Lowes Time Trial:
This event makes me really nervous. I did this event once last year. It was my first time doing anything like it and I borrowed a some race wheels for the occasion. The conditions that night were pretty terrible as it was super windy. There were times when my bike would jump up the track a foot or so causing me to panic a little more than necessary. This month's TT wasn't much better. The sky was ominous and the wind was starting to get a little swirlie. Despite a few mechanical issues (ie installing a latex tube with a huge hole in it) I was able to get in a decent warm up before heading over to the start line. The last time I did a time trial I freaked out when the guy went to hold my bike so I was determined to make it happen this time. I was somewhat convinced I could do it until the guy took a hold of my bike and told me stop awkwardly leaning to the side. My resolve dissolved and I evened up started the time trial like a skateboarder instead of a badass cyclist. Awesome. Out on the course the first lap felt smooth and easy but then I opened the door to the hurt locker and stepped right in. During lap three I felt flummoxed by the fact that I was not even half way through the ride. Riding my bike never quite hurt this much, well except during the Drop Ride where I usually get dropped (funny how that works). Suddenly rain pelting my face snapped me back into the moment. Why do I always pick the worse days to compete in these things? I got a little nervous and slowed my roll but once the rain let up I only had1.5 laps left. As my confidence began to build so did my pace, at least until I entered the finishers shoot where I was slapped in the face with the backhand of a headwind. Insult to injury.
Since I did not have any specific goals going into the time trial, I was neither happy with nor disappointed in my effort. I was really disappointed I did not accept the push start. I dwelled on this more than anything. Whoever said, "Don't sweat the small stuff" wasn't a cyclist. At the end of the day I had walked away with the top female time and a new age group record. I will take that.
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| Snapshot from the Lowes TT |
SC Time Trail Sate Championships:
James, Ross, and I opted not to compete in the Latta Plantation World Championships. I was a little torn about this decision as it is probably my favorite race in the Set Up series. I enjoy the swim and bike course but I love the run course. I may be the only one but I really enjoy it. I have been riding on the roads of Charleston for quite some time. Every time I visit I think about giving the time trial course a run for it's money but I always end up doing some version of my regular route. Presented with an official opportunity to race on the course, I jumped on it. James, Ross, and I drove down Friday night, enjoyed a nice dinner with Charleston's finest, and hit the sack.
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| Car rides with James Haycraft generally look like this |
Since the race did not start until 9 we had plenty of time to get our bike gear ready, eat a hardy breakfast, and warm up for the time trial. As rider #7 I was the first of the three of us to go off. I had three goals for the ride:
- Pass all 6 ladies in front of me
- Build my watts from start to finish
- Break one hour
Ok, ok the first goal of passing all of the ladies in front of me was less than goal. It was more like a conquest. I had no idea how fast the people going off in front of me were but trying to catch each and every one of them would give me something strive for the entire ride. This goal proved beneficial as I did not catch rider #4 until the last 200 meters of the event. Having that carrot out there helped to motivate me to dig deep, especially at the end.
Speaking of the end, Brian gave me a general guideline as to how to pace the time trial. I was told to do the first half at my current FTP, build from there, and then dig deep for remaining 2 minutes. I executed this pattern pretty well although I went out a little hot the first 10K. When I reached the 10K mark my power was higher than where I wanted it to be and I was already :30 off where I needed to be to break an hour. Rather than get frustrated, I convinced myself to relax and find a good steady pace to the turn around. After squeaking through the turnaround, however, it was on! Based on the wind I knew I would have to deal with about 4 miles of straight on headwind before I could really start pushing it. Once the head wind subsided I focused less on my power and more on getting my average speed up to the 24.8 mark so I break that hour mark. I was making steady progress when I finally caught a glimpse of the last elusive rider. I picked up the pace but tried to keep it under control until the last 10 minutes where I switched the screen to speed only. With two minutes to go I gave it all I had left finally passing #4 and careening over the finish line. I felt gassed and out of breath. I rode around to my formidable competitor, #4, to congratulate and thank her before I headed back out to the course to cheer on James and Ross. They both had super strong races with an overall win from James and a 8th OV from Ross.
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| 4 of the top 5 ladies |
Our reward for a few awesome races was a sweet swim workout at MLK Park Pool followed by some stand up paddle boarding out of the Isle of Palms marina. I don't drop the epic bomb often so when I say it was an "epic" day, you know I mean it!
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| View from the IOP connector |
