[Race Report] KHMTT week 5 & 6, Wheels of Thunder 2015

Sorry for the delay!

KMHTT #5
This week was kind of a bummer for me. Coming off sickness from the Monday before, I don't think I was really recovered. The weather conditions were perfect and I felt like a PR was imminent. I had a pretty good beginning to the race, the weather was sunny and mid-70s, but my quads felt shot during the whole thing. I pushed very hard, but in the end, finished 1-second over my fastest finish - just felt very sore and like I didn't have a lot of power to transfer from my legs. Hopefully KHMTT 6 will be better.

KHMTT #6
It was gloomy and stormy-looking all day. Mentally I did not want to do this race at all but the sky opened up and I forced myself out of the house. This was probably silly because I just was completely not in the mindset. I hadn't even hydrated enough during the day so my abs started cramping on the ride over. I got that to subside and got ready to start my race. I was doing ok for the first half until coming up the first hill I dropped my chain - I knew it wasn't my day. I hopped off and put it back on but still had a pretty slow race. By the end it was pretty cold and I didn't want to run so I just met Eric and had him drive me home. Really an anti-climactic and not very fun race.

Wheels of Thunder
I was excited for this race since I did ok in it last year. When I arrived it was raining a lot, but thankfully it stopped during my warm-up with my friend Lauren. I got in a solid 20-min but didn't feel too great. I drank some water and made some last minute prep, before getting to the line. I was able to start right up on the line so I was happy with that. Hanging on on the hill was hard, but generally ok. We dropped a number of women right off the bat. I was hanging in pretty well until the end of the prime lap, when a few people picked up the pace and I fell out of the draft, getting pushed back and totally dropped. It kind of sucked - but I found my friend Lauren, who was lapped, and told her to get on my wheel. Overall, ended up 13th which I think is still, place wise, one of my better finishes this year but I really need to stop getting dropped.
Eric did his first road race as a cat 5. His experience was much like mine - he was doing a great job hanging in until the end. Still, he finished mid-pack and did great for his first race!