Barstow is one of my favorite 20Ks - completely flat, straight out and back along the Rock River which makes for a fast, fun ride. It's a long, boring drive over to the Quad Cities area but totally worth it - I love the course. I set a new course record last season and this year I really wanted to go faster so admittedly I felt a little self-imposed pressure to perform.
We were fortunate to have great weather on Sunday - it was sunny and warm with a strong cross/cross-headwind. I wasn't feeling so hot after a night of not great sleep and sort of tired legs so the sensations during warm-up weren't providing me with much confidence. That, and I wasn't seeing great numbers on the SRM so I resigned myself to just watching the speedo and going by feel. At certain points along the way in my first ride (I did two) I felt awful and wanted to just get off my bike and lie down. At other times I felt strong while seeing the speedo pegged at +27mph. In the end, the clock stopped nearly a minute faster than last season - a new course record, fastest women's time and a personal best 20K performance for me. Turns out I hadn't zeroed the offset on the SRM so the power numbers I got were crap. Big picture: who cares?
My second ride was cake - I rolled it in comfort for the fourth best time in the 50+ men's field. It was a good day for me. Wakes came out and tore things up a bit as well, taking 1st in the cat 4 field - nice job Mike! Ziggy, Richard and Mark made the drive and posted fast times as well. MetLifeGuy won the 50+ and (I believe) also the P1/2 with the second fastest time on the day. In fact, it was his fastest 20K ever - well done, Mike!
Up next - a couple of crits with the guys over Memorial Day weekend and some state TT course recon. I'm lacking top end lately due to all the TT's so it'll be 'nice' to get some lung searing, sick-hard efforts in my legs. I won't be heading back out to the Quad Cities area, opting instead to stay near home. I've done the QC weekend so many times it just really doesn't hold much excitement for me anymore.
As for my team situation, look for a separate post detailing my new gig...
We were fortunate to have great weather on Sunday - it was sunny and warm with a strong cross/cross-headwind. I wasn't feeling so hot after a night of not great sleep and sort of tired legs so the sensations during warm-up weren't providing me with much confidence. That, and I wasn't seeing great numbers on the SRM so I resigned myself to just watching the speedo and going by feel. At certain points along the way in my first ride (I did two) I felt awful and wanted to just get off my bike and lie down. At other times I felt strong while seeing the speedo pegged at +27mph. In the end, the clock stopped nearly a minute faster than last season - a new course record, fastest women's time and a personal best 20K performance for me. Turns out I hadn't zeroed the offset on the SRM so the power numbers I got were crap. Big picture: who cares?
My second ride was cake - I rolled it in comfort for the fourth best time in the 50+ men's field. It was a good day for me. Wakes came out and tore things up a bit as well, taking 1st in the cat 4 field - nice job Mike! Ziggy, Richard and Mark made the drive and posted fast times as well. MetLifeGuy won the 50+ and (I believe) also the P1/2 with the second fastest time on the day. In fact, it was his fastest 20K ever - well done, Mike!
Up next - a couple of crits with the guys over Memorial Day weekend and some state TT course recon. I'm lacking top end lately due to all the TT's so it'll be 'nice' to get some lung searing, sick-hard efforts in my legs. I won't be heading back out to the Quad Cities area, opting instead to stay near home. I've done the QC weekend so many times it just really doesn't hold much excitement for me anymore.
As for my team situation, look for a separate post detailing my new gig...
