One race down....
Recap of my first ever road TT....
I woke up on time, but got there too late to warm up. Why, you ask? Hmmm...I don't know, maybe too much coffee and pre-race facebooking....oops. I really should have warmed-up, the race was only 9.4 miles long!
Anyway, on the way there it started pouring rain. That made me glad that I wasn't out there warming up because it probably would have just made me cold, wet, and miserable. I didn't really care enough about this race to arrive early with a tent and a trainer so it was what it was (if that is a saying?).
I had just enough time to pee and then take my spot in line to start at 9:12 am. Luckily the rain had stopped but it was still chilly and extremely wet on the pavement. I had no idea what my strategy was going to be, except to 1) go hard and 2) not blow up before the finish line. Simple.
I went out fairly conservatively, mostly because I was not at all warmed up...my legs were slightly protesting early on but soon I settled into a rhythm. My HR monitor was not working so I stopped and restarted it 3 times before it finally started recording around minute 11. I really needed that HR to gauge my effort as adrenaline was going strong and I really didn't want to blow. The turn-around was probably not as bad as I thought, but it was wet and tight so I took it pretty slow through it. I was passed by a few guys but was able to go harder on the way back and even passed one guy....I almost puked afterwards but was able to hold it together. I backed off a bit on the incline towards the finish but was able to hammer it out once I caught sight of the finish line.
My time was 26:50 and I was OK with that. Could I have gone harder? I don't know, probably..but I'm pretty tired still, 8 hours later. I'm sure I could shave some time off with an aero setup (I rode my road bike), aero helmet, and skinsuit ;) A 30 minute plus (instead of a 5 minute) warm-up would have helped me to have a stronger start, also. Concentrating on my form and pedaling technique definitely helped me, though.
At the time I saw the posted results I was in 2nd place out of a lot of Cat IV women...but there were still about 14 more to go. We'll see what the final results say. I think I will sign up for several more of these since there is now a Georgia TT series. It is really good training and it's fun to do something really short for a change.
I woke up on time, but got there too late to warm up. Why, you ask? Hmmm...I don't know, maybe too much coffee and pre-race facebooking....oops. I really should have warmed-up, the race was only 9.4 miles long!
Anyway, on the way there it started pouring rain. That made me glad that I wasn't out there warming up because it probably would have just made me cold, wet, and miserable. I didn't really care enough about this race to arrive early with a tent and a trainer so it was what it was (if that is a saying?).
I had just enough time to pee and then take my spot in line to start at 9:12 am. Luckily the rain had stopped but it was still chilly and extremely wet on the pavement. I had no idea what my strategy was going to be, except to 1) go hard and 2) not blow up before the finish line. Simple.
I went out fairly conservatively, mostly because I was not at all warmed up...my legs were slightly protesting early on but soon I settled into a rhythm. My HR monitor was not working so I stopped and restarted it 3 times before it finally started recording around minute 11. I really needed that HR to gauge my effort as adrenaline was going strong and I really didn't want to blow. The turn-around was probably not as bad as I thought, but it was wet and tight so I took it pretty slow through it. I was passed by a few guys but was able to go harder on the way back and even passed one guy....I almost puked afterwards but was able to hold it together. I backed off a bit on the incline towards the finish but was able to hammer it out once I caught sight of the finish line.
My time was 26:50 and I was OK with that. Could I have gone harder? I don't know, probably..but I'm pretty tired still, 8 hours later. I'm sure I could shave some time off with an aero setup (I rode my road bike), aero helmet, and skinsuit ;) A 30 minute plus (instead of a 5 minute) warm-up would have helped me to have a stronger start, also. Concentrating on my form and pedaling technique definitely helped me, though.
At the time I saw the posted results I was in 2nd place out of a lot of Cat IV women...but there were still about 14 more to go. We'll see what the final results say. I think I will sign up for several more of these since there is now a Georgia TT series. It is really good training and it's fun to do something really short for a change.
posted by Namrita O'Dea at
3:07 PM
2 Comments:
Racing the series sounds like a good idea. The reason I never liked road racing was wondering when the girl next to me was going to take me down. At least with a TT it is just you against the clock.
exactly!
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