This was supposed to be a race filled weekend with a Crit. on Saturday evening, followed by a Time Trial Sunday morning.  But the weather gods didn’t like that idea.

Saturday, 26 January 2013
Bike Haus Crit – Cancelled

   I got up this morning seeing the unusually gray blanket of clouds hovering over Tucson and thought… “well, looks like it’ll be a wet race today”.  Better for me since I think I probably have more experience in rain and difficult riding conditions than most other cat. 4 riders.  So I go for a soggy shake out ride, which was a  strange in itself.  I rolled out with a patchy sky and blue peaking through the rainy puff balls, and could see a confusion of uncertainty all around the horizon.  Soon enough after about 20 min of riding I am going down River rd. and pretty much enter a wall of water.  One minute its clear and dry, the next, down pour.  “AAAHHH”, was my only thought, (along with some other words I probably shouldn’t use in my blog post… earmuffs).  So I turn around and ya know what happened?… after riding about 30 meters, it stopped.  Haha, but this was a moving wall.  Cause it chased me.  And my bike was not faster than mother nature in this case.  I was engulfed again. … earmuffs!! … So my nice long shake out ride turned into 30minutes of wet riding, then some trainer riding in the garage.  oh how fun.
   Thinking this was just making me stronger for the race which wasn’t until 5pm at a raceway, I go inside to chill out and relax.  I check my email.  Inbox: Bike Haus Crit: POSTPONED.  EARMUFFS!!!  I was not a happy camper, especially since it was 1pm and the sun had come out and there was no more rain.  So I went for a walk and did some yoga to not freak out too much.  I was mostly mad because I need these races to get points for moving up in category.  But what kept me from exploding was that this is so early in the season, there is plenty of time, and the NYC Marathon … yes, thinking of the NYC Marathon.  My little tiny race got cancelled and I am lucky enough to have a Time Trial just the next day with almost as much importance, but those poor souls that trained all year, even maybe 2, or 3, or 4 or THEIR WHOLE LIVES for the marathon this year, only to have it cancelled with a “sorry, you can come back next year”.  So in retrospect I have nothing to be angry about, this is no tragedy.

Sunday, 27 January 2013
Picacho Peak TT – 20km
3rd Place, 32:10

   This morning I looked out the window with a smile on my face.  A few clouds creeping around but nothing to threaten rain… YES, TT is on!!
   Got to the funky looking truck/rest stop just off I10 about 9am.  We find a dirt parking lot and cyclists moseying about with their “over the top I don’t have time to train so I’ll just get a really expensive really fast” TT bikes.  My start time was 10:13 so it seemed to work out that I’m not going too early (9am first start) or too late (past 11am).  But earlier could have been better to avoid wind.
   I line up and as I’m being held up and counted down by the officials just before my start a whole flashback of memories comes back to me of my first time trial in France this last summer.  I could still remember staring at the fake grass carpet on the starters ramp, the smell of french food wafting out of open restaurants along the street, and the little woman counting down in french… “sank, katr, twah, duhr, uhn” (I know this isn’t how you spell it in french, but it’s how it sounded to an american-italian that doesn’t know more than 2 words of french) … This TT was EXACTLY the same, the dude was even counting me off in french.
   Anywho, I blasted off down the straight, bumpy frontage road towards nothing in particular besides the next rider only 30 seconds ahead of me.  20km for a TT is the longest I’ve ever done, so I was’nt really sure what to expect.  The most important thing to do that Jaime said was to not go out too hard.  It’s the one mistake that ruins most TT races for people, is going out too hard and not having enough to finish strong.  Today however there was a nice tail wind and a slight downhill slope to the road that made the first 10km out make me feel like I was having a pretty awesome day.  I kept taking glances over at the riders coming in the opposite direction and wondered “hmm… they sure are pedaling slow and look like they’re in pain.. maybe they went out too hard and are just feeling it now”.
   Haha… I reached the turn around point, layed on the brakes, whipped around the cone and OOOHHH EARMUFFS … WIND!!  The whole rest of the race, 10km was a battle of pushing against the wind and slight uphill that wasn’t quite as noticeable when at the advantage on the way out.  I tried to stay as aerodynamic as possible, low in the aerobars, keeping my bike on a straight path, and looking forward, but it’s tough when trying to go all out.  I got passed by 2 guys with disk wheels, and passed a few people without aerobars, so it was pretty evident that aerodynamics was the key to the game today.
I finished as strong as I could, not knowing if it was enough to get a good place.  It was good work and exciting to have no other competition but yourself and the clock to keep you pushing.  The focus was so intense and discipline to stay in that crunched up position on the bike and still have to pedal at full force is
something I’ve never really experienced.
   I found out later that afternoon that I had come in 3rd, time of 32:10.  1st had 31:39 and 2nd 31:46.  Only 31 seconds off 1st, bummer.  They started before me at 9:38, and 9:58… so not sure how the wind was before 10 and if they had covered wheels to help.  For the first TT I’ll take it… more to learn.
  Full Results: Picacho Peak TT Results

   Don’t have a speed suit, so lucky for me Jaime let me use his… which I have no idea how he fits into that thing.  Not too big for me, so it must suck the life out of him.

   I packed up my stuff and headed out on my (repeat) looooong cool down.  From Picacho Peak I road the 45 miles back home along the frontage road to Tucson.  Not very exciting but good training and all money in the pain bank (shout out to my girl Lauren 😉 ).  I had never been so happy to see Sabino Canyon (my road) and then my housing complex, and then my recovery shake that always seems to be worth gold after such long days.

Stay tuned for next week:
UA Biopark Blast Criterium- Saturday, 2nd Feb
Flap Jack Flats TT- Sunday, 3rd Feb