Anyway, this was way back on January 16th. We'd been obsessively watching the forecast to see if it would be snowy or clear or what. Both Brandon and I were really hoping to ride.
Race morning rolls around and it's cold as hell (19!), but roads were dry. Good enough. We can handle that.
A lot of our friends thought we were crazy to be racing, but it's Colorado, and there were still a ton of people there that day.
Fairly full transition.
Most of our warm-up was literally hopping around trying to stay warm. I over-dressed for the first run so I would save time in transition to the bike knowing I wouldn't have to add layers for the bike.
Run #1:
The first run was 1.25 miles and I kind of just went out. I didn't try to go out that quickly, but as in racing ... it ... just sort of happens. Oops.
Time: 11:43 (12th division, 27th gender, 84th overall)
T1:
Throw off hat, change shoes, toss on helmet, try to take bike off rack without taking the whole rack with me ... the usual.
Time: 1:04 (3rd, 10th, 35th)
Bike:
I got off on the bike and was happy I had my new fancy Garmin 920 as the speed on my cyclometer wasn't working due to the sensor getting shifted in transit. Such is life; it happens. I was a little shocked I headed out in the low 20s - what? I'm going that fast? - but that died soon enough.
I managed up the stupid hill in Cherry Creek State Park fairly well - think I got out of aero, but it wasn't as horrible as it has been. Going toward the tower loop, I saw Brandon, took note of where he was, and kept a loose eye on the clock to see how far behind him I was. He started four minutes ahead of me, so if I could finish within four minutes of him, I would have the faster time on the day (mini goals). As it turns out, at that point, I was.
As it happens, though, the back course of that bike can suck, especially if a.) you haven't rode it in a while; and b.) you haven't really ridden a hill since October. Heh. Still, rolled in pretty happy that I cranked out the 10.8 mile course in under 40 minutes.
Time: 39:22 (7th, 17th, 67th)
T2:
This took me a bit longer as I decided to shed a few layers and things kind of got caught on other things. Stupid winter.
Time: 1:33 (8th, 26th, 71st)
Run #2:
The second run was 2.75 miles (so if you did run loop one and two, you'd do four miles ... for that option). It was definitely a little rougher. It was a lot hillier than the first run and I definitely had more problems catching my breath on the second run. Plus the wind started kicking up and that never makes life easy.
I saw Brandon starting the run as I rolled into transition so I knew there was a chance I'd finish within that four minutes, but I had no idea if I actually would or not ...
Time: 29:27 (11th, 27th, 83rd)
Overall Stats:
Time: 1:23:11
9/14 division (F30-39)
21/48 gender
74/114 overall
The times were a little wacky on site - especially given our splits (damnit! i thought i biked sub-40!), but when we checked at home later, everything was correct. And ... Brandon beat me by a measly 8 seconds, which he got me on the second run. Stupid lungs.
After the first run, I had him by 14 seconds. By 29 seconds after T1. He gained a little bit on the bike; after that, he was up by 4 seconds. I got that back and added an extra 3 seconds in T2. But ... he was 12 seconds faster on the second run and that made all the damn difference.
Still, great test of early season fitness, and a great indicator to see what coaching is going to do for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment