[Race Report] KHMTT #5 - the final day and my birthday

Some of you may know this, but since I turned 20, I have sought to do a race on my birthday or my birthday weekend, every year. Last year, I raced near my birthday, but decided to just do a huge ride instead of an actual event. (Bolder Boulder was the week after and I think Wheels of Thunder was the week before so I was making sure I kept those in mind - I'm sure I did KHMTT around then too.) This year, KHMTT - the final day, was on my birthday.

I really wanted to break 27 min on the course, and I was feeling pretty hungry to do so. I talked to some of the best women in my category before the race (one of whom is a coach with Inspired Training) and they were talking about gaining the most time in the first leg out to the first turn around.

I hammered. Really really hard. Every time I felt my focus slip, I immediately threw myself back into it. It was probably the most aggressively I took every turn around and corner in the entire series (looking at Strava - it would indicate that that statement is true). In my head, I wanted to be in the 26 min range for my 26th birthday. Some of my mile splits were slow. Some were fast. As I came up the first hill, I wasn't too far off pace, with 6.98 miles in 20 min. I descended the large hill as tucked as I could, not letting myself coast and just letting my cadence pick up (PR'ed that too).

Coming up on the finish, I thought my lungs might fall out of my mouth and my legs might break off. I pushed very very hard. I can't believe my heart rate average for the whole race was 177 bpm. That's about on par with an all-out 10 min climb effort for me. Unfortunately, I didn't break 27 min or get a new personal record. It was however, my second best time, and I bet if I had power, it would have been some pretty impressive numbers. It was a windy day and I really left it all out there.

I'm glad I did it. I wish there were more KHMTTs but, until next year! Here is a great picture of me, Justin, and Travis (two category 2 racers from our development team Denver Fit Loft) from two weeks ago. It has been really fun (and painful).

[Race Report] KHMTT #3 and #4 and Best on Hess ITT and TTT

Apparently it's time trial season folks and I have a few to catch up on.

KHMTT #3 went really well. I knew that the prior week had been good but not all out. This week I went fairly hard and PR'd again by another 40 secs and walked away with 5th place.

KHMTT #4 was less good. I was home late and we were going to meet a new dog (which we ended up adopting) - so the whole day was sort of hectic. I started and immediately felt tired and could tell my splits weren't as fast as the week prior. It's mentally hard to see your splits not going as well, to keep pushing yourself through it when you know you've basically already lost your chance of a good race. There is a young boy who starts in front of me who I usually catch pretty early and it took me about half the race to catch him, at which point, we were starting uphill and he passed me back. I passed him again on the straight then to leave him on the descent but I knew I wasn't doing too well to have him almost pass me. I finished in the same time I finished two weeks ago - which wasn't terrible, but I wasn't ecstatic. I biked back to meet Eric at the car only for him to point out that my rear skewer (the thing that secures the wheel to the bike) was open. Dumb. That might have had something to do with it. haha Hopefully birthday luck will bring me a better race next Wednesday!

On Saturday, I had the unique opportunity to try out a team time trial! This course was kind of hard because it included a pretty sizable climb. I decided to do the individual as well as the team competition. We (Erin, Amy, and I) met up to practice drafting in aero position (which for non-riders means we didn't have immediate access to our brakes, so we had to be careful) and communicating as best we could. One of the other women on our team who is experienced, talented, and a coach met us to help us learn more. It was so helpful to talk and ride with her before the race.

For the individual time trial on Best on Hess, I only slightly knew what to expect. I had driven, but never ridden the course. I knew it had some sizable climbs and wasn't going to be the best course for me. Upon starting, I don't think I really had my head in the game. I knew what time Eric had gotten, but I knew he was a significantly better climber. I hoped to come at least within spitting distance of his time. I screamed through the first half of the course, save a few little uphill sections. As I turned around and approached the big climb, I braced myself but knew getting down on myself for not being much of a climber wouldn't help. I thought back to a women's group session we did on positive self talk. I think with every inhale as I huffed up the climb I'll alternated saying in my head "I am strong, I can climb." Having only a 25-tooth cog on my cassette, I definitely needed one more gear to really be in a good gear and not mash, but I had to (obviously) work with what I had. The minute the gradient seemed to ease up, I shifted into a harder gear. At the same time, I knew I had another race ahead of me and I didn't want to let down my teammates by being totally toasted for that one. I knew I would be the weakest climber in the group so I wanted to stack the deck in my (and their) favor. I hoped to crash 30 min on this one and came in at 30:08 by the race clock. Bummer really, but not surprised. I finished 9th and only .2 seconds off 8th which, given the hill, didn't really disappoint me at all.

I ate and recovered before a quick spin leading up to the team time trial. Erin, Amy, and I were tired, but very excited.  We were the last race of the day. We called ourselves the "finale." The course started with a quick descent and we knew they would drop me up the hill but not quite how badly. I started in front to pull the other two down the first descent. This worked well and as soon as the gradient kicked up, I jumped off to hit the back. Unfortunately they started to drop me a bit here, but I worked really hard to not let the gap form too badly. I had one more pull along the straight and we hit the big descent with Erin in front. I jumped around here to pull through this as my job was to take the descents as fast and hard as I could. Surprisingly, Amy actually ended up descending even faster down this (I was out of gears and tucked as best I could) and came around me. I ended up passing her at the end but with how steep this descent was, especially on time trial bikes, we had to just work with however the chips fell. As we came into the climb before the turn around, we had regrouped and I pulled off the front so someone else could lead. I held on for a bit but quickly could not keep the pace. A gap was forming but the big climb was coming. I urged Amy and Erin to go because I knew waiting for me was only going to slow them down. They were maybe 50 yards in front of me at the turn around, but that gap quickly widened as we began climbing again. I felt good about my decision to let them go. I'd done what I could to help them, but the amount of time they were going to dig into me up the climb would be significant enough that it probably wasn't worth them waiting for me. Again, I powered up the hill with my little mantra. This time the mile split up the hill was 24 seconds slower - I was beat. I crested the hill just trying to hold my own and power through it as best I could - it was almost over. I ended up coming through on the high end of 30 min (maybe 30:45) but still under 31. Erin and Amy waited and cheered me to the finish, and I got to be the true finale to Best on Hess! ;) It was incredibly fun working with these ladies. I did get a personal record on every descent in this course with them behind me/relying on me. I enjoyed working for them and the motivation it provided for me to get my butt into gear for a second go at this course. Though we didn't win, we DID each get a 6-pack of free beer and we learned so much and had so much fun in the process! I'd love to try it again - hopefully on a slightly flatter course where I could be way more useful.

Now - a few more TTs but also back to some crit racing as the season takes off!