[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!

[Race Report] KHMTT #2 - a pretty successful TT

I left home yesterday feeling a little cold, trying to remember how to ride a TT bike (after not having been on it since March 12), and kind of nervous that I was going to have a pretty crappy day.

I got to the race early and hung out with Drew and Sue of Inspired Training Center (which is awesome if you are a Colorado cyclist and haven't been - great coaching and facility). As usual, they were awesome and gave me some chain lube and let me warm up a little more on their trainers. I talked to Drew about racing and numerous other subjects, but I think it got me in a good mindset to go.

I started feeling pretty good, the initial road after the start felt slow and I was nervous - back to thinking about my lack of time on the TT bike, but I turned and immediately started screaming down the hill. As I was going through the long, flat, straights, I realized I was averaging 21.5 mph which is way faster than I had done on the course. After the first few miles, I realized a new personal record was within my grasp but I could slow down on the hilly second half of the course, so I wasn't positive.

I came up the first sizeable hill a full minute or so under what I remembered was my time goal for hitting the top of that hill last year. Coming through the straight and down the next hill, I thought about some records on Strava for that leg thinking "people here stand up and lay down power to gain speed" so I did just that. Geared out, I came down the back side to the lollipop loop. I had handled the lollipop loop well last week because I was on my road bike where I feel more confident on handling. The TT bike in turns kind of feels like driving a truck, so I was definitely more tentative.

I came up the last hill doubting how far I was from my old personal record, but towards the top of the hill, I saw the finish line close and knew I would make it - but by how much? I shifted again to lay down more power and pulled through almost 2 min faster than my previous record.

I still only finished 5th (out of 11 and one DNF) but TTs can be hard with that because sometimes very good triathletes come in to the bottom category. I was happy to beat my old time by such a great margin. It was nice and reassuring to see such a large gain this early in the season, especially after some rough races this year.

[Race Report] Denver Federal Center Classic

This was one of my favorite races last year. I ended up off the back but in a group of women whom I felt well-matched in terms of fitness and ability, who had decent handling skills and made this race enjoyable. I was pretty excited to revisit this race.

Today my goal was to stick with the pack. Maybe a little lofty after my (almost) 2 weeks off the bike and my Friday spent playing volleyball (accidentally making my hips sorer than I intended...oops. BUT I decided that is my goal for pretty much every race until I decide it is too easy of a goal and then I'll try for something else. Additionally, this was my first race in which I raced entirely on heart rate and heart rate zones, which became really interesting data to look at throughout the race.

On the start line, I looked down to see my heart rate was already at an aerobic rate just sitting there in anticipation. I took some deep breaths to try to calm myself down. It was interesting just seeing the exhaustion of anticipation from just sitting there. We went off and I missed my clip, but was able to at least pedal to stay with the group before finding it again. Immediately through the first corners you could tell a lot of the women were tentative and not choosing good lines. It made me a little nervous.

Coming through the first lap of this course (which is roughly 4 miles), I felt good, even sitting towards the front of the group sometimes. However, I quickly would find my way towards the back and the effort of trying to make my way back up to the front seemed too risky so instead I tried to push my way up in the group from the inside. Sometimes I had more success at this than others. There were some corners where I felt scared and nervous and like my lines were bad. I felt the group around me was sketchy and then I felt I was getting sketchy as a result. I wanted to move up but I was just tentative.

I came through the second lap with positive self-talk saying "you made it this far, you can stay here!"
I stayed through the third lap, coming through a few of the corners I hated that really freaked me out. I psyched myself out saying "after this you only have to do it one more time"!! (In my head, of course.) But sure enough, towards the last few turns that really got to me, the pace surged and I was no longer able to reel them in after my tentative moves in the corners. I was 50 ft back, then 75...and the gap widened. I worked to catch some of the other stragglers who had suffered from the surge in the pace. I caught two and we worked together until we broke up at the end. I tried to finish strong, but it definitely was disappointing.

I know I should be fairly happy to have spent so much time sitting in the pack, having achieved 3/4 of my goal, and really only ending up finishing a minute behind where I would have liked to be. However, I can't help but be somewhat disappointed. I learned in this race that I need to work on not being as scared of some corners or riding through holes in the road. I also need to continue to work on moving up in the group and staying there.

Additionally, my blog name has changed - since lots of my posts anymore have lost their multisport focus, I want to stay true to the content. Still under construction, but PSA.

Last lap - lots of hurt: photo credit to Brent Murphy Photography

[Race Report] KHMTT #1

Anyone following along in your guidebooks last year, may remember that I did a race series on Wednesdays called the KHMTT. It's a short time trial (meaning solo race for time) not too far from my house that kind of helps with maintaining that race-pace fitness level.

This year I couldn't commit to all the races so I signed up to do four and still benefit from it when I could. Last week, I had already missed two races because I had been on vacation for a while. Then, flooding caused them to shorten the course to mostly hills, so I had no idea what goals to go for. I went out to the reservoir on Wednesday just hoping to keep a decent pace and get the opportunity to get my heart rate high for fitness. I even took my road bike because I figured it might help for the hills.

Once I got going I realized a decent goal was to crack 20 min. Unfortunately, I think that realization was a bit too late to make enough of a dent in my pace to do so. I was happy later to see that I placed 6/12 which gave me a boost in my confidence about my fitness relative to the field, even though I'd taken 13 days off the bike. Looking forward to another KHMTT next week, hopefully with no more flooding!

[Race Report] Louisville Criterium

I have a lot of catching up to do, so here comes a deluge of race reports!

I went on vacation pretty much immediately after Louisville so please forgive my lapse in memory (and delay) as I try to recall what this day was like.

First off, Louisville was nerve-wracking. I started the day without my di2 (electronic shifting) battery which means no shifting. None. Nada. Zilch. And I was in the biggest, hardest gear; 30 minutes away from home, with 75 minutes until my race start. Cool.

Eric (who if we ever doubted how cool he is, proved himself in this story), got in the car, rushed home, got my battery, and retrieved it in enough time for me to do two warm up laps. He was amazing. Prior to this, I tried to just keep a level head - worst case, I just wouldn't race. It wasn't the end of the world and freaking out would get me no where.

I started on the line with my teammate who said "we are going to start out fast and break up the pack." Welp, given that my teammate was a masters category 2 (aka, higher category/skill/strength that me), I knew that was not going to go well for me. I just told myself to try.

I was surprised when the gun went off and everyone took off hard, as planned, I didn't end up that dropped. I swept up some teammates, announcing my presence, and we began to work together. Soon enough we established into three packs: a lead group (my teammates who took off at the beginning), the middle pack/biggest pack/peloton (where I was), and some stragglers. I can imagine that being a very difficult experience early in the race season.

This race ended up being quite fun and a good redemption from my poor showing at DU. Our team was a large presence here and really good at talking to one another. I stuck with the pack until the last lap blew us all apart, but finished with people to work with. Another cool part of this race was that Paula Findlay, who has been training in Boulder for a year, showed up and raced our race and the threes race - dominating both. She is an Olympic triathlete I followed for years in college and I was seriously geeking out to realize she was there and in my race (lapping us, albeit).

My finish originally was something like 14/24 but I guess they revisited the standings and bumped me to 18. I'm not sure what is right/wrong and that low down in the rankings, I'm not going to worry about it. It's a bummer to not finish as well as you thought but my race experience and being in the field mattered to me the most. I learned in this race to get better at staying on other people's wheels to really benefit from the draft.

[Race Report] DU crit aka learning from bad decisions

Welp, today we raced. And this will probably be the only race I'll do all March but what a day!

First I want to say that I was pretty proud of my teammates. My teammate Emily, who sweeped our stage race at the end of last season, came and impressively almost lapped the whole field. We aren't really surprised because she has been so strong and impressive. But I couldn't be happier - she totally deserves it.

My race, however, was not as impressive. This race I really wanted to hang in and impact the field, but I got caught behind a teammate who couldn't get her foot clipped in at the start and felt immediately hesitant on what to do. I know now the answer is just go and I should not have hesitated. I got on the group but coming through the first major corner, at the back of the group, a bunch of the woman hesitated and grabbed a ton of brakes. Just pretty dangerous. This let a gap form and I got stuck on the crappy end of the gap.

I spent 2-3 laps chasing down the field by myself because none of the other women who got gapped came with me. I finally caught them but had completely trashed myself in doing so. They were going a lot slower than I even expected - probably even slower than I was. Still, as we came around that corner into a downhill they picked it up again, and it was a prime lap, and I just didn't have it. Once again, I spent a crit sitting off the back. At least they didn't lap me - I maintained a half lap distance off the back for the rest of the race.

It's definitely not what I wanted after a hard winter of training. I still feel like if I could solo effort to catch a pack of 10 or so women, I can hang on to that pack. Right off the bat I need to not hesitate and get stuck in the back trying to swing around women who can't hold the group or corner efficiently.

At least I got some pretty cool photos from it:

Determined to catch the group

At least I have someone to work with

big sweeping corners - hammering as hard as I can