Sunday, 3 February 2013
Flap Jack Flats TT, 30km
2nd Place, 50:09

   Over cast day on the Tucson and southern Arizona landscape this morning, perfect for a time trial.  My start time was 10:29:30 and after only an hourish drive out of Tucson we arrived on the sketchy side frontage road just outside of Red Rock.  I’ve pretty much gotten into the prerace routine and warm up system so things aren’t as stressful and clustered as the first couple times. 
Unload the bike. set up trainer. get cloths and food set up. helmet + shoes – check. bathroom run to the porter potties. …and onto the trainer I go to spin myself into prerace warmup.
   With just enough time left before my start I jump off, down some yucky gel maybe, get my number on, helmet and all set to roll.  Today was just like every other. 
   I got to the start line and was counted down to my big moment of take off.  When I start to accelerate I work to settle in quickly and at a good effort.  Don’t want to burn too many engines too quickly.  The course was out and back, and slightly uphill on the way out.  So I had a nice 15km of hard work before the turn around cone.  It was tough to stay motivated out there all alone but it’s all in focusing on pedal stroke and pushing to go faster.
   I was so relieved when I finally started the downhill decent.  In my mind it felt like a 30% grade after all the work coming up, but in reality it was just slight.  But this was just enough to work the high gear and speed down in 2/3rds of the time it took to come up (can ya do the math? …30 min. up, 20 min. down).  5km came fast, but after the constant push, even on downhill it was still big work.  I went as fast as I could those last few km, knowing that in TT every second matters.  I sure learned that today.  I worked to try and break 50 minutes, but rolled over the line just missing it.  50:10 is what my clock said, dang.
   Then the big wait came.  It wasn’t enough that I rode home all of 2 hours 45 minutes just pondering the race and if it was good enough.  No posted results to give any resolution.  So all afternoon and evening I had no idea.
   Finally when they came up I couldn’t believe it … 4 SECONDS!!! The girl that got first finished in 50:05!  Just one pedal stroke harder, not lifting my head just a couple times, not reaching for water, not hitting a couple bumps, even just doing the turn around faster… 4 seconds over 30km is so little that anything could have made the difference.
Well I have to take this as an experience and something to learn from and take into the next TT.

Now I have 2 weeks of solid training before the next race:
Valley of the Sun
15-17 February 2013
Phoenix, AZ