Indoor TT #2

This week, it's the Tart's turn to do the happy dance!

My goal was finish this race in under 23 minutes...

Today's time..... Drum roll please....

22:59.8

I made it!! And had 2/10 of a second to spare! HA!!

OMG- that was tooooooo close!

Coming into that final climb- I was sure that I wasn't going to make it! The remaining yards to the finish was creeping down like frozen molasses while the time was whizzing by at warp speed. When I finally finished- I wasn't sure if I had made it (or not) because all I could see was "bubbles". But, I could hear Pops shouting something...he sounded like he was way off in the distance...I think he was saying...."You made it!!! You made your goal!!! Under 23!!!" Once I recovered (and could see and think again) it was great! The pain was over. And YES! I had made it!!!

This week's race strategy was a totally different from last weeks. Stay my big ring and crank a slightly slower cadence for the entire race except on the 3 main climbs where I could shift down to middle ring and spin a higher cadence to the top.

Also, for today's race I tried a new drink mix. "Cytosport's Fast Twitch". This stuff is pretty good! It tasted good and it probably helped me today!!


Reciting our "race mantra".... "Don't be a doily!".......


Hey- he's smilin'- is he working?

The 2009 race season has begun!

Sunday's indoor Time Trial was the first race of my 2009 season. I had set myself a goal of completing the course in under 23 minutes, so now I'm a little disappointed because that I did not make it. I ended up with a time of 24:49.7.

I was afraid that time would secure my spot in last place, but actually, I beat a guy (2 guys if you count the one that DNF'ed). I did push a peak watts of 225- but my ave watts ended up at only 126 (in contrast, Pops pushed a peak watts of 452 with an ave of 284- he's a machine!).

My race strategy was simple; use my middle chain ring to crank a high cadence and hold my heart rate at about 5 beats above threshold until the climbs, shift to big ring and stand on the climbs allowing heart rate to go as high as max, return to middle ring and recover (back to threshold +5) on the downhills, repeat as necessary. I was able to do this only through the first climb- as I could not get my heart rate back to threshold +5, which meant I could not manage to stand up on the subsequent climbs, which meant my "strategy" was now "shot to hell" after the first climb. (Hum... may need to re-think that strategy for next race.) One thing that did help me throughout the race was my "tunes". Santa brought me an iPod for Christmas, so I had my collection of favorite "inspirational pedal songs" to provide encouragement.

We have 3 more races over the next several weeks, and I'm going to keep trying to beat that 23 minute mark. I guess "it's a process!"