The TT beasts had to do their first ride on wet pavement. Who said we'd have rain today!?HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
So we rolled at stupid-early-o'clock to Harvard for the Bryce Masters 20K TT. As we approached the parking area the sky was looking ominous and shortly after we arrived the drops began to fall. I whined earlier in the week about a too early start time (that had me going a minute before MetLifeGuy) and was pleasantly surprised when I received notification that my time had been changed - to an hour later, thank you very much. I'd not slept much the night before so it was nice to have the extra time to get my head straight prior to go time. The rain tapered off before long but the pavement was still wet when Josh and Mike headed out for the first of their two rides. I hit the rollers for a little while, got in a decent warm-up and headed over to the start/finish area just as the guys rolled back in for a short break before TT #2.
Things started off oddly for me - I missed my pedal when I rolled out from the start. That is something I NEVER do - it's one of the most basic skills for any decent cyclist to master and I was actually sort of embarrassed... I recovered quickly after marveling at my blunder and settled into the ugly-yet-tolerable place we call threshold. There was a headwind on the way out so I made sure not to smoke myself early by going out too hard. At the turnaround I saw the guys coming up behind me and wanted to just finish without getting passed. It was nice to have a tailwind on the way back but I was concerned that Josh was going to pass me - he started 2min after me. I heard a disc coming up when I was within sight of the finish line but it turned out to be the guy one minute behind me, not Josh (though he wasn't too far behind!). I thought for sure I'd be passed much sooner so I was pleasantly surprised when I crossed the line alone.
In the end my time was good enough - not great but OK. We left before final results were posted but due to the relatively low attendance I'm pretty sure I won. Josh and Mike put up very fast times - both in the top 4 on the day - fantastic job guys!! Their fine efforts were rewarded with some killer chocolate chip cookies (you bet I made them!). Tomorrow both of them are doing two 50K 2-person TT's - best of luck to you guys, you're simultaneously insane and awesome. I'm not as tough as they are - I'm just doing a little criterium in Glencoe as a tune-up for Downers Grove next weekend.
What am I reading now? Two things: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. A weird combination of things but that's to be expected of me.
In the end my time was good enough - not great but OK. We left before final results were posted but due to the relatively low attendance I'm pretty sure I won. Josh and Mike put up very fast times - both in the top 4 on the day - fantastic job guys!! Their fine efforts were rewarded with some killer chocolate chip cookies (you bet I made them!). Tomorrow both of them are doing two 50K 2-person TT's - best of luck to you guys, you're simultaneously insane and awesome. I'm not as tough as they are - I'm just doing a little criterium in Glencoe as a tune-up for Downers Grove next weekend.
What am I reading now? Two things: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. A weird combination of things but that's to be expected of me.
As for the title of this post, well, you had to be there :)
