KHMTT Week #3
I felt optimistic going into this week because despite all the crappy weather predictions, it was pretty okay outside.
WRONG.
As I set off for my 10-mile warm-up ride from home at 5:30 the wind felt icy. Though the weather said 62, the wind brought the cold front in at what felt like 32. I contemplated going back for my arm warmers, glad I had gloves.
At the start of the race, it was very chilly and windy. I thought maybe not as bad as the previous week, but boy was I wrong. My start time went with a huge gust. The official said "10 seconds" and the gust went off and I sarcastically said "just in time." Another official said "it's a tail wind" to which I laughed (it wasn't). I found myself on a slight uphill mashing to keep 15 mph. At least it was short. As I made a right turn out of the wind, I was even faster than the week before, looking at speeds north of 31 mph. I told myself to just spin my legs and find that sweet spot of laying down power but not mashing. I actually did fairly well for the first few miles, posting up some really fast mile splits...and then the turn around came and so did the ice wind. I continued to focus on a good cadence and not mashing but it was...slow going. What a buzz kill to have such great splits turn into murderous icy wind miles. I came up the first big hill thinking I wasn't too far behind my best time, only to come down knowing it was going to be a rough finish. This week was very slow and I was very disappointed. I felt a little better, however, when I saw standings this week to see I had placed 5/10. Probably pretty similar to last week (6/11) but still that is a consistent improvement in the standings when you consider percentile. Most importantly, I just want to make progress and get stronger and I think pushing myself week over week can help me do that.
I had planned to race both days this weekend. When I signed up for these, given the fact that it was snowing and slushy outside, I thought I might be clinically insane. The jury is still out on that one, but it definitely was a risky move. Even riskier when on Friday I slid on the slick granite floor in the train station and fell on my knee and twisted my ankle. But later that day, I received notification that my Saturday race had been cancelled which was very fortunate for me because I woke up the next day with a very stiff and sore ankle so having another day to take it easy was good. I was bummed that I ended up not being able to workout/train for 2 days but these things happen. Moreover, it allowed me to be pretty rested for Sunday.
Denver Federal Center Circuit
I had bad feelings going into this race. I thought I'd registered and I hadn't so I had to register day of and for whatever reason, this just got into my head. I had trouble sleeping and my stomach hurt all night into the morning - lots of anxiety. It was incredibly cold when I arrive at the race site and I found one of my teammates had crashed pretty badly in the men's 5 race earlier that morning. I got on my trainer and warmed up, then kept forgetting things - first my sunglasses, then my water bottle, but ultimately I grabbed everything and did a warm-up lap with a mixed group of women from all different categories. It was very cold and I wasn't going to do this warm-up but I was really glad I did.
The night before, Eric talked to me about how I needed to start on the line and he was right but lately I'd just been getting there late because I've been doing warm-up laps of the course, so the line was often already crowded. However, today we were starting categories about 30 seconds apart so I was able to sneak to the front of the 4s to hang out with my teammate Sarah.
I started the race hanging at the front, but probably a little exposed given that I'm racing with a lot of girls who will be moving up a category soon within the year. I started falling slightly back, especially around corners, which was a bummer. However, I did do all the corners (save a few of the corners that went into uphills) in my drops and sat in my drops for all flats/downhills. It was an awakening, though, that I'm not as good at cornering as I thought because I'm losing placement, and thus speed, in them. I though I had pretty good placement sitting about 10-12th wheel only to find myself at the back of the group! That was my own fault because I hadn't realized the field was so small.
Soon enough, we actually caught up to the masters 40+ and the SW3 groups that started ahead of us (which speaks to how well the 4s are performing in general) and the chaos split us in half. The front attacked to get around the masters 40+ and then they started to attack and yell "that's the 4s!" And in the chaos we split into two groups - which looking at results, was a group of 9 in front and a group of 8 in back but I believe we pretty quickly dropped a few. I hung out the rest of the race with 4 other girls and we hung out with three masters woman who apparently we weren't supposed to be working with and we realized this after a lap with them and backed off (or, well, tried to work by ourselves). By the end, I had made an effort to speed up the group and one of the other girls asked someone to pull. Since we were all kind of toast, I suggested we do a paceline, at which point that girl attacked and another followed her. Being that I just had made a hard effort, I was toast and that kind of ticked me off but that is life. I chased them for two miles, totally out of energy for the little hills that were getting so old. But as the course evened out, I caught back up with the pack and finished with them.
In the end, I finished 13th which was my best finish this year (percentile wise) in a road event (non-tt) so that was good. Now I have a few weeks off for training focus that I'm really looking forward to. Eric's phone was dying so no pictures yet, but maybe something to come.
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