TT Results....

Not the results I was expecting, but I'll get to that shortly....

I was supposed to meet Durham Guy in Burlington and I got to the meeting spot before him & gave him a call. He was on the interstate headed that way and told me to just go ahead and get on the road, but drive around 65mph and he would catch up to me. Pretty soon, I saw his car coming up in my rear view mirror, so I waved to him and then picked the speed up to, ummm, oh, around 80mph or so:) Yea, I like to go fast (in most things - other things require slowness). Anyways, we get to the track around 5pm, get our stuff unloaded and bikes prepared for the ride. Another friend also met us there and the three of us headed out for warm up.

I didn't feel good all day long...on Tuesday night, I took a melatonin around 11pm to help me sleep...really bad idea. I felt like I had a terrible hangover all morning, my stomach was queasy and just generally felt like crap. I sure wish the TT would have been on Monday because I felt absolutely great that day. So, I get out on the track and start my warm up laps. I don't know, but I could just tell it wasn't going to be a good night. Ya know? Some times you can just tell after a few miles or what-not. I did probably 4-5 miles sort of easy, but also tried to throw in some hard efforts before I really got to the harder warm up. I did a few more laps pretty hard, then had to go to the small track to finish warm up. I had a gel at this point.

VV (the other friend) had this nice idea about spraying stuff on our numbers and sticking them to our jerseys. It worked great, but the officials didn't like that. They wanted the numbers on the left side and running down. I had to get mine off and attach it to my left side (incorrectly still). Time for me to get to the starting area now! I get up there and ask someone in line if my number is on right - they're not sure - go as Suzanne....damnit! It's on wrong! Some guy helped me to get it right and I get back in line. Two people in front of me. I eat another gel and start the interval timer on the PowerTap.

My turn now. Clock counts down and the guy gives me a really good push. Out of the saddle and pedaling hard to get up to speed, sit back down and try to settle into some sort of rhythm. It's just not working tonight. I try to remember to keep the power up from turn 3 all the way to turn 1 and then ease up some as I go into turn 2 and down the back stretch. Key word(s) in that previous sentence is "remember" and "try". I think those 2 words flew out of my head after the first lap. Too damn fast. Too damn hard. By the time I hit the half way point, I looked at my time and saw that if I wanted to do better than my last time here, I needed to kick it up a notch. But, the problem was, I didn't have hardly any "notches" left to kick up!

OMG. I went out too fast and too hard and now the tank was getting empty. Damnit. Will I ever learn how to pace myself????????????????? Is this one of those things that takes a while to learn or am I just friggen stupid??? *sigh* Doesn't matter, I pedaled hard and tried to keep the speed up and not let it fall too much coming out of turn 4. People yelling and taking pictures on the front stretch, so this is not the place to let up! I don't know...just kept going, kept looking at the distance on the PT...7mi, ok, just 2 more laps - "c'mon you can do it". 8.5mi! Oh yea, almost there. Look at the time again...Damn...this is not good. Don't remember what it was, but I knew I was not going to have something in the 27min area.

Last lap...leave it on the track. The last 2.5mi I had my highest heart rate...195 & 198. Coming into turn 3 & out of turn 4...I'm on fumes now. Down pit road. Where did my legs go?? I want to get out of the saddle so bad, but I can't...who's pedaling this bike?? Is there a crumb of energy left in my legs to finish really strong??? Nope. I give it all I have left and get to the end of pit road...just laying there on the bars. OMG. That was hard. And painful. I get across the track and turn in my chip, head back to the car....check out the time on my Garmin...not good, not what I wanted to see...00:28:20-something. Damn. Check out my average speed. Not what I wanted either...21.1mph.

I'm such a numbers/data geek! I brought my laptop with me so I could download my PT data! [will add picture later] It was a good zone 4 ride, which is what the mentor/coach guy said it should be.

I am disappointed in the results. But, I suppose I have to remember that any of the TT's I do this year are just for fun. They are secondary to everything else I want to do. I also wasn't all that rested for this either. A ride on Sunday that was a bit harder than I needed and then some really good 3x1min intervals on Monday. Just go to these, do the best I can (and I really think I can do much better than this) and don't worry about it.

The rest of this week will be back to normal, with the exception of today. Today, I am going to get in ONLY a 30min ride, no big ring riding, and either in zone 1 or very low zone 2. My zone 1's max is 103w....gonna be extremely difficult to do that I think, but I will try. Tomorrow is 3x30s intervals, Saturday (weather dependent) easy zone 2 ride probably and then Sunday is Crowder's Mtn metric - 62mi, 3000' elevation change. Then it's only 2 more weeks till Burnsville.

So....I need to keep the TT stuff in perspective, not get so stressed out about how I do because I have bigger fish to fry than these little TT's....:) I've got Raven Rock coming up the first of May and the mentor/coach guy thinks I should do the century. Sheesh. Guess all I can do is give it my best, huh? Marion is looming in the distance too. Am I going to be ready for Marion and the other rides???