Saturday, June 23, 2007

40K of H*ll

Ok...to quote xbunny,

"and the real reason to do a 40k time trial
is to make you so happy to do 10 mile time trials"

oh how right you are xbunny! At least I hope that's why I did it! Because at the time, I sure didn't care for it!

So today I did the CBR State TT Championships. Another trip out to Lancaster/Palmdale, another chance to leave the temperate climate of Santa Barbara for the heat of the desert, another opportunity to suffer for an hour.

And in my case, that 40K of suffering was 1 hour, 8 minutes and 14 seconds. Wow.

Not much of a race report to be had in a TT report...it is what it is. There were only 3 of us in the Cat 4 women's division. I started 2nd. I passed the girl in front of me near the turnaround (it was an out and back...so about 12 miles out and 12 back). There was a tailwind all the way out, and the headwind on the way back made the pain oh so much worse. About 7 miles in, the first of the mens 4s started to pass me. Thankfully I had been warned that this would happen, so it didn't freak me out and stayed steady. I actually felt ok through the turnaround as well for the next few miles. It was at about mile 14 when I started to be unable to ignore the pain which was manifesting itself in regions you just don't want that much pain! I tried to shift around a bit...but it was just making it worse, and I found myself sliding further and further back on my saddle, and could almost feel the power loss in the legs, which were feeling fine. The seat was just killing me!

About 2 miles from the finish, the girl who started behind me passes me, but she's not going that much faster. I hold steady and ride near her. I passed her back, and she passed me back. It made it more interesting...because even though my brain knew she had beaten me by 30 seconds...at least there was SOME Motivation to ignore the pain and race my darn bike!

When I got close to being done, I got my normal "wow i actually made it lets get this d*mn thing over with" second burst of energy, and push in, leaving that girl a few seconds back. And it was over.

I was feeling so slow. I mean, 1 hour and 8 minutes for a 40k???? Sad....however, when they finally gave out the awards, there were actually a lot of times slower than that, which sadly enough, renewed my quest to continue to improve. I got 2nd place, by 24 seconds. At least I put 6 seconds into that girl at the finish...

Anyway, it was my first 40K solo effort. And hard it was! And I sure hope xbunny is right, and the next stage race TT seems like a piece of cake!

On another good note, here are some other local results:

Gary Douville got 1st in the 3s, and I think his time was over a minute faster than 2nd place! Yeah Gary.

David Larsen was 5th in the 4s, and I think Tom Anhalt was 6th in the 4s as well.

Congrats everyone!

Off to find dinner...and try and recover for Worlds tomorrow....

Ciao!!

Latest Update: Here are the official results

4 comments:

Gary said...

Kim-
Fun is! This TT racing is, like many things, something that I imagine gets better with time and practice. It is just not a natural position and sitting on a small seat with that much pressure for that long, just ain't right!
Gary

Chris said...

That is a long way to go all out. It kind of sucks that the wind was with you on the way out. I would much rather have it with me on the way back. Times don't mean much to me because I don't know the course, but it is a good pace in my opinion.

dr-nitro said...

Nah, they always hurt. If they don't, ya ain't going fast enough. That's why tri-folks are so strange. They actually enjoy it.

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

well, for me its just one part in a stage race. Certainly no 'enjoying' about it!

-still feeling it today...legs are fine, however.