[Race Report] Colorado State TT Championship 2015 SW4

I had a rough night of sleep before the Colorado State TT Championship in Keenesburg, but I woke up and went through my usual strides. I was feeling a little like I had to have forgotten something but I think I’m at this point where I’ve raced so much, I have a routine.

I started my warm-up pretty early because my legs were feeling tight and I felt like I needed to just spin out. It was hot and I really didn’t want to dehydrate or tax myself too much in the warm-up. I can’t decide if this was a good or bad idea – yet to be determined.

Starting the race I felt a little nervous and I had a goal of finishing in about 70 min. I think my fastest 40k was during a tri around 73 min and change. Last year I did this race in 74:28 but I feel a lot stronger and more dialed in. I guess a 4:28 PR is a lot to expect of myself.

The race itself was good. Last year I approached it thinking I needed to not go too hard from the start, but this time I just embraced downhills, speed and adrenaline. I did feel the race start to get hard but I was able to push myself and I think this was a better approach. 

I ended up PR'ing my best 40k time trial time by about 1 min and beating last year's time by 1:52 so I was pretty happy. Also got this SWEET picture!

Colorado State TT Championship 2015 Photo cred spotifimages.com

[Race Report] KHMTT final recap, Bolder Boulder, and City Park Criterium

I guess I've been slacking a little on this - pretty caught up in training and trying to organize my life - which can get surprisingly unorganized.

KHMTT race 7/final recap
KHMTT is over and it felt like one big defeat. I never actually did the course any faster that my first go at it which really bummed me out - I was supposed  to get better. My last week even was about 10-15 seconds slower than my best time in week 1. I walked away saying to Eric, "Yeah, I'm totally only signing up for 4 of these next year. This was torture."
But the next week I was really glad that I persevered and got my butt out there (rain, shine, or hail - but mostly rain) because I ended up placing 3rd overall in the series because I placed okay and got enough points by having been there! So, yeah, it's a little like a participation and perseverance award but I get a medal for it - so that's pretty cool.

Bolder Boulder
I went into Bolder Boulder completely unprepared for a 10k. Well, maybe not completely but I really hadn't run more than 4.5 miles at a time in weeks. I also really hadn't planned on "racing" it so I mentally prepared myself to goof off, which is really hard for me because whenever there is a time tied to my name, I have a really hard time intentionally under-performing. That said, I knew I wouldn't be proud of my race time so I decided to take it easy. I started two waves back with some friends, high-fived Elvis, waited for them to catch up after traffic-filled water stops, chatted and even danced a little to some of the bands along the way. In the end, I finished in an hour and some seconds, which I was surprised by considering I was going "easy" and keeping sub-10 min miles on a hilly course, but this goes to show the power of a positive attitude and excitement. While that pace is in no way shape or form a "race pace" it still wasn't too shabby and I had fun in a race, instead of taking it 100% seriously which is an accomplishment for me because that is so difficult for me. My friend Brett and my boyfriend Eric came to watch and they knew I was getting kind of psyched-out about doing this - both seemed surprised when they met me at about 5.5 and I was all smiles.

Me (center, hands up), Alan (back left, orange) and Kris (left, light blue l/s)

City Park Criterium

I was really excited about City Park because it is a pretty non-technical and flat course. Plus, it was my team race so I was excited to have people cheering. I also had some friends come watch which was a motivator to do well. I had a really positive attitude on the start line, lining up right on the line, next to my teammate Lyndsey. Then everything went downhill (and not in the good way). First I couldn't get my foot in my clip and rocketed to the back of the pack. Then I could not get good positioning in the group and soon enough I was chasing off the back. Everything felt really hard, the corners felt terrifying, even though they were really tame corners. I found myself again working with Ariane from the Ten20 team - we seem to always end up working in a chase group together. Soon enough we realized the girls we just behind us so we slowed down massively to just let them catch up and jump back on. 

When I was off on my own I was so bummed - my team cheering for me actually back fired. I felt like I was letting them down at our race and I was mad at myself because I told myself there was no reason for me to get dropped in this one. I was so angry.

Afterwards, I thought about it long and hard. I had crashed on Thursday sliding out in a wet corner on my ride home from work. I think this left me a little shaken, because once I got back on the group I had no problem jumping in the corners with them. I probably was also a little tired from the week before - I guess I'd done a lot even though I took Thursday easy and Friday off. 

Today I looked at the Strava file and saw that the group came out the gate averaging over 28 mph - which is just, insane fast. Once we got back on they were keeping around 25.5 which is so much more manageable. It was just that I didn't have the fitness to hang on at that pace for that long. It was a hard race. No excuses - just data. It was not as easy as I anticipated but...that's racing.