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Camie Kornely: It Takes a Village

Camie Kornely - Masters World Champ, Master National Champ, AG World + National Record Holder

Episode 40

“There’s something about being able to ride. And I think through my whole life, the athletic pursuits have been the freedom.”

Would you consider ice cream a high performance food? Listen to this week’s episode with Joan and guest Camie Kornely to find out! Joan and Camie discuss everything from World Championships to nutrition and sports psychology, setting goals and breaking records, as well as the importance of a good coaching relationship.

Camie Kornely – Masters World Champ, Master National Champ, AG World + National Record Holder


Thanks to B Braun Medical Inc. for sponsoring the Talk of the T-Town Podcast. BBraun is a global leader in infusion therapy and pain management, B Braun develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical products to the healthcare community. They are also strong believers in supporting the quality of life in the communities where their employees work and live.

Transcript

Joan Hanscom:

Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town Podcast, where we discuss all things track cycling. Broadcasting from the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, I’m your host and executive director, Joan Hanscom. Welcome to this week’s Talk of the T-Town Podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom, joined this week by the awesome Camie Kornely, who thankfully I pronounced her name right this time, who has had quite a 2021 season here at the track. And we’re very excited to have her join us on the pod this week, to talk about all sorts of things. So Camie, welcome to the pod. Thanks for taking time out of your busy Sunday to chat with us.

Camie Kornely:

Thank you for asking me to be here, it’s very cool.

Joan Hanscom:

Super cool that you’re here. And as I teed up, you had quite a summer on the track bike. So in real life, well, we’ll call it real life versus bike life, in real life you’re a school teacher, you’re a mom, and you are also now the owner of an age group Best Performance that was set in Aguas Calientes, over the summer. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you decided to go for a age group Best Performance. And yeah, that’s a big intro. But yeah, that’s just one of the cool things you achieved this summer at the track. So let’s start the big one.

Camie Kornely:

Okay. It was pretty epic, very exciting to go down and the track is amazing. But it all started, I think it was 2018. Turtle and Gwen, they were local here and had recently moved to Colorado, but they approached me after an event and said, “You need to go after that world record or that best time, and you’re the one to do it.” And I think most of my cycling-

Joan Hanscom:

What is the record?

Camie Kornely:

It is now 11.435.

Joan Hanscom:

Right on.

Camie Kornely:

So by one 10th, basically. Almost exactly the one 10th.

Joan Hanscom:

Amazing.

Camie Kornely:

But I think most of what I’ve done in cycling has always been a push. I guess self doubt was part of it, but also not realizing full possibilities. And it was always someone’s idea, “You should do this, you should do that.” And that’s how the world stage got started for me. My road coach, when I was doing road, had said, “You really need to go to worlds and give this thing a try.” And I have business going to world championship, are you kidding? And he really pushed and got me thinking about it. I’m like, “All right.” And it was more of a go see what happens, go see what the competition is like. And that first year, I think it was 2016 it must have been, I won a bronze medal in the scratch race. And it was a realization that this was a possibility, this is something that I could do. And I think back to Mexico, it was after 2018, Turtle and Gwen said, “This is something you can do. You need to do this.”

Camie Kornely:

And I sloughed it off. I’m like, “That’s not for me. That’s so grand, it’s beyond anything I could hope for.” And then 2019, after the big crash at world championships in Manchester, they said again, “You really should try for this.” And I think after the crash and the circumstances around it, there was a good bit of self doubt again, did I legitimately do this thing? Did I actually earn this world championship?

Joan Hanscom:

So for our listeners, let’s take a step back. There are so many threads already that I want to pull on for this podcast, because you’ve already teed up 10 million interesting things to talk about. Go back to the crash. For our listeners who may not know what happened to you, this is in Manchester, England, at the Masters world championships. Which event were you in and what happened?

Camie Kornely:

So that world championships was epic. I wasn’t going to go in 2019. I had resolved to not going. I had already asked for time off the prior years for world championships, because as a school teacher, October is not an ideal time.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. Not the best time to-

Camie Kornely:

The year just started, so I wasn’t going to go. And I had a conversation with my coach, Brian Abers, and he’s like, “At worlds this year, we have to.” And Gwen actually had a picture of us having this conversation. I’m like, “Coach I wasn’t planning on going, I’ve made no plans.” And he’s like, “You could win. You should really reconsider this.” And of course someone else’s urging, I went ahead and I’m like, “All right. This could happen. Let me go for this. Let me take this risk.” So I went for the team sprint, the time trial, and then the sprint event. And I also did the scratch, actually. The first world championship was epic, winning the team sprint with Christine, my team sprint partner.

Joan Hanscom:

Super cool.

Camie Kornely:

We had ridden team sprint, for what? That would’ve been three years at that point, and national champ. And each year working. So that was epic. And it was great for both of us to have this moment together, the first world championship, we share that. And then it was the time trial-

Joan Hanscom:

That’s super cool, you just gave me goosebumps. Because the team component or the working together component is such a… I don’t know, people don’t necessarily appreciate it about cycling, and track cycling in particular. Road cycling for sure, but I don’t know that people always understand what the power of the team aspect.

Camie Kornely:

Well, and specifically with Christine and myself, it was in earnest a selfish endeavor to really pull her back into racing. I wanted someone closer to home in my age group, that was also of a like mindset, really passionate about cycling and hungry for the racing. And I hadn’t found that within the track. I was in Jersey and I was at casino quite a bit. And when she did come back, we clicked and we worked together very well.

Joan Hanscom:

That’s awesome.

Camie Kornely:

We have that same kind of chemistry. So with the team sprint, we did it that first year, I think at world championships we ended up 11th place, the following year… Oh, I don’t remember now. And then one year we ended up in bronze, I think it was the year prior in 2018. And then winning it in 2019. And each year our time’s getting faster and really a magical thing to happen.

Joan Hanscom:

That’s awesome.

Camie Kornely:

And then in 2019, the time trial, I went for… What did I do? A 381, which was my best time ever. And I was very happy with that, but ended up in second place. Later learned that the person who had won was found positive for doping, so that forced me to question the legitimacy of my win. Was she really that strong? Was she not really that strong? Am I really that strong? Do I deserve this position? And then in the final sprint, it was against the same person. And of course at that time we didn’t know that these were the circumstances. So the sprint round was the very last, it was the third ride and the very last day of the very last event, it couldn’t… All I needed to do was finish. And honestly at that point, I had never earned a silver in the sprint tournament, so I was really honored.

Camie Kornely:

I remember the first ride, going in already happy. I was like, “I’ve already been bested What I did the year prior, I’m going faster.” I was so happy. And after that first strike, I was like, “Oh, I’m close. I’m close. I could do this thing. I shouldn’t resolve to being okay with this. I can go after this.” And I think I went in and I’m like, “Abers, let’s up a gear. We got to go up a gear.” And then I took the second ride, and, “Oh my gosh, this is a possibility. I could actually win this.” And in the third ride, she ended up coming into the sprint lane. And we were off the track, we were on the blue band, not even the blue band, off the blue band. The officials had to back up. Our handlebars had hooked and I’m freaking out and I’m trying to get control of my bike-

Joan Hanscom:

Oh my God, it sounds so terrifying.

Camie Kornely:

And we unhooked and she was able to swing up track, but doing about 30 miles an hour, I’m like, “Okay.” On the flat section, if I try to turn at this speed, I’m going to wipe out. So I tried to get on the track and go up track, but in the turn already the lip of the track to the concrete stopped my wheel, and it bucked me, and I went flying into the track. And then watching the video, I’ve watched that video so many times, just sliding from turn one to turn two.

Joan Hanscom:

Oh man, I don’t think I could watch if it was me, I don’t think I could watch it. Yeah, I guess you also want to-

Camie Kornely:

You want to learn, you want to see, I do anyway, what happened, what actually-

Joan Hanscom:

You want to understand-

Camie Kornely:

Could I have done something different to affect a different outcome, I guess. But yeah. So I had no idea my injuries at the time, I was laying there. In the video I’m still peddling laying on the ground. But medics came and pulled me over and took me to the little medic section. And I remember the promoter coming over and saying, “Look, you won. We’ll bring your jersey to you.” I said, “Excuse me? No, I didn’t come all the way here to have my jersey on a gurney. I’m getting up there.” And I couldn’t breathe, and I was in so much pain. And sometimes you have a pain and you go to move to make it feel… There was nothing, I couldn’t find reprieve, but I was going to be on the podium. This happened. So I did, I got up and got the jersey, and it was this great thing. And I had sworn I was going to fly home the next day.

Joan Hanscom:

And you had a collapsed lung. Yeah?

Camie Kornely:

I did.

Joan Hanscom:

Punctured lung, collapsed lung. Yeah.

Camie Kornely:

And a bruised heart and broken ribs. What else? Lots of road rash stuff. But they had me in the cardiac wing at the hospital for several days. And I couldn’t. And Pete Taylor was out there in London and Shelly said, “Go stay with Pete, go stay with Pete.” Because of the lung they weren’t going to let me go home. And at this point, I haven’t seen my son now in two weeks. And I hadn’t ever been away from him for that long. As a single mom, he was always with me. He has been coming to races with me since he was two. And track cycling really lends itself to being family friendly like that. And we had this community both here and at Casina, where you go and you do your race for the five to eight minutes. And everybody looked after him on the infield.

Camie Kornely:

And then we would flip flop. It was just a very welcoming situation for where I was in life at that time. It afforded me an opportunity to do this thing for myself, but he was welcome and engaging.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, but not neglect him, right? He was part of it, which is super cool.

Camie Kornely:

And as he got older, he was changing my gears for me.

Joan Hanscom:

Oh, that’s super cool. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah, so you were away from him for a while. It had to have been scary for him a little bit, right? When’s mom coming home?

Camie Kornely:

FaceTime was great. Being positive and both of us being able to see each other. And then I did go to London. I got out of the hospital near the end of that week, went down with Pete, and saw some six day events, which was-

Joan Hanscom:

How many people has Pete rescued? Is amazing to me. He’s like, I don’t know, the patron guardian angel saint of people who race bikes. He just seems to appear when people need help.

Camie Kornely:

And how many times he’s rescued me alone? Definitely, he’s always there, and he’s very passionate about the community.

Joan Hanscom:

He’s just a good, good soul.

Camie Kornely:

Really a gem, for sure. And I was joking with him the other evening, that I crashed, but then I also crashed boys’ weekend, because they were out there for six days and here I come. But I was there for that weekend and had to go back to Manchester then for follow up appointments. And unbeknownst to me at the time, I thought I just had a muscle cramp, it turns out I had this deep vein thrombosis.

Joan Hanscom:

Oh my God.

Camie Kornely:

So I’m walking around London, I’m hobbling around thinking it’s just the muscle, because I was like stationary for four days, which also never happens. And realize Google doctor, that, “Oh my gosh, 11:00 at night I’ve got to go back to the emergency room.” And I go in, and sure enough they diagnose it. And now they’re really not letting me go home.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. Yeah. You’re not flying with a clot.

Camie Kornely:

At all. I got the lung thing, I’ve got the blood clot. They’re like, “You’re really lucky to be here.” With where my numbers were, I guess. But now I’m freaking out, because I really don’t have a legitimate way to get home. And I was also worried about the medical bills, because how am I going to do all of this? And Christine came in and started a GoFundMe. And the GoFundMe covered all of those and the Peloton family, what a wonderful group of people. They were able, through the fundraising effort, they flew my son and Joe out to me in London.

Joan Hanscom:

Wow, I didn’t realize that. That’s amazing.

Camie Kornely:

And another friend of a teammate, who’s a travel agent. There was this cruise ship that was its inaugural sailing. So it wasn’t really publicized, because they were only going with recurring customers for the cruise line. So they were able to get us a room on the ship, but now it’s the third Saturday, right? I’ve been gone for about three weeks. They come out to London and I’m just… I told my kids when I came back, my students like, “Okay.” This is the third weekend. I’m going on this cruise ship, the inaugural sailing from the same port as the Titanic, doing the same route, going to New York. I’m like, “This is the weekend that does me in.” And there was some huge storm. And it was epic. But to be able to go home and have, the cruise was 11 days, and have that time with my son who wouldn’t let me go. [crosstalk 00:16:45] very scary for him.

Joan Hanscom:

Well, and yeah, because you don’t think about that, right? You go off to bike races and you assume it’s going to be easy to go home. And I’ve had teammates in the past who’ve crashed and who’ve done similar things with the punctured lung and collapsed lung. And they’re racing a national championships and how do I get home? Well, here at least you’re racing domestically, you can always drive. But man, if you’re overseas and you can’t drive, how do you get back?

Camie Kornely:

It’s not something you really think about.

Joan Hanscom:

No. You don’t think about that. So that’s pretty amazing that you ended up on a cruise ship to come home.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. It, wasn’t a bad way to give back.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. And it probably gave you the time. If you’d flown back, knowing you, you probably would have been right back in the classroom, back to work. Probably gave you the time that your body needed to heal a little bit, to recover from all the injuries and the crashes. But holy moly-

Camie Kornely:

The recovery was long.

Joan Hanscom:

I believe it. Yeah. Yeah. I believe it.

Camie Kornely:

And you’re right, I would jump right back in, and I was on a spin bike on the cruise ship, which was, shame on me.

Joan Hanscom:

We’re not all wired like that. Yes, no, we are. Yes. When I had all my vascular surgery, they let me out of the hospital, you’re in the same thing, you’re in the cardiac ICU, right?

Camie Kornely:

Yeah.

Joan Hanscom:

And then they say, “Okay, you can go home.” And what do I do? Walk six miles the next day.

Camie Kornely:

Did you really?

Joan Hanscom:

I did. Yeah. So no judgment on you being on the spinning bike on the cruise ship, because I did this like, “I’ve just had major vascular surgery. I’m going to go walk six miles.” Yeah, I totally get it.

Camie Kornely:

There’s something about being able to ride. And I think through my whole life, the athletic pursuits have been the freedom.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, absolutely.

Camie Kornely:

And I started off in gymnastics, and it was just about flying. I loved hanging upside down and swinging from stuff. And as I got older, gymnastics wasn’t a feasible outlet anymore. And through high school and college I was in diving, and it was the same thing, it was about the flying. But then again, that is also not sustainable as you get older. And I think I didn’t start cycling until I was 27, 28.

Joan Hanscom:

A lot of us come to it later.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. And the speed, the sprinting, the descents, it was flying again. And now I’m in this thing that is sustainable, I could do this for a long time.

Joan Hanscom:

That’s what I love about our sport, right? So I did this big, huge ride yesterday. I rode with a friend of mine. And she and I are similar age. We did 96 miles and 6,000 feet of elevation gain. We rode for donuts. It was fantastic. It’s a beautiful fall day. But at one point we passed a woman who was also out riding, gorgeous day. And after we got by, I looked at my friend, Celine, and I said, “How old do you think she is?” And Celine said, “Oh, she’s got to be 70, at least.” And I said to her out loud, I’m like, “That’s going to be us. We’re going to be 70 and we’re still going to be crushing these 96 mile rides.” And she said, “Absolutely.” And that’s the coolest thing, that you can, right?

Joan Hanscom:

The bike is this magical thing that you can keep doing. [crosstalk 00:20:02]. Masters Nationals just a few weeks ago here. We had people competing here in their eighties, and that was so incredible to see.

Camie Kornely:

And not just that you’re able to do this for longevity, but that there’s a community that is welcoming you. And you talk about Masters Nats, and I couldn’t, it was like seeing family again. Here’s this group of people that when we come together, there is just a connection. We all get why we’re there, why we’re doing this. And we all have the same passion and the stories.

Joan Hanscom:

Well, what’s cool is you’re not doing it for a pro contract, and you’re not doing it for the money, you’re not doing it to go to the Olympics, you’re not doing it for glory. Everybody that was there, was doing it, like you said, for the passion, because they love doing the thing. And that’s so cool, right?

Camie Kornely:

Yeah.

Joan Hanscom:

I don’t know. That’s such an interesting and pure motivation. I don’t know. I think it’s amazing that people still have that in them. And I think Ron Short took photos that week of Masters Nationals. And we have a lot of beautiful photographers on the track, we work with some very talented photographers here. But Ron’s photos, I thought captured something really incredibly raw and powerful about Masters Nationals, where Ron focused on the faces. And what you saw in everybody’s faces was just joy. Well, but the competitive spirit too. The focus. And we have photos, again, of 80 year olds who are on the line, getting ready to race. And those faces were as committed and as serious as anybody lining up in Tokyo this summer. And I thought that was really powerful, what he captured. And I think a lot of times people don’t necessarily give Masters athletes to credit for that, right? There’s all sorts of like, “Oh, entitled master, blah, blah, blah.”

Joan Hanscom:

And I think there’s something really [crosstalk 00:22:16]. There is that component too. But there was something really beautiful that I think Ron captured in all of those photos, that if you look for it, you’ll see it. And it was really cool.

Camie Kornely:

Well, I think the other component that the Masters don’t get credit for is that life component. If I reflect when I was an athlete doing diving, I had school, and I had my athletics. And it was all about me. And now I have my work and I have all of my students that I’m concerned about and care for, and my own son. And then responsibilities in life now that are different. And I think to be a Masters athlete, those who aren’t giving that Masters athlete credit for, is the fact that they are still pursuing this with the same intensity, if not more, because they are doing it in spite of all of these other things that they still have to manage in their life.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. A hundred percent.

Camie Kornely:

And I think, again, talking about Masters next, the joy of being able to share this energy and share this passion with like-minded folks. The energy that was there this year was just really something special.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. I thought so too. And I think maybe more poignant this year, because we had a year off. Where I think the thing that… And I’m not a Masters track athlete, right? I’m a Masters road athlete. I have road friends all over the country. I’m sure I would feel the same if I were to see them at road Nats, but as an observer this year, really at Masters track nationals, you got the feeling that it was like a family reunion. And just like people who are so excited to see their friends and family after a very weird year of COVID, I got the feeling this year that it was a reunion of people who really missed seeing each other. And that it had a very celebratory vibe to it, with folks who didn’t see each other for two years.

Joan Hanscom:

It was really cool to see that here and to feel it, and to be a part of it, and maybe to help have facilitated it. It felt very nice here during Masters Nats, which I know that’s like a weird word, but for a national championship competition to say it was nice, but it was nice. It was just like, “Oh, okay. There’s a real good vibe happening here.” And it was super cool.

Camie Kornely:

I think it’s a little different, because we had elites here as well. And there was definitely more of a low key vibe at elites, I think, than I have seen or experienced in years prior. And perhaps because Tokyo was-

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. I think so.

Camie Kornely:

But usually elites is very intense. Definitely there’s this focus in Masters, it’s a little bit more lighthearted, I suppose. Yeah.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. It was very interesting to run both of those events here this summer. The staff probably would like to murder me for agreeing to host all of them here this summer.

Camie Kornely:

What a treat though. I am so thankful and appreciative that we have this space here. This is my second home. I am out here all summer. But to have both elites and Masters Nationals take place here is really quite a treat.

Joan Hanscom:

It was something. I will not go so far as to say it was a treat for us. It was definitely stressful.

Camie Kornely:

It was almost back to back. It was six weeks notice for elites, and then it was elites straight into UCI.

Joan Hanscom:

Into the UCI. And then you had what, a week or something before?

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. Well then we ran the last couple of weeks of normal Fridays and that was right into Masters. It was definitely-

Joan Hanscom:

It was a full summer?

Camie Kornely:

It was definitely not without stress for us. And it’s funny, I’m working on the recap document that we always do for our sponsors at the end of the year, and I’d written it all. And then I had a conversation and I said, “I’ve really struggled with writing this document this year about the season, because it really is a tale of two seasons.” And then as soon as I said that out loud, I was like, “Oh, I know how to rewrite it.” So I’ve gone into the process now of rewriting it. And I really did tell it in the, it’s a tale of two seasons, because if you think back to April, we didn’t know if we are going to be allowed to have our programming. And then in May, we were starting with TTs and sprint tournaments, because of the restrictions in place in the mitigation guidelines. And then by June, we had people racing outdoors in MAster events in masks. And it was this just very bizarre last-

Joan Hanscom:

Unfolding of it all.

Camie Kornely:

It was. And then there was-

Joan Hanscom:

You couldn’t really plan.

Camie Kornely:

No. We couldn’t really plan.

Joan Hanscom:

It unfolded into your lap, and you just were depended on, we’d hear through the rumor mill, the governor’s going to do this, so we think we’re going to be able to do that. But you’re a week out from hosting elite national championships or two weeks out, and you’re hoping that the outdoor mask mandate’s going to get lifted, so that we’ll be able to raise without masks on. And it was such a bizarre season in that regard. And yet we had elite, junior para and Masters Nationals, three weeks of UCI racing, where everybody got their points. And it was so bizarre to go from this, “Are we going to be able to race without masks?” To essentially full gas with a flip of a switch.

Camie Kornely:

And then it was all in.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, it was very weird for us well, but I’m glad it was good for you guys.

Camie Kornely:

With the programming opportunities that happen here, I started with air products way back in the day. Way back, I was out this way for a period of time and my friend took me to the track to see Friday night racing. And it was, “Oh, you’d really like this.” So, “All right. Air Products, let’s try it.” And then I ended up going back to the city and couldn’t get out here as often as I liked. But Air Products is still supporting these programs.

Joan Hanscom:

Still running. Yep.

Camie Kornely:

So that’s what I signed Christian up for in June.

Joan Hanscom:

Which is so cool by the way, to see you nervous mama out there, when he was up on the tracks racing on Saturdays. It is a very different Camie, right?

Camie Kornely:

Well, he doesn’t want to be a cyclist, “No, I don’t like it. I don’t like it.” But he will go ride and he’s very good at bike handling. He doesn’t get that yet, but I see him and he can maneuver and he’s got clipless pedals and he’s in and out. So Air Products program, he’s doing the straps. And then when the program finished and I’m like, “All right, we’re going to do the TT weekend.” Which is so great to have those.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, I think so too.

Camie Kornely:

Again, this opportunity where we’re able to do these things in spite of situation or circumstances. And I said, “Going to sign you up, and this is what you’re going to do.” And he did the time trial, he did a 500 and did the 200. And I got a bike from my friend, Jim Lyman, his daughter’s bike. And we put his clipless pedals on, he’s like, “Oh, this is so much better.”

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, I bet, right?

Camie Kornely:

And how proud he was to was to be able to do this thing.

Joan Hanscom:

It was so cool. It was so cool.

Camie Kornely:

The other day, “Christian, what was your fastest speed?” “33.6 miles an hour.” With pride.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. With pride, which is super cool.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. It’s a lot of fun. And I’m not pushing him. My passion doesn’t have to be his passion, but for him to experience it and share this thing in some fashion, beyond just hanging out in the infield, was really cool for me this summer.

Joan Hanscom:

It was super cool to see too. Yeah. But it was super cool to see. So I want to go back to the age group best performance. You mentioned being coached by Brian Abers. You were not the only pro person who went down on that trip to set records. So tell us a little bit about the company you were with when you went down.

Camie Kornely:

Back to how that all got started with Gwen and Turtle. They pushed it again in 2019 and the recovery again was long. And when worlds was canceled in 2020, a lot of folks just, “Well, now there’s nothing to train for. I’m going to take a break. And we’ll try this again next year.” And I just said, “You never know unless you try.” Right? And part of my whole cycling thing is, you got to have hope, hope for something.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. There has to be a carrot out there.

Camie Kornely:

But be willing to take the risk. So they plugged this hope into me, and I felt like this is what I needed, this is where I needed to focus my energies. I feel good. I feel like I’ve recovered. I’m not in pain anymore. And reached out to Abers and said, “Abers, what do you think if this is what we did, if this is our focus?” And he was gung ho. All of these people who really believed I could do this thing.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. That’s awesome.

Camie Kornely:

Like, “You guys, that’s really fast.” But we dove in. And the trip was organized. Rob van Halling would do this trip annually, and Gwen had been on the trip before, so Gwen also went down, Gwen Aften. And it was the trip with Ashton Lamby. There were several other people from Colorado, California, so it was more of like a west coast thing.

Joan Hanscom:

Ashton went a little fast that weekend too.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. Oh, it was so great to witness that whole process. I mean, definitely at a different level.

Joan Hanscom:

It had to be so cool to see though.

Camie Kornely:

He did a run the first day, and it didn’t happen. He was what? Second and a half, two seconds off. And he had posted and talked about, you felt demolished, really worried about whether this was something. So I was like, “Oh, it’s not just me? I don’t feel this pressure and worry about not hitting this target?” So it was refreshing to hear this incredible athlete also go through these same psychological processes and doubts. Even though they’re incredibly strong and talented. And Christina Birch was there, and she helped him through that psychology and redirecting the focus. And Abers was there with Gwen and my myself, and did the same thing, really helped. He is such an incredible force in what I have been able to do. And I can’t say enough about how important the right coach is.

Joan Hanscom:

Absolutely.

Camie Kornely:

And even Ashton would talk about how Christina was so pivotal in helping him work through what happened that first day, and come back and make it happen the next day.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. And it’s super interesting, because we always say it takes a village, right? The whole thing is who do you have in your village? So Brian obviously is in your village. Do you work with sports psychology? Do you do any of that? Do you work with nutritionist? Do you do any of that stuff or is it all with Brian?

Camie Kornely:

So my path has been very gradual, from road cycling it took me a little bit to transition to the track, and then picked up with Brian. And each year I’m tapping into, what’s the next thing I could do? What’s the next-

Joan Hanscom:

[crosstalk 00:35:00] optimize? Yeah.

Camie Kornely:

So the sports psychology realm, I think has become evident that that’s something that I should probably tap into moving forward.

Joan Hanscom:

I worked with Kristen Kim, highly recommend. Just toss that out there, highly recommend.

Camie Kornely:

I did listen to the podcast, and she’s terrific.

Joan Hanscom:

Just tossing that out there.

Camie Kornely:

There’s something about the pressure in doing well. When you do you well, what happens if you don’t do well? So there’s that immense pressure, and definitely there’s something to be said about how you handle those pressures and what you open up as far as your possibilities are, and being able to manage those stresses. But likewise, a nutritional component. I’ve never done supplementation or anything outside of ice cream and Oreos.

Joan Hanscom:

Ice cream is very high performance, let me tell you.

Camie Kornely:

It’s important for recovery.

Joan Hanscom:

Ice cream is a high performance food as far as I’m concerned.

Camie Kornely:

But this year my focus will be to really tap into that nutritional component a little bit more precisely, and gear that towards what I do. But definitely the coaching and the people in your corner are so important in what you’re able to do.

Joan Hanscom:

Well, just even having your son in your corner, right? Like you said earlier, changing your gear for you. All of that matters. That everybody in the village is happy, and committed to the goal. Super cool when you have the right team around you. You mentioned, and this is one of the other threads I wanted to pull on in this conversation, you’ve referenced over and over again, Turtle and Gwen. So tell us, for our listeners who don’t know, what a Turtle is or who a Turtle is.

Camie Kornely:

Turtle.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, please talk about that.

Camie Kornely:

Theodore Wilson. He sadly passed away in a mountain bike accident, but he was a force to be reckoned with. And when Turtle said, “This is what you need to do.” You couldn’t deny it. He was able to pull out dreams and possibilities in people, that they didn’t recognize and see in themselves. And then not only that, he’d make it happen with their team pursuit, “This is what you guys are going to do. You need to do this.” And the fundraising efforts and the marketing and the sponsorship, and he was all in. He made dreams come true. He made the dreams, and he made them come true.

Joan Hanscom:

I think that was so evident at Masters actually, when you saw the community of his friends reunited here. And what it meant for them to go by his meter on the track, which I don’t know, we maybe don’t think about, “Oh yeah. We’d like to put a meter down for Turtle.” And then when we saw people taking pictures of it and being photographed with it, it was yeah, we’re both getting all misty eyed. That was powerful, it spoke to what he meant to people.

Camie Kornely:

He was a force for so many.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. That was clear. That was super clear.

Camie Kornely:

And he brought people together. And I think he’s still the same.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. I was going to say, I think he’s still bringing people together, which is pretty cool. Sorry. I’m now making us both cry.

Camie Kornely:

But they were definitely the impetus for going down to Mexico and doing this thing. And my apprehensions and doubts, I didn’t talk about it, except for like a small circle of people, and put feelers out that this was an idea. And now I’m training for this, and let’s see what happens. And they’re like, “Yes.” A lot of folks gung ho. And even going down there, I wasn’t sure. And Abers really helped narrow in the focus and put me in the right mindset.

Joan Hanscom:

And you did the thing.

Camie Kornely:

Made it happen. Yeah.

Joan Hanscom:

It was very, very, very cool.

Camie Kornely:

Going that fast is-

Joan Hanscom:

I can’t imagine.

Camie Kornely:

So back to the idea about flying, I was flying, flying. And that feeling. And something about the track is just this safe place to be able to do it. I don’t know that I felt that anywhere else, just go all out.

Joan Hanscom:

That’s cool. That’s so cool.

Camie Kornely:

It was a really unique opportunity. So again, Rob van Halling organized it, but he was not able to travel this year. So Bob Ice from our community here was able to put it into action and take us all over and make it happen.

Joan Hanscom:

That was super cool.

Camie Kornely:

So, again, that community, it was definitely a community effort for this thing to go down.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. That’s amazing. Well, congratulations.

Camie Kornely:

Thank you.

Joan Hanscom:

It is quite an achievement. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know that everybody appreciates. It’s quite an achievement. But that wasn’t your only achievement this summer, right? You had a pretty good summer here. So do you want to talk about that? How you carried one into the next.

Camie Kornely:

I don’t know, that’s a question for Brian. I don’t know how he made it happen.

Joan Hanscom:

That’s actually a great thing, we should have Brian on the pod, because he definitely, he had you tuned up, man.

Camie Kornely:

Going back to coaching, you find somebody that works for you, and it’s partly personality, partly understanding goals. And a major part of it too, I think, is being able to design programming that gets you to that place, right?

Joan Hanscom:

Right.

Camie Kornely:

And each year it’s been a little different with goals and the focus, and I’ve seen my training is never the same. He really creates this thing. But yeah. So about coaching, you’re all in, you have to be all in, you have to trust that person to be your teammate, essentially, on this independent goal. And whatever he dished out, that’s what I did. So we started off with elites, and wasn’t sure what was going to happen at elites, went in with the big girls. They’re all half my age, but here we go, let’s throw down. And my hopes were to finish mid-pack, and I did that. And I set a personal best here in the 500, went faster than I had before. And then in the March sprints, was really happy with where I finished and the team sprint.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, you did well.

Camie Kornely:

Had a lot of fun, and surprised myself because it wasn’t something that we were looking to do, but when it got switched to being at T-Town, well, why wouldn’t we not?

Joan Hanscom:

Why would you not? Right. Right.

Camie Kornely:

And then we did well and hung onto training, to the world attempt, which was four weeks after that, and went down to Mexico. And that was the main focus, and we came out successful. And now it was holding on a little bit longer to go to Masters now.

Joan Hanscom:

And there’s a real art to that, right? There is a real art to that peaking and maintaining, and peaking again and maintaining.

Camie Kornely:

There was a moment where I think before Masters Nats, I said, “Oh my goodness, this is the least work I’ve done in a long time.” Because the work had to have been… And the spring work was intense. I was exhausted. And every week my training would come in, I’m like, “It’s not a rest week?” But it paid off. So Masters Nats was icing on the cake. I wasn’t actually going to end up going, because the scheduling, it was the first week of school for me.

Joan Hanscom:

Right. Not ideal. Not perfect.

Camie Kornely:

Like, “Well, it’s not going to work out.” And then the actual daily schedule came out, I’m like, “The event is on my day off? I could do it.” So came out and had a successful Masters Nats.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did.

Camie Kornely:

So that was good.

Joan Hanscom:

So now I hope you’re resting, you’re getting a little break.

Camie Kornely:

Now is that the-

Joan Hanscom:

A little-

Camie Kornely:

Until tomorrow.

Joan Hanscom:

A little unstructured for the last couple of weeks. And you hit it back.

Camie Kornely:

I’ll start back in tomorrow. So I took two weeks.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. You need that.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah.

Joan Hanscom:

It’s funny, I did the same. Actually, after Masters Nats I was exhausted. I was ruined. It took me a full week to even be able to think straight.

Camie Kornely:

You were doing three months. It was all lined up.

Joan Hanscom:

So just like the athletes who raced all of those events, there was definite recovery time for me too. So yeah, I did the same thing you did. But not for the same reasons. All right. I did the unstructured training for a few weeks, because I just had to stop being so tired. So now just like you, back at it, right? So what does next season hold for you?

Camie Kornely:

I don’t know. I’m not sure yet.

Joan Hanscom:

The goals have not been decided yet?

Camie Kornely:

No. I started mulling over some ideas. And that’s the challenge too, how do you keep progressing? How do you keep it interesting? How do you challenge yourself in a different way? I keep telling Abers like, “Why do you keep making me faster? When am I going to retire?” He’s like, “You’ll never retire.”

Joan Hanscom:

Never retire, going back to our earlier conversation about the 80 year old. Never retire. I don’t know, I think there’s something very cool about that, and that it does feel like the fountain of youth, right? The staying in the game keeps you mentally young and it keeps you-

Camie Kornely:

And the fact that you can mix it up.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah, exactly. I think that it’s nicer on the track in many ways. The potential there is a little bit more on the track than on the road. Where here if you’re on the road, you’re racing against 24 year old cat ones, and you are not-

Camie Kornely:

Right? The only opportunity for Masters events, infrequent regionally. And then nationals, right? Otherwise you’re-

Joan Hanscom:

Otherwise you’re racing against 24 year old cat ones.

Camie Kornely:

Actually, that is part of why I ended up transitioning, because my road coach, I did road for probably 15 years. And then after Christian, I was pack fodder, I didn’t have the time to train.

Joan Hanscom:

Well, and even when you do have time to train… I mean, I made time to train. It’s still, at some point… The men have it, right? The men have 35 plus, 45 plus, 55 plus, in any crit you go to. The women do not have that. So how do you make that shift where you say, “I am used to racing at the front, and now my goal is to finish top 10, in the money, in the field, not dropped and lapped.” Your goals have to change on the road. And I think that the track is nice, in that it provides more options, let’s say, than the road does currently.

Camie Kornely:

I also feel safe on the track.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. That I don’t understand.

Camie Kornely:

Nobody does. Nobody. “But there’s no breaks.” I’m like, “But there are.”

Joan Hanscom:

You know why I say that? Because I sit in the infield, and I’m the one that when people crash, I’m the one running with 911 and the medical staff. So for me, from where I sit, we have a very different-

Camie Kornely:

You bear that burden.

Joan Hanscom:

We have very different eyeballs on the event than you guys do. And I think for us, every time I watch a [inaudible 00:48:09], and I’m like, “Oh God, oh God.” And then, “It’s so fast and they’re so close.” And for you guys, I think you see everything so clearly when you’re on the track, and it isn’t the chaos that we see. And I just see it in the terms of sprinting with the medical staff. So it’s different for me. I sprint differently than you guys do at bike races. So I see it very differently, which is… But I see road racing through the eyes of somebody who races on the road. So it’s like all perspective, it’s framing. So for me, I-

Camie Kornely:

But still on the road, there isn’t that outlet for women.

Joan Hanscom:

No, there’s definitely not. And it’s a challenge. As a person of my age, I still love doing the thing. And how do I reconcile what I used to be able to do with what I’m able to do now, with who I’m competing against. And having that conversation with my coach that says, “Look, this is where I need to be.” Because essentially he has said to me, “Well, you’re very competitive against your peers.” And I said, “I never race against my peers.” I said, “Technically I race against cat ones and twos who are half my age, all the time.” So my peer group that I have to be able to race with, isn’t my peer group.

Camie Kornely:

Well, this is one thing that we’re working on, is developing greater depth in women’s cycling and retaining these cyclists too.

Joan Hanscom:

Which has been super cool here at the women’s Wednesdays program. I think this summer, man, did we start to see the women thrive here. You could feel it, that the women’s community here was thriving, that there was so much support for it from the top female athletes here, all the way through the Saturday athletes. And in the Wednesday night programming, you could feel it, that something is building there, and it’s so cool to feel that happening.

Camie Kornely:

And we’re so lucky that we’re able to do that.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. We’re lucky to have a leader like Kim Geist, who’s just been so, “Hey Kim, I think I want to do this crazy program here. Would you coach it?” “Yeah. Okay.” To have somebody like that, throw her credibility behind my stupid idea is amazing. And I’m eternally grateful for Kim Geist for that, and for Kim Zubers, who’s come out, helped her. And then to see the experienced athletes like yourself, helping the new athletes, as we bring them into racing from these programs, the community has been so nice and so welcoming.

Camie Kornely:

It was always for me, when I started, I remember showing probably my first Saturday with one chain ring and a bike I probably didn’t fit. And not just welcoming, but Michelle Lee and Cheryl Osborn, “Here, you need to do this, do this, do this.” So very teacher. And everybody in the community was very much like that, so willing to offer to help. So I guess I’m paying it back, right?

Joan Hanscom:

That’s how we do it, we pay it forward.

Camie Kornely:

If I see somebody coming to the track and, “Here, use my stuff. Use my stuff. Try this, try this.” Because what I’ve learned with cycling, and very much so with track cycling, it is a process. I don’t know anyone who has just jumped on a track bike and magically successful right away. There’s the fitness, there’s the strength, there’s the technicalities of the bike and figuring out gearing and learning your own capabilities. And then learning what you need to do to set yourself up, based on everybody else’s capabilities. It’s this incredibly, it’s a chess match that’s super strategic and complex. And it has all of these pieces, that it’s not easy to get all those pieces right in that first year or the second year.

Joan Hanscom:

Well, and just to even understand the disciplines that you’re racing, because every event is different, right? And every event has different tactics. And you think about it, “Oh, well, road has that. You have crits and road races and time trials.” It’s not the same as understanding-

Camie Kornely:

[crosstalk 00:52:48] complexity.

Joan Hanscom:

It’s not the same complexity. The complexity of track cycling is mind boggling.

Camie Kornely:

Yeah. But that’s part of what I love about it. So whenever I see someone new come to the track, I try to reiterate that you need to try all of these different things, and if it doesn’t work, you can’t let it go, you just got to try something else.

Joan Hanscom:

Just try something else. Right.

Camie Kornely:

And just keep playing the game, keep playing the chess match, and eventually you’ll figure out your strategy.

Joan Hanscom:

What works for you. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Super cool. It’s super cool. Well, I can’t wait to hear what you have coming up next. When you land on your thing, I’m sure it’ll be another big thing, it’ll be another-

Camie Kornely:

We’ll see.

Joan Hanscom:

… an interesting thing, with no doubt.

Camie Kornely:

It’s been a very lucky journey so far, very blessed.

Joan Hanscom:

We’ll be cheering for you with the next one as well.

Camie Kornely:

Thank you.

Joan Hanscom:

It has been terrific talking with you. Thank you for making time with us on this Sunday afternoon. Thank you for sharing with our listeners your story of the last few seasons, because it’s been a good one, from-

Camie Kornely:

It’s been a good ride.

Joan Hanscom:

Yeah. From all sorts of adversity to some incredible triumph this summer. So congratulations again, and thank you. And for our listeners, this has been the Talk of the T-Town Podcast. You can read all about Camie in our show notes, when we have those up and running. We’ll put photos and links to her good times, and all that good stuff. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, please leave us a positive review. All the hearts, all the stars, anything positive helps us find more listeners and helps the podcast grow. So that’s it for this week’s Talk of the T-Town Podcast.

Joan Hanscom:

Thank you for listening. This is been the Talk of the T-Town Podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode. Head over to our website at thevelodrome.com, where you can check out the show notes and subscribe, so you’ll never miss an episode.