made it to Sea Otter and back alive! Whew! What a weekend. It was hot and sunny and the weather was awesome. Everyone had burnt noses and foreheads and sunglass tans. Not bad when everyone was expecting another monsoon!

There was a Race for Tara booth (www.racefortara.com) that Thayne and Brian Bolin, Daniel and Kim Cress, Mike Stewart, Tiffany Brown, Giant Bicycles, and Phil and Renee Anderson all had a part in and I really would like to thank them all again for their tireless efforts and wanting to help raise money.

I got a chance to watch some of my friends racing Dual Slalom and also chat with them throughout the weekend. Congrats again to Moseley on winning the first World Cup of the season and on her 30th bday no less. And nice job to Rando who finished 3rd in the slalom and 8th in the DH against a stacked group of guys!

I headed back to Vancouver after Monterey to spend a bit more time with Els and now I'm back in Cali again. I flew in today and I leave tomorrow for a training camp at the OTC down in San Diego. I'll be putting in the miles with I'm assuming some top paralympic atheletes so I guess we'll see how I stack up. Aaron was invited too so we should have a pretty good time down there. The days look somewhat long with a time trial most days and then another ride in the afternoon, but we'll see how it goes. I'm not too stressed. Probably because I don't know what to expect!

I'll try to write more tomorrow once I get there. Also, thank you to all of you that have written. I know that once again I have fallen quite aways behind in answering them, but please don't take it personally. Besides traveling as much as I have I have also been having a bit of computer problems unfortunately. Ugh!

Cheers!

tara

www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com

6:17 AM 
4 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
April 16, 2009 - Thursday 
It's late and I'm off to bed, but I'll be flying into Monterey tomorrow for my 60th Sea Otter Classic. LOL. Well, maybe not my 60th one but it sure feels like it! I will be there at the Race for Tara booth that should be right next to the Giant Bicycles booth. Shimano drove my handcycle up there so we'll be playing with a few things up there that should be pretty cool.

Also, my mom picked up my new long sleeve t's from Dave at Hot Shoppe (www.hotshoppedesigns.com) and she said they turned out GREAT! Dave was wearing one when she picked them up so that's a good sign. Hehe. I can't wait to see them and I'll get them up on the www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com website ASAP.

Okay, well I hope to see some of you at the Otter Pop and please come by the booth!
Cheers,
tara
6:26 AM 
0 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
April 11, 2009 - Saturday 
Hey everyone...

The last couple have days have been good. I did some running around and picked up my new wheelchair at Colours and also dropped off my handcycle at Shimano. We are working on a few things and I'm really excited about it. Oh and I have also been taking pics of my leg and the bruising has started to come out. Crazy!

Anyway, I have to sort of keep it short right now because it's 1:15am. I just flew into Vancouver and am heading up to Whistler tomorrow, but I have to tell everyone about the Race for Tara 3! www.racefortara.com Brian, Thayne, Daniel, and Mike will have a booth set up at Sea Otter with all the info on the race. It is booth #507 and will be right next to the Giant rig. I really hope to see you there!! I'll be the one all bundled up because I'm sure it's gonna be another cold one!! Hehe.

Thank you ALL for supporting me and just being awesome!!

Cheers!
tara
www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com
8:11 AM 
5 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate