Colavita and Senior Olympics

Last Saturday was the May Colavita Time Trial. The weather started out bad with a cold, thick fog causing our start to be delayed by an hour. But, once the sun came out, it warmed up and turned out to be quite pleasant. I felt pretty good throughout the race and just missed beating my best time by only 4 seconds. This race is all about the wind! Last months time (when we had that horrible wind) was my worst time ever. Now, this month, I've almost beaten my best time. It's really hard for me to gauge my fitness when I'm not consistent with my times. Oh well!

Today was the Dayton Senior Olympics time trials. It had rained all last night and this morning there were still some "lingering showers" in the area. But, by race time, the showers had stopped, but it remained overcast with a temp in the mid 50s. The course they used was a parking area for the local Renaissance Festival and was basically a 1-mile "square".

Being a parking area, there was NO traffic to worry about. And, with all of the rain, and no traffic, the course was very wet- with lots of standing puddles - which made for some very exciting corners. As a matter of fact, I got to see a little to much excitement when another rider passed me on the straight-away and then hit a large puddle in the corner causing his back wheel to get squirrelly. He bailed into a field- which probably saved him from a nasty crash. (Or, maybe he was just practicing for cross season.) Either way- he got my attention!

Another "feature" caused by the overnight rain was the gazillion WORMS on the course. I guess the rain had washed them out on the roadway - only to be smashed cyclist. By the time we had finished the race, my bike was covered in worm "remains". It was horrible! I had worms (or in many cases parts of worms) smashed on my tires, wrapped around my spokes, in my chain, in my derailleurs, under my crank, up in the fork, ... oh, really just everywhere! Needless to say, my bike got a bath this afternoon, and what came off was gross!!!

There really wasn't a very big turn out today. I was the only female racing in my age group. Actually, as far as ladies racing today - it was only another lady and me. But, what impressed me most was the guy that was racing in the 80-85 age group! Now that was Awesome!

2nd /3rd Colavita & 1st Fast Lap Races

I've been slackin'-- as far as updating my blog...

I wanted to update my blog with details about my races, but somehow, I just couldn't find the time. So... now, I have to play a little catch-up.

The 2nd Colvita Time Trial was a shut-out. When we awoke, the fog was thick as pea soup. But, we decided to go anyway. The trip to Greenville was a nightmare. We creped along in the fog, barely being able to see. For us to get to Greenville, we have to drive about halfway on the Interstate and rest of the way on a back road country highway. The fog on the interstate was pretty bad, but the fog on the country highway was horrible. We came up on a horrendous crash (on the country highway) that involved a car and a semi-truck, it was BAD. We finally made it to the race and signed-in, knowing that we would have a delayed start. After waiting 2 hours and the fog never lifting, the promoter had to cancel the race. But, the good news was that everyone that showed up got credited with first place points.

The 3rd Colavita Time Trial was (once again) brutal. 21MPH (sustained) headwind that would gust to 28 MPH straight out of the W/SW. The course (naturally) went West for 7 miles and then back East for 5 miles. The trip out was absolutly miserable. That dang wind would literally blow me over to the edge of the road. And, the lack of sunshine and the temp in the 40s didn't help matters. I was killin' myself pedaling and would only be going 10-12 MPH. I checked my max speed at the turn around and it was 17MPH (and that was after going down a big hill!). But, I must say the return trip was great. I was flying! I did manage to come home with a second place medal (guess how many showed up in my class) and some more Colavita Pasta and Sauce (yummy!).


First race of the Fast Lap Series was great! The weather was PERFECT (temp in the mid 70's). I felt great aerobically, so I guess all those miles I "rode" in the basement over the winter helped. But, my problem is (still) my bike handling skills. I still don't have the confidence to push it through the corners or in between tight trees. And, of course, I still have issues with the bridges. But, I pulled off a second place win - only getting beat by 1:20 by a gal that's (at least) 20 years younger than me- so I'm pretty happy about that.



This Saturday is the South-West Ohio (Cincinnati) Senior Olympics. Right now, the weather does not look promising. 60% chance of rain and probably in the mid 40s. Ugh!

3rd Indoor TT

My goal for this indoor time trial was to finish between 22 and 23 minutes. I missed my target by finishing in 23:44.9 but that was good enough to beat last months time of 24:21. AND, for the first time EVER... drum roll please... I wasn't DFL!!! Yes, I actually beat someone- a 42 yr old GUY no less!!! I only beat him by by 20 seconds, but still, my name is not last on the list!!!

I also had another "personal best" when I saw a new max heartrate of 178. I have NEVER seen that before. The highest I have ever seen was 172 - and that was during a Colavita TT last year when I was climbing a hill and a big dog came out and chased me. (And, why are the scary dogs ALWAYS on the hills?) Anyway, I was closing in on the finish line when Pops and several others started "cheering" for me to push hard and make a strong finish. The computrainer screen displays the distance remaining to the finish, so I decided that once I reached a 1000 ft to go, that I would stand up and burn off every last ounce of energy I had left. I have to say, that was the LONGEST 1000 ft of my life. I was watching my "distance remaining" counting down, but at about 300 ft to go all I could see was "gray bubbles"! When I finally crossed the finish line my vision was completely gone and I didn't even know what planet I was on. I'm pretty sure about that time I started "channeling" Lawrence Welk and his tiny bubbles.... or maybe it was Elvis in a sparkled suit. I don't know. Anyway, I was glad my bike was locked into the bike stand because if had it not been, I would have probably fell over!

Next Saturday is the 2nd Colavita TT and (right now) it looks like the weather is going to be miserable. Weather.com is predicting snow showers and a HIGH temp of 16 degrees for the day (and we have a start time of 8 am?). I wonder if it will even be above zero at that time? You know, there is a fine line between dedicated and crazy, and I think we are getting dangerously close to crossing that line.

1st Colavita TT- the aftermath

(Picture from Colavita website)

OMG!! That was a brutal race.

I knew I was in trouble when we arrived at the start area and the parking lot was covered in ice. I had never thought about it before, but it's pretty hard to pump up tires and walk your bike (while wearing bike shoes) over an icy parking lot. I almost fell twice, and I was being careful! But, I was so thick with clothes, I probably would have bounced anyway.

Conditions:
Somewhere between 25-30 degrees at the start
Sunny (thank God!)
Wind 6-10 (sustained) out of the E SE (cross wind with a slight headwind on return)
Dry (thank God again!)

I wore:
Bike shorts, fleece leggings, wind resistant bike pants
Underarmor top, fleece pullover shirt, wind jacket
Fleece lined full head/face cover and I taped over my helmet vents

I know that my hands and feet are ALWAYS freezing, so I had purchased some gor-tex cycling gloves and shoe covers. They worked great!!! For the first time ever- my hands and feet were okay!


(Picture from Colavita website)

My worst time from last year was 49:35, todays time was 49:53.4. UGH!

What I did wrong:
1. I didn't warm up properly - Ha! "properly"- try not at all
2. I couldn't find a comfortable cadence - I was all over the map 50rpms, 90, 82 - I saw everything.
3. I couldn't find a comfortable position on the bike- one minute I was down on the aero-bars, next I was sitting up.
4. I couldn't find a "line" - I was left of the white line, I was right, I was on it.
5. I probably overdressed- I was warm, but my range of motion was very limited.

I came home with the second place award, and some Colavita Pasta Sauce - but that's because there was only 2 in my class. I'm thinking of it as a "Participation Prize"- but, everyone that showed up really deserved one!

2nd Indoor Time Trial Results

Last week, after the Team Training session, I was feeling quite frustrated with my training progress. I didn't feel as if I was making any progress despite faithfully following my training plan. And, I was afraid my results of the 2nd Indoor Time Trial would further discourage me. Well, I could not have been more wrong! I managed to beat my time from the first race by 5 minutes by finishing in 24:21! (1st TT time was 29:20)




My strategy for the race was this:

1. Keep my heart-rate within +/- 5 beats from my Ave Heart Rate
2. Keep my cadence between 80-90 RPM
3. Use the highest gear where I can maintain #1 and #2
4. Go with all out effort on the final climb to the finish line

Next on the agenda is the 1st Colavita TT (if they have it).. Right now, the weather is not promising - the latest weather report is calling for snow and/or freezing rain with a high of 25 degrees. Yuck! But, it may change!

1st TeamDayton Indoor Time Trial

TeamDayton had their first of three indoor TT's today and all I can say is OUCH!!! That hurt!!!

The Computrainer is a pretty cool set-up. Each "race session" consist of 4 racers, that are not necessarily at the same fitness level. There is a large screen that displays the terrain and you can watch yours and the other racer progress.

I was racing in the same session as Pops, another guy in his category, and a young guy in the 19-29 category. I knew I would never be able to keep up with those guys and that would start to stress me out. So, to help me keep my focus, I decided to listen to one of my workout CDs (so I could "stay in my own little world").

My plan was...
(1) Don't start out too hard
(2) Push as hard as I can while keeping my heartrate under control and
(3) Don't worry about what the other racers are doing.

Needless to say, they were done long before I was! When they finished I was only at the halfway mark... UGH!!! I haven't seen the official results yet, but it's not going to be pretty. I think I finished in something like 29:07, but as I was "seeing sparkles" when I crossed the finish line, I'll have to wait for the results to be posted to be sure.

Looks like it's time to crank-up the training sessions!

As a side note, I had taken our camera along and asked a volunteer to take some pictures of us while we were racing -- he did, but I had forgotten to install the memory card into the camera- so no pictures today! Oh brother-- Blonde moment!


Update: My official time was 29:20