Oh la la......my TT bike...newly upgraded to 10spd Dura Ace because well, I deserve it.
I figured y'all were getting tired of looking at that dude's ass on my previous post (well, I wasn't) so I decided to bring you up to date with a weekend race recap and some other stuff. Based on the title I'm sure you've surmised that I'm under the weather - in a big and nasty way. It's a good thing I don't get sick very often - maybe once a year with a minor cold thrown in - because this sucks. I'll spare you the specifics but just know that I have a killer cough, vicious headache and can't eat much beyond toast and tea.
So I decided to go race my bike on Sunday, just because I couldn't stand the thought of sitting on my ass on the couch for another day. My pre-race ride on Saturday was rather pathetic so I didn't have very high hopes going into the John Frasier Memorial 10mi Time Trial. I spent most of the drive to the race venue in a semi-conscious state hoping to not feel the need to ask Josh (who was driving) to pull over. Fortunately I had a later start time than my travel companions so I was able to sleep in the car while Ted, Josh and Mike warmed up and prepared to race - each of them doing 2 time trials, because they're a bunch of bad-ass TT beasts.
We've established that I'm not much of a climber. Well, I'm a marginal TT racer at best so I can't say that I really look forward to doing them. But, they're good for me - I suffer a bit, I get stronger, I get smarter, I find a little confidence and I always take something positive away from a respectable TT effort. My warm-up went half decent and the sun was out so I figured I'd just go out, ride hard, keep my effort under control (ie: no hurling) and my time would end up being what it would be. I knew after the guys came back to the car after their first TTs that the cross wind was pretty strong and that there was a bit of a head wind stretch as well.
Things started out well enough and I actually ended up having a half decent ride, all things considered. Most of all I really just didn't want to bury myself and get sicker - I was in damage control mode, in a way. In the end I finished in second place, less than 3 seconds off the lead and a minute ahead of third place. Of course I now look back and know that I could have easily worked much harder than I did and probably won but in the grand scheme of things I was happy with the outcome.
Fortunately I slept through most of the drive home. Thanks to Ted, Josh and Mike for tolerating my whining and sickness. In a weird and twisted way I think I'm beginning to like this time trial thing. Either that or I'm just trying to justify having another nice bike with expensive equipment (bling!!).
So I decided to go race my bike on Sunday, just because I couldn't stand the thought of sitting on my ass on the couch for another day. My pre-race ride on Saturday was rather pathetic so I didn't have very high hopes going into the John Frasier Memorial 10mi Time Trial. I spent most of the drive to the race venue in a semi-conscious state hoping to not feel the need to ask Josh (who was driving) to pull over. Fortunately I had a later start time than my travel companions so I was able to sleep in the car while Ted, Josh and Mike warmed up and prepared to race - each of them doing 2 time trials, because they're a bunch of bad-ass TT beasts.
We've established that I'm not much of a climber. Well, I'm a marginal TT racer at best so I can't say that I really look forward to doing them. But, they're good for me - I suffer a bit, I get stronger, I get smarter, I find a little confidence and I always take something positive away from a respectable TT effort. My warm-up went half decent and the sun was out so I figured I'd just go out, ride hard, keep my effort under control (ie: no hurling) and my time would end up being what it would be. I knew after the guys came back to the car after their first TTs that the cross wind was pretty strong and that there was a bit of a head wind stretch as well.
Things started out well enough and I actually ended up having a half decent ride, all things considered. Most of all I really just didn't want to bury myself and get sicker - I was in damage control mode, in a way. In the end I finished in second place, less than 3 seconds off the lead and a minute ahead of third place. Of course I now look back and know that I could have easily worked much harder than I did and probably won but in the grand scheme of things I was happy with the outcome.
Fortunately I slept through most of the drive home. Thanks to Ted, Josh and Mike for tolerating my whining and sickness. In a weird and twisted way I think I'm beginning to like this time trial thing. Either that or I'm just trying to justify having another nice bike with expensive equipment (bling!!).
