Pinole TTT, coed division
March 9th 2008
Despite my initial hesitation, Keith talked me into racing the coed two man time trail after telling me it was 16 miles of the 20 mile lap of the Berkeley Hills Road Race. Since I have enjoyed the pain and torture of the RR and because my short person seat post finally arrived after nearly a year of waiting, I decided it was due time for me to test drive my beautiful orbea ordu that Keith bought me for xmas a year and a half ago. It is a 16 mile loop with a very fast and flat first 5 miles, with a right hand turn into a rolling 5 mile section, with a final right hand turn into a 6 mile hilly section that consists of mama bear, baby bear, a little bump that we named cousin bear (they don't consider this little bump a climb in the race) that leads into papa bear. The race ended about 500 meters after the summit of papa bear.
Keith and I took the time to drive out the day before so I could get a feel of the course on my TT bike. He said it will be much different and boy, was he right! It was absolutely TERRIFYING. I am not sure if you have all rode full aero equipement before, but it is killer fast and without having brakes you can easily reach, it can be quite nerve racking. So after much complaining and moaning and telling Keith what he needed to do for me to ride in his draft and feel safe we left the course with my legs completely toast after riding only 3 laps and me feeling even more nervous for the day to come.
To say the least I didn't sleep well. I was SOOOOOOO nervous. I kept asking Keith, "How can I be this nervous?!" At any rate, we arrived and I was able to spin my legs out for 30 min on the trainer while Keith set up all of our equipment. We were right on track with timing until the very end when we went back to the start for a second time and the couple before us was about to start. Keith was relieving his bladder while I was yelling out 30 seconds!!! WE start in 30 seconds!!!! Luckily he finished and got to the start just in time.
We took off and I was in a zone. My legs felt great and I was easily staying in his draft. I told him faster, but he was going as fast as he could at or above 30 miles an hour. Within 3 miles we caught our 30 second team and by the first turn at 5 miles we got the next two teams.
The turn went smooth and Keith looked to make sure I was on his wheel. We flew up the first roller, but had to sit up a little on the second roller as the first 6 miles was catching up to me. As we approached a very fast down hill there was 8 teams to the right and a car behind us waiting to pass. The downhills were the toughest part for me to trust the bike and all of my surroundings but luckily Keith was yelling out "riders back" and he cranked his 55/11 as we flew past all 8 teams within the next mile. For the next 4 miles Keith throttled back and said lets save some for the hills so we were cruising along and I thought we were going to slow but unfortunately I couldn't go any faster even if I wanted to.
We approached the last turn and Keith said be safe and do what feels comfortable. I mimicked him and stayed in the aerobars and we kept flying through the last couple of rollers before mama bear. When we hit mama bear 8 Proman women came flying down the opposite direction as they were cooling down from their efforts and Emily Zell's words, "You better win" crossed my mine. Unfortunately, I was breathing pretty hard at this time and I actually had to sit and climb for a couple of min before I stood up and punched it over the last half of the climb. We took the descent really fast and I was able to big ring it over baby bear and cousin bear. I was glad to see Papa bear, but I had to so the same thing and sit and climb the first half to recover enough to punch it over the top. Luckily, we finished strong and the downhills weren't the issue. It was strictly my fitness. I climbed much slower than I normally do but Keith reminded me that is how it should be if I was going hard throughout.
We had no idea we won. Keith thought we went fast for how much trouble I had the day before. We had no idea that we did the course in 43.29 easily breaking my goal of 45 min and taking the win by over a min and a half. I was really excited because I thought I slowed us down and that my bad attitude and fatigue got in the way, but overall I think I learned how to suffer and not go too hard in the beginning. I think this will help me understand how to pace myself for future TT. Hopefully, if the weather permits I will race Canada TT this weekend and help support the fight against Cancer at the same time.
Thanks for reading!!!
Brianne
March 9th 2008
Despite my initial hesitation, Keith talked me into racing the coed two man time trail after telling me it was 16 miles of the 20 mile lap of the Berkeley Hills Road Race. Since I have enjoyed the pain and torture of the RR and because my short person seat post finally arrived after nearly a year of waiting, I decided it was due time for me to test drive my beautiful orbea ordu that Keith bought me for xmas a year and a half ago. It is a 16 mile loop with a very fast and flat first 5 miles, with a right hand turn into a rolling 5 mile section, with a final right hand turn into a 6 mile hilly section that consists of mama bear, baby bear, a little bump that we named cousin bear (they don't consider this little bump a climb in the race) that leads into papa bear. The race ended about 500 meters after the summit of papa bear.
Keith and I took the time to drive out the day before so I could get a feel of the course on my TT bike. He said it will be much different and boy, was he right! It was absolutely TERRIFYING. I am not sure if you have all rode full aero equipement before, but it is killer fast and without having brakes you can easily reach, it can be quite nerve racking. So after much complaining and moaning and telling Keith what he needed to do for me to ride in his draft and feel safe we left the course with my legs completely toast after riding only 3 laps and me feeling even more nervous for the day to come.
To say the least I didn't sleep well. I was SOOOOOOO nervous. I kept asking Keith, "How can I be this nervous?!" At any rate, we arrived and I was able to spin my legs out for 30 min on the trainer while Keith set up all of our equipment. We were right on track with timing until the very end when we went back to the start for a second time and the couple before us was about to start. Keith was relieving his bladder while I was yelling out 30 seconds!!! WE start in 30 seconds!!!! Luckily he finished and got to the start just in time.
We took off and I was in a zone. My legs felt great and I was easily staying in his draft. I told him faster, but he was going as fast as he could at or above 30 miles an hour. Within 3 miles we caught our 30 second team and by the first turn at 5 miles we got the next two teams.
The turn went smooth and Keith looked to make sure I was on his wheel. We flew up the first roller, but had to sit up a little on the second roller as the first 6 miles was catching up to me. As we approached a very fast down hill there was 8 teams to the right and a car behind us waiting to pass. The downhills were the toughest part for me to trust the bike and all of my surroundings but luckily Keith was yelling out "riders back" and he cranked his 55/11 as we flew past all 8 teams within the next mile. For the next 4 miles Keith throttled back and said lets save some for the hills so we were cruising along and I thought we were going to slow but unfortunately I couldn't go any faster even if I wanted to.
We approached the last turn and Keith said be safe and do what feels comfortable. I mimicked him and stayed in the aerobars and we kept flying through the last couple of rollers before mama bear. When we hit mama bear 8 Proman women came flying down the opposite direction as they were cooling down from their efforts and Emily Zell's words, "You better win" crossed my mine. Unfortunately, I was breathing pretty hard at this time and I actually had to sit and climb for a couple of min before I stood up and punched it over the last half of the climb. We took the descent really fast and I was able to big ring it over baby bear and cousin bear. I was glad to see Papa bear, but I had to so the same thing and sit and climb the first half to recover enough to punch it over the top. Luckily, we finished strong and the downhills weren't the issue. It was strictly my fitness. I climbed much slower than I normally do but Keith reminded me that is how it should be if I was going hard throughout.
We had no idea we won. Keith thought we went fast for how much trouble I had the day before. We had no idea that we did the course in 43.29 easily breaking my goal of 45 min and taking the win by over a min and a half. I was really excited because I thought I slowed us down and that my bad attitude and fatigue got in the way, but overall I think I learned how to suffer and not go too hard in the beginning. I think this will help me understand how to pace myself for future TT. Hopefully, if the weather permits I will race Canada TT this weekend and help support the fight against Cancer at the same time.
Thanks for reading!!!
Brianne
1 comment:
A great ride. TT's are the hardess races to do. Good forune for the rest of the season.
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