PLT TT #1

Yesterday was my first "long" time trial for the season and I don't think it could have been on a hotter more miserable day if they tried. It should never be in the 90's before 10 in the morning, that's just wrong. That being said I did much better than I expected and more so considering the conditions, it was meant to just be a training race in preparation for the state time trial in two weeks so I wasn't even rested up for it. I told my wife since it was so hot to just hang out in the car with the a/c going and come out to the finish line in about a hour since I was expecting to be in at the 1:10 range since I was thinking it was a 40k so when I hit the line at a hour flat on my display screen I was excited until I notice that it was just over 22 miles. It was still a good result but have some bugs to work out, the seat was killing me from halfway on, so I was constantly moving around trying to get where it didn't hurt so bad, sitting up out of the aero bars on way too many occasions to take some of the pressure off the seat and reaching for the water bottle an awful lot. I haven't heard from everyone on the team that was there but I know that Jennifer and Sharon did really good and I'm sure the rest of them rocked that course, all 6 turns, wow!! Didn't know if it was a time trial or a road race loop. Can't wait to see the results, I rolled out before they were posted so I don't even know where I finished, but at least it was a finish.... Now if someone can just do a dance or something so that it's only in the 80's for the state race..... My official time ended up being 1:00:35 for 9th place.

Inaugural Thursday Team Ride

First I have to thank everyone (mainly Karen) for pushing this ride to happen, I would have punked out and rode the trainer in the a/c if she didn't make this a team event. It was so nice to be surrounded by team mates instead of fast, squirly people that I don't know and damn sure don't trust. I knew where we were going to end up climbing the 3 sisters although they had me guessing where we were going at the start, I've never linked together my route like that but what a good ride. Felt great taking my turns pulling at the start but the whole time I knew the sisters were coming, this was going to be me second time climbing them this week so I was unsure how my body was going to act once I got to climbing. I off course LOVE the downhill just before the first climb. I felt pretty good on the first two of three climbs but started to suffer on the third a little and got a change to gather myself while we did a rotating pace line before heading onto another unknown road for me, glad I was surrounded by some strong guys and gals because I was getting a little tired at this point and then I saw it, a nice long, pretty tall climb that just seemed it would never stop, ouch. I was a hurt puppy by time we got to ashland and just turned into a zombie mashing the pedals without thinking...... Just hope that it wasn't too much too close to my time trial on sunday, that I'm a little more unsure of now since I just heard that all the smoke in the air here is from a forest fire in nc that is blown even more smoke to the chesapeake area, so ya got near 100 temps, trying to put out a hard 40k effort and now breath smoke from a nearby forest fire, ack...

What is wrong with people

So yesterday evening I was enjoying a nice easy ride at west creek with J Ro, just cruising around and throwing a few intervals in just to see how the legs were feeling when I ran across the biggest idiot "cyclist" I've seen in a while. Now I know that you have to be somewhat "type A" to do some of this cycling stuff but jeezz, during one of my intervals I pass some guy (in his mind he was the "MAN") with plenty of room to the side, didn't buzz him at high speed or say a word to him and then I sat up out the aeros to fall bad to Jennifer when I hear bike creeking, tires scuffing. This dummy is out the saddle sprinting up to me and when he passes he yells"you wanna run, lets go!!!" what the hell was that? I couldn't help but bust out laughing on the bike and I hope he heard me, I know some roadies have egos but man, some of these tri guys think that they are Gods gift or something. I just let it go but the whole time I thinking all bumping and pushing stuff that Shawn and Jake have tried to teach me, hell I just with Jake was there so he would tell this guy, yeah, I'll run ya!!, and pass this joker laughing like lunatic as he dissappears. If this is the disrespect that is given to another cyclist that they don't even know, because I fully believe in talking smack close friends and riding buddies, how does he treat motorist?? Hopefully this will be the last crazy person aside from my team-mates I run across this week.

Reality Sinking In

So I received a mass email about the work duties for the Fiorucci /Cycor Time Trial last night and what a wake up call. I knew that it was less than a month away but seeing in writing that were rounding up the troops assigning work just really made me realize that it's just around the corner and that there is not much time left to get ready. I was able to get out and ride the TT bike and log about 30 miles to get used to the bike and made a few adjustments to the bike and riding position that really seemed to help. Guess I'll find out where I'm out in less than a week and a half at the first PLT TT.

Slack Co-workers

Well between one co-worker not wanting to come to work at all and another with a poorly timed day off I'm missing out on a hella nice day. I left the house this morning with my TT bike going to work thinking that I'm gonna get in some good spin intervals tonite but now it appears that I'm stuck working till 7 and gonna me glued to the trainer when I get home. Man I can't stand to ride the trainer..........

Thursday Night Smackdown

Whew!!!! I'm a beat puppy, gotta love riding with a group that you're not familiar with. After getting frustrated and a little uneasy with the constant yo yo effect going on in the pace line I went off to the front and worked a tad bit too hard so when we started hitting the hills and the pace picked up SNAP, CRACKLE, POP!!!! I was toast and to add insult to injury I had my mad bombing speed down the hill on Winston wasted when I had to made an abrupt and painful lane change on the uphill to keep from killing the guy that had his chain spinning in between gears. The rest stop at the church was a welcome site and was able to ride up front again until the front half took off on ashland rd, man I really wanted to get on their wheels but I just couldn't do it. I got a good four bike line going pretty fast down cedar but when I hit the turn onto old Washington and pushed on I dropped them, not my intention but I'm good at that turn and that slight downhill there. After there my team mate Steven was back and took a nice easy spin back to the parking lot. Pretty fun ride overall, just hope that the sudden slowing in the pack is not a normal thing, that kind of stuff puts people down or in the ditch.... It's nice to be doing big group rides again, it's been WAY too long.

No Power Blues

I did my tt bike ride last night and am a little discouraged. Granted I'm tired from racing on Sunday and Tuesday but I just don't seem to be able to put the same power down on the tt bike as I can on the road bike. I don't know if that's normal for a tt bike or if my body just doesn't like the position or just not used to it, I'll have to start putting in more hours on it to find out i guess but times running out to be ready for the PLT race 1. At least the bike doesn't scare the hell out of me anymore and the wind isn't as big a bother as it once was to me.