Thursday, January 8, 2009

VQ TT #3

Did another indoor TT last Sunday. I was with MJH2, little P, one of MJH2's friends, and another teammate DonI.

The plan was to have those guys race the early race while I watched little P and cheered them on. Cow bell and all. Then we would switch and I would race while they watched little P.

They all had a great race. When we switched I was ready to go, but I was already mentally drained. I was already thinking about the logistics of the return trip, my job, whether little P was acting up, sticking his finger in an electrical outlet, etc.

Needless to say my mind wasn't in it and I knew it. My heart even seemed to not be in it. The course was a stage 4 TT from one of the last Tour de France. It started uphill. Yeah. I don't like hills. That just meant that I would start way too hot and overcook myself.

Less than 5 minutes in I was ready to throw in the towell. I couldn't hit the power numbers I was hitting during the last TT so either something was wrong or I had lost a lot of "form" (physical fitness). I looked up and I was in 1st....which just meant I had to push.

Then I couldn't. I had nothing. I lost position slowly. Next thing I know I was in no-man's land. I wasn't going to lose any more positions and there was no way I was catching anyone. I eased up. I did that for a while. It let me recover for a bit. I even stopped pedaling and "coasted" a few times. Who does that!

Towards the end I got a second wind and laid into it for the last climb. Yay me. Not.

Ended up in 6th place out of 9 in cat 4. Poop.

MJH2 won and was the 2nd fastest man. That performance was the awesome. I have some pictures but they are locked up inside the camera.

So....I felt kind of let down by not giving it my all. It's Jan. I shouldn't give a crap, but I do. Mainly because those kind of efforts really do my body good. So....Monday I hit the gym and ran and lifted weights. Tuesday was 2 hours on the trainer (the suck) including 5x6' THRESHOLD intervals. After that set our Team Captain told us to lay off because we have been doing too much work lately.

Wednesday was running and lifting again (against the Captain's orders). Today I ended up going to the shop to trianer ride again. I just did about 1-1/2hr of recovery spinning (sub 140W). Time for a rest. The next TT is on Sunday. ABD's. Turns out it's only like 15 minutes long. That means it will be intense amounts of pain. Captain said, "Do 115% of threshold for the TT."

Yeah...

.....for 15 minutes....
....

.....le suck.

2 comments:

Runner Susan said...

If I ever came in 6th place at anything, I'd be the happiest girl in the world. sometimes i even race against myself and lose. it's sad.

John Wilke said...

Would you rather be champion in January or July? +1 for racing this time of year!