State TT
It was the
fastest of times, it was the slowest of times.
This year’s state time trial (TT) championship was on July 14. For several months I had been including once-a-week
interval training in my cycling schedule.
This, along with trying to hang on with the guys at Tuesday Worlds, gave
me the intensity training I needed to get ready for the state TT. As always, it was somewhat difficult to simultaneously
work on intensity while also doing ultra cycling events, but hey, what’s a
little challenge?
TTs have
been on the wane in Georgia in recent years.
That’s probably partly due to few race promoters and partly due to less
interest – kind of a chicken-and-egg situation.
Therefore, relatively few people signed up for the state TT, especially
women. The women’s Cat 4 and Cat 5 races
each had about four competitors. I was
the only Cat 3 women’s racer. There were
no Cat 2 or Cat 1 women racers. That’s disappointing.
Officially,
I’m a Cat 4 with USA Cycling. Because
your category is based on mass-start races (road races and crits), which I don’t
do, I can’t ever cat up. However, you can
race in a higher (numerically lower) category on TTs. I’ve been racing long enough and have performed
well enough that it’s fairer for me to compete in TTs as a Cat 3. Therefore, that’s what I’ve done at the state
TT for the past few years.
The
registration deadline for the state TT was Thursday night before the Saturday
race. I kept watching the registrations
to see if any other Cat 3 women signed up – nope. Christine is usually tough competition, but I
saw from Strava that she was in Idaho racing a TT. She definitely would have crushed me if she
had shown up at the state TT. Even
though I was guaranteed a state champion jersey, I still wanted to race hard. Therefore, I set a different goal for myself:
have the fastest women’s time.
Robert
pleasantly surprised me by deciding to do the men’s Masters 50-54 state TT. He focuses on road races and rarely does TTs. So, it was extra nice to get to spend the day
together. We headed out early Saturday
morning for Hawkinsville.
It was a new
state TT course this year. I had raced a
small portion of it on previous TTs in the Warner Robins area, but it was
mostly new roads for me. Robert and I
got to recon a good portion of the course as we drove to the start. There were no big surprises; the terrain was
rolling hills, similar to much of our usual riding.
We were glad
to see a lot of our cycling friends, including teammates Chad, Tony, and
Tina. Chad was Robert’s biggest
head-to-head competition in Masters 50-54. Tony was in the Masters 45-49
category. Tina wasn’t able to race to
due recent surgery, but it was nice to have her there to cheer us on. (She would have given me a run for my money
in Cat 3!)
I warmed up
on my trainer as per my usual race procedure.
Despite a guaranteed win in my category, I still felt nervous. I felt compelled to race my best, regardless. My theme song for the morning was MC Hammer’s
2 Legit 2 Quit.
As the women
lined up at the start line, a teenage girl in front of me commented to her
father that she didn’t get much of a warm up.
He said, “Yeah, but you’ve got youth on your side.” I said, “Yeah, but we’re older, and we have
more insurance.”
I was the
last woman in the lineup, following the Cat 5s and Cat 4s. I was glad for the carrots. If I could pass a few of them, I stood a good
chance of having the fastest women’s time.
I was
off! I reminded myself not to put out
too much power too soon, as is so easy to do with that initial burst of
adrenaline. My power meter is extremely
helpful for this. It also helps me later
in a race to keep my power up. The key
to a good TT is maintaining your threshold power, adjusted up or down a little
depending on the race length. This
course was 18.5 miles, which would take me around 50 minutes. Threshold power by definition is the maximum
power you can maintain for one hour.
Therefore, I needed to put out a few more watts than threshold for this
race.
A couple of
miles into the race, a dog ran after me.
I had been riding toward the righthand edge of the lane, but I had to swerve
just outside the middle yellow line to avoid hitting the dog and/or being
bitten. If any of the race officials saw
that, I prayed that surely they wouldn’t penalize me for a yellow-line
violation given that I had to protect myself.
I approached
the first section of the course that had significant climbing. Hills are generally to my advantage. I passed three other women in this section –
a good sign.
I continued
onto the first of two four-lane highways.
This part of the course was mostly flat.
Although I had passed a few other women, I didn’t feel like I was racing
that well. I felt fatigued, and I wasn’t
putting out as much power as I wanted.
Still, I didn’t give up. I kept
my head in it as best I could, telling myself to keep pedaling, keep pedaling –
strong and steady.
The course
turned onto another four-lane highway, Larry Walker Parkway. This had the biggest climb of the course,
about a 4% grade for 0.75 mile. That’s
not huge, but remember that TT bikes aren’t built for climbing. I put my head down to grind it out, knowing
that this could be a make-or-break section for time.
After that
climb, it was mostly flat for the remaining three miles. Just stay in this a few more minutes. The finish line should be coming up. Around a curve – there it is! I gave it all I had.
That was
painful. But then, if you race a TT
properly, it’s supposed to be painful. I
really felt like I did the best I could even though my power numbers weren’t what
I had hoped.
The race
organizers used a timing chip technology that I hadn’t seen before. The chip was stuck on your helmet. Even more notable was that results were
available very quickly. Each racer could
get a printout of his/her time. I could
see my time and my place in my category, but I didn’t know the times of the
other women. Then I realized that I
could check the Precision Race website.
Yep, it looked like I had the fastest women’s time! I may not have felt my fastest, but it was
enough to reach my goal.
Then, I got
a surprise; there was a cash payout to the fastest female and fastest male!
That made me
even gladder that I had raced as hard as I could. By the way, the first-place guy was 10
minutes faster than me!
Robert, Chad,
our friend Louis, and I went to El Camino in Macon for lunch afterwards. El Camino has great tacos. It was also fun to hang out with the entire
Masters 50-54 podium:
Hoot Owl
200K Brevet
 |
| L-R: Robert (3rd), Louis (1st), and Chad (2nd) |
My
randonneuring group typically has an overnight 200K brevet in July to take
advantage of cooler temperatures and lighter traffic. This year it was a new route, the Hoot Owl
200K. I wanted to ride it but decided
not to because it was that Saturday night after the state TT. That would have been too much. However, because the brevet route included a
control (stop) in Monticello, I offered to provide ride support. So many of my rando buddies have given
generously of their time and energy to stage and support brevets, and so I was
glad to give a little back.
The local
24-hour Circle K was the official control, but I thought it would be a lot more
festive to greet the riders as they rode through the Monticello square in the
middle of the night. My adventure
included a pre-sunset picnic with Robert, pitching a tent on the square, and
greyhounds! I’m saving the details
for an article in the winter edition of American
Randonneur magazine, but suffice it to say, it was a hoot!
Georgia
Cycling Gran Prix TT
The Georgia
Cycling Gran Prix is an annual stage race. For the last several years, it
was held just up the road in Newton County.
It was moved north of Atlanta this year.
This year’s Georgia Cycling Gran Prix TT was only 7.5 miles long. I wasn’t thrilled about having to drive two
hours for such a short race, but I signed up for it because it was my last real
chance to race a TT this season.
Following
the previous weekend’s state TT, I had the added incentive of getting to wear
my team state championship skin suit again.
That’s great on its own, but it also fits me well. I have a skin suit that says USA. It fits tightly like it’s supposed to, but it’s
borderline too tight. I always joke
about feeling like a sausage in it. I’ve
borrowed skin suits from Robert, but his are slightly too big for me. My state championship skin suit is just
right.
The workweek
before the Georgia Cycling Gran Prix TT was tiring. I taught erosion and sedimentation control
certification classes four of the five days, which is way more than I usually
teach in one week. I really enjoy teaching
the classes, but the driving makes for extra long days. I taught in Marietta on Monday and Tuesday,
commuting back and forth. That made for
a 14-15 hour day both times. Then, I
taught in Augusta all day Thursday and half a day Friday. I did get to spend the night there between
classes, but it was another uber early morning Thursday to drive to
Augusta. So, I wasn’t as rested as I
would have liked going into Saturday’s race.
The
communication about the Georgia Cycing Gran Prix TT was less than optimal. As late at Friday night, I couldn’t find any
TT start times on the race webpage or the race Facebook page, and I hadn’t
received an e-mail with start times. I
sent a message via Facebook but received no reply. The race flyer said the TT started at 8:00
AM. Therefore, I had to assume I might
start that early. I set my alarm for
4:30 AM (ack!) and got on the road at 5:00 AM to head to Lula. That would put me at the start by 7:00 AM,
enough time to check in and warm up.
As I drove
north, spectacular thunderstorms lit up the predawn sky. I had checked the hourly forecast for Lula
multiple times and thought we might dodge the rain. During the summer the rain can be sporadic in
both duration and location.
When I got
to the church where the TT was to be staged, I saw a few people huddled under
an awning by the door. I assumed they
were other racers waiting out the rain.
When I approached, however, I learned that they were a church youth
group about to head somewhere. The TT
had been cancelled!
Man, was I
bummed about having gotten up so early and driven all that way for nothing. I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t gotten the
word, though. An unknowing USA cycling
official also showed up. I tried to
console myself with the thought that it could have been worse. It was better than a crash, for example. At least I got to listen to a good audiobook
during the drive.
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