Colorado State Time Trial Championships

The State TT Championship was way out by the Denver airport, a new course this year. I'd never done this race before, but it was one that I've been targeting as an A race. I have mixed feelings about the race. I’m really trying to stay positive and not be so hard on myself, but I am definitely disappointed with the results. I ended up getting third place, which is great however many girls missed their start time because the start clock was almost two minutes fast. Thankfully, I rode to the start as soon as I arrived in order to sync clocks and see how long it would take me to get from the car to the start. When I arrived at registration I saw Breeze and it was comforting to see a teammate. She also helped me pump up the disk wheel and I was able to report back to her on the start clock time. Val was around, too, and cheerful as ever :) I saw her again after the race and she was so encouraging and supportive! I thought I had a lot of extra time, but I ended up having to rush through my warm-up and only got 25 minutes to get my legs going, when I normally warm up more like 45. Still, I went into the race feeling very good energy wise, so I thought.


I must have been more nervous than I realized because I found myself being really obnoxious in response to a marshal at the start. I was standing out of the start line, having arrived early, and was stretching. He said, “Do you think you could stretch somewhere other than the middle of the road?” Mind you, there was zero car traffic and I was at the start so I wasn’t in the way of any cyclists warming up. So I stepped toward the line and moved my bike like five inches and said “How about here?!” It was sassy and obnoxious and I should have just said okay and thank you; normally I would but I think my nerves were going and I just felt irritated.

Anyway, Amber was there, starting one minute behind me. I really admire her as an athlete and was hoping she wouldn’t catch me during the race. I had a great set-up since my friend hooked me up with a disk wheel with powertap, and I was excited that for once I would be able to match some of the aero gear other riders have. I also know Rachel is a strong rider and she was supposed to start 30 seconds in front of me, but I didn’t see her and turns out she was one of the unfortunates that missed her start time. That’s got to be so frustrating!

I rolled up at my start time and made sure I was in a big gear because within twenty feet the course turned right and onto a slight downhill. The course overall was not what I would call flat, but it wasn’t exactly hilly either. It should have been a great course for me to power through. It was 40k, which is a pretty long time trial, but I had an idea of trying to finish just under one hour. I pre-rode the course last Saturday but went at a fairly mellow pace because I had City Park crit to race on Sunday. I haven’t looked at the data from the powertap I borrowed yet, but I believe I averaged lower than the 219 I did when I pre-rode the course. My total race time was 1.02.55. There may be a possibility that the powertap I borrowed was picking up watts different than my own powertap that I train/race with, but I don't think so because I did my openers workout Friday with the disk/powertap and the watts seemed on target.

I started hard but not too hard to justify the low watts later in the race, and I quickly settled into LT, around 245. Not far into the race, though, I noticed when I looked at the powertap the number was more like 230, so I would pick up the pace and that is why I like to race with a powertap so I know when I should kick it up a notch. Then I started seeing 220, and I just tried to stay positive and coach myself to ride fast and get to the turn-around. I saw a Primal Treads girl ahead of me and I knew when I passed her that I had made up one minute on her, but I still was perplexed why my watts weren’t higher. I knew Amber would not be far behind me now, and sure enough when I did get to the turn-around I saw her and Rachel not too far behind. There had been some head wind going out, so after turning around I felt my speed pick up significantly and really tried to use the momentum to take me up the hills. I took a left turn fast without getting out of my bars and that helped me get up one of the largest hills (which still was by no means steep but did require more effort).

A few minutes from the finish Amber did pass me and by then my watts were 175-190. Terrible. I just couldn’t go harder and that’s an awful feeling when I expected to hold 245. It was really a mental blow to see her pass, and I started to give up a bit until I encouraged myself to keep it going and use her as a rabbit to catch. By then she had made a huge gap though and I really just needed to get across the finish. I crossed the finish line and of course I cried, and then I cried that I was crying because that’s stupid, but I have worked really hard and put my heart and soul into training/racing. Time trials are very intense mentally, too. You learn a lot about yourself when it’s just you competing by yourself out there. It’s good practice to stay positive and say mantras…while racing I kept saying “spin fast” to myself, and “surprise yourself,” meaning have confidence that I could go above and beyond my highest expectation. I surprised myself the other way, though, and even getting on the podium didn’t make me feel better about my average watts for the race…well, maybe it helped a little :)

Riding back to the car, I talked with Cat and met another racer, Angie, who were both really sweet as I cried and cursed to myself. Angie said something along the lines of if she had quit when she didn’t do well at races she would have stopped a long time ago, and it was helpful to hear that I wasn’t the only person who felt like quitting sometimes and also that I can feel like quitting but actually keep on and continue to make progress despite that feeling. Angie then posted this quote on her wall, which I am reposting because it is so apropos:

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves."
~Guatama Buddha

Cat Up!

City Park Crit was my first Cat 3 race. I felt very nervous all day and our race didn’t start until 3pm, when I believe the temperature was up to 90. Since I’ve upgraded, I’ve enjoyed a bit of a break from the pressure I was putting on myself as a 4 to get on the podium. Of course, I still want to do well as a 3, but when it comes to races like today when my category joins Cat 1 and 2, well, it’s just appropriate to adjust my expectations a bit!

I found myself especially nervous for my safety. Between news of Susan’s broken Scapula this week and Alison’s broken Olecranon/Humerus, I was feeling like it’s just a matter of time until it’s my turn and I had visions of cracking my teeth on the curb or shattering my collar bone. I tried to stay positive and not be so scary, though, and I set my goals for the race to try to build my confidence/comfort level within the pack and hang on to the group.

I got there super early and watched the men’s pro race – I felt better as I saw they were all strung out through the turns and it was not as tight and narrow as I’d thought. I got to pre-ride the course one lap after their race and by then felt much more confident that the course was not really all that technical at all. Some people warned me to watch out with pedaling through the turns because some of the road was off-camber, and indeed during the race at one point my pedal did lightly skid on the road but it didn’t take me down. Here's the course map:

It was wonderful to meet up with Kat and Ingrid before the start, and I realized that the field was not a large as I had imagined in my nightmares. Only 15 besides me! I was prepared to ride defensively and hang in with the group. The race began and the pace was fast from the get go! Fast through the corners, faster accelerations after the corners, and I found myself quickly in the back and behind a Colorado Bike Law rider I realized later was Rachel. She and I worked together with Betsy Mercer at Deer Trail and Rachel came in third behind me. Anyway, she started to gap and I was behind her barely on her wheel, so it wasn’t but a few laps into the race when she and I were clearly on our own. She commented on how fast the pace was and I told her it was my first race as a 3, and when she said she had just been upgraded too that’s when I realized it was Rachel. Anyway, we worked very hard together. My power meter was right around LT. I thought about the TT Championships next weekend and encouraged myself that this was a great workout. We knew we were not going to catch the main field, but thought surely others would be dropped. We picked up Ingrid before long, and the three of us took turns pulling. Then later we picked up Renee. 

Throughout this time I am delighted to say that I was not feeling negative at all, but actually really enjoying myself. With about 3 laps to go, we made a goal to try and not get lapped by the main field that was really not far behind us now. We all took good hard pulls but the main field caught us right at the finish, and if we had been just a little faster we could have gone one more lap and sprinted for our own little race-within-the-race. Instead, we rolled through the finish staying out of the way and watching the main field sprint through. It was the most uneventful finish to a race I’ve ever experienced…I felt like a spectator not a competitor. In any case, I congratulated Rachel who happened to be in front of me in our pace line but we never even had the chance to sprint each other. Oh well, I’m sure there will be a next time!

Overall I’m pleased and accepting of the results and experience. I was 15^th out of 16 amazing athletes. I know transitioning to a 3 will be a learning curve and there are a lot of exciting challenges ahead!