What not to do the week before a race; most everything I did last week. Not so much on purpose, it's just the way things went. But, you can't sweat what you can't change and just gotta roll with it. So I did and what a great weekend, from top to bottom, it turned out to be.
The day was turing out perfect; 60's and sunny. Despite all the rain a few days prior, the trail was still in great shape. I rode smarter this time, took it easy at the start and kept my heart rate out of the red zone the entire ride. About 45 minutes into the race (most of that first section is climbing), I realized that I had been in the big ring the whole time and I just felt like I could push forever.
I caught the last rider to start before me just before the 1/2 way point, I didn't expect to reel him in. I didn't expect anything out of this ride except a marginal improvement over last race and here I was already catching someone who put 10 minutes on me last month. Once i crossed the 17 mile mark and started climbing, I checked my time and couldn't believe I was about 15 minutes better than my last TT and just felt like I was cruising. I started to come apart a bit toward the end and had to really focus my brains to forget my leg's pain and my body's completely depleted fuel supply. I came in at just a hair over 3 hours (by just 37 hairs to be exact), 9 minutes better than last March; 26 minutes better than last month. I hated that I was so close to a sub 3 hour time and not have made it, but still, couldn't be happier with my ride. I probably need another 5 minutes off my time next race to keep 2nd place for the series as I don't think I can equal Turners 2:50 from January. But hey, I never woulda thought I could roll a 3 this weekend either, so who knows. John wouldn't have thought he would pull 40 minutes off his time, but he did. Congrats man, thats awesome - 40 freakin minutes.
We got in another great ride at Raccoon Mtn on Sunday as the rain started to fall right as we pulled out of the parking lot. Perfect ending to a great weekend.
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