This morning, I got up very early in order to head over to West River Drive (now known as Martin Luther King Blvd) for the weekly Time Trial organized by Breakaway. It's a free race, but they do an awesome job of organizing it and posting results, etc. It's an 8.4 mile TT that is flat and fast, although there is typically a strong headwind one way or the other along the river. This is really a big deal for a lot of riders who train to do TTs. They come out with their spankin hot TT bikes, disc wheels, aero helmets, skin suits...they do it right. Me? I'm just a loser roadie, so I show up on my road bike sans aerobars, skinsuit, sweet helmet and just figure, ahhh, what the hell?!?!
There was only one other female at the TT this morning...Bianca from Human Zoom. She's a really strong Cat 2 rider, so I knew that she would probably whoop my butt. Other than that, the only other person of note was Tyler Wren. So, my goals became two fold. Be 1st or 2nd in the women's group (hehe...that should be easy), and DO NOT let Tyler catch me! :)
Off I went...I can now say that I have a much higher respect for TT racers. That crap HURTS! I was ok on the way out. The wind was at my back, but I was trying to keep it solid and comfortable. On the way back, my legs burned for 4 straight miles. It was painful to keep my speed up around 21 mph and I did my best to do that. I did have a sprint at the end, which felt good...good boost of confidence at the end. I ended up doing my first ever TT in 22:13, with an average of 22.1 mph. I know that I can improve on that over the remainder of the summer, so any Saturday morning that does not include a race or a designated Angry Man ride, I think I'll wake my butt up early and head over to the TT. Who knows? Maybe I'll buy myself a TT bike! :)
By the way...I finished 2nd in the women! Bianca beat me with a time somewhere around 21:40. And Tyler did NOT catch me! Even though he rode the course in 17 something. HAHA! Both of my goals were met!
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