State TT Championships - 2010
* Start time was around 10:15 for me so I got there around 9:30 - was able to get in a quick warm up (only about 15minutes) then lined up. The course was on Brandy Branch Road which runs North/South and is a pretty straight road with good pavement. There are two minor 'dips' which break some momentum up, but nothing to come out of the saddle for. The day was hot - around mid 80s. I decided to go out fairly conservative for the first 15 minutes -- as I wasn't completely warmed up yet. Knowing that the headwind on the way back was going to be tough - I decided to 'use' the tailwind on the way down, but stay within myself. I pushed it in a few spots - held between 27-31 fairly easily. I hit the turnaround at about 27minutes. As soon as I rounded the cone - the wind was like a brick wall. At first I could hold around 23-25 mph but my HR was high (188-190) - I knew I wouldn't be able to hold that... I felt like I could sit around 184 fairly comfortably, so I had to back it down a bit. I tried to keep in my position as much as possible but I did drink twice just because the heat was getting to me at around the 40min point. Occasionally, my speed would reach 25, but I saw it drop as low as 19 at one point. There was also a fair amount of vehicle traffic on the road - lots of big trucks that would cause some wind gusts when they flew by. At one point, I figured my sub-1hr goal was NOT going to happen. I tried to remain calm and just stay in my TT position and spin. I felt like I was going very slow. Finally, the last curve appeared and I rounded it and could see the finish line tent. There was also a rider up the road a bit, so this helped my psyche - by having a 'target' dangling in front of me. I figured it was about 1.5 miles out, so I shifted into a harder gear and went as hard as I could. My clock was around 57 minutes - so I was hoping my calculation was good and that would get me to the line around 59 minutes. The last 45 seconds hurt really bad, I could feel a slight twinge in my right calf as I was pushing and pulling with every bit of power I could find. The 'elusive sub 1-hr mark' was right in front of me and I wanted it BAD! I tried to look forward to help 'pull' myself toward the line -- and I didn't want to see how high my HR was! I crossed the line just under 59minutes (58:52) !! I was way stoked. This was good enough for 2nd place in cat 4. The guy who won went just over 56min! That's fast.
It was a good time - always fun to push it hard under racing conditions. After that me and Steph hit up the Cool Moose Cafe for some lunch and then went and saw Jeff & Andie's new little baby boy, Leighton. Overall a great day.
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