Green Valley TT - Improving a little

This past weekend was the fourth event in the new Cascade Time Trial Series and once again, my MCS - Blue Star Coffee teammate Karla and I loaded up the car and made the long drive to the west side of the mountains to Auburn to participate in the Green Valley Time Trial.  Although slightly longer than the first event in the series, the Icebreaker Time Trial, this event took place on the same road so it would provide an easy comparison as to how our form had improved.  So much goes into riding a good race and this day it seemed like it was finally coming together.  I had a full and good warm-up and rolled to the start line relaxed and focused.  I felt fast and powerful on the way out and on track for a good ride.  Soon the turn came and I headed back towards the finish.  Partway back, I had a real ragged patch and struggled with my pace and focus.  I snapped out of it when the rider that started a minute behind me came past like he was on a motorcycle.  I got my head back in the game and finished off as strongly as I could.  My time ended up being good enough for second place in my group on the day and the result moved me into third in the series standings.  As for improvement, my average speed went from 24 mph at the first race to over 25 mph at this one.  Better, but there is still work to do.  Next up is the final event in the series, a 40-kilometer time trial in Tenino on the same course that will be used for state championships later in the season.

2012 Icebreaker Time Trial

My training has been in full swing for a while now and with Daylight Savings Time finally here, I’m getting in a significant volume of riding.  This is good as the racing season is fast approaching.  Those sentences are true and seem pretty reasonable.  However, the quirk this year is that I did my first race over six weeks ago.  The Icebreaker Time Trial in Auburn was the first event in a new five race time trial series this year and came early enough that I had nearly zero training for it.  As it was part of the series I am planning on doing though, I felt it was worth going to and seeing if I could score any points at all.  It was held on a dead flat 10 mile long course which was a plus for someone just climbing off the couch.  I had hoped to be under 25 minutes for the race but turned in a time of 25:13 which was good enough for 11^th of 20 racers in my group.  Not what I hoped for, but let’s face it, hope is all I had, nothing useful like training!  It was a good enough result for the start of the season and I scored some points for the series so the only way from there must be up.  The next races in series were the Skagit Valley Time Trial and the Northshore Hillclimb Time Trial in mid-April and I knew I’d be better prepared for them.