Barb takes 2nd in the Women’s Presque Isle Time Trial
Team Steel City Endurance is very excited for Barb’s performance in her last race of the 2009 season! Check out Barb’s race report from her final race of 2009.
Presque Isle Bike Time Trial
Sunday, September 20, 2009
I *heart* the Presque Isle Time Trial – mellow atmosphere, gorgeous setting, flat, the perfect bookend for the racing season. I try to do at least one of the TTs, either the spring or the fall, because they are a good way to guage your fitness early in the season or to wind up the season in the fall. After a bit of web browsing I found a family owned motel, The Glass House Inn, about 3 miles from the TT which offered modest but clean accommodations including a little fridge and microwave (essential for making the critical pre-race coffee and keeping the breakfast yogurt from getting too, uhm, biological). I took it as a good sign that there were motel guests sitting around the little pool reading. And any time I can open the window in my hotel room I am happy. I also discovered a local coffee shop – Brickhouse Coffee – which was a mere 4 blocks from the motel. Can you say “perfecto?”
Sunday morning was chilly with light winds out of the S/SE — which meant mostly a tail/cross wind for the race. Wind direction and speed are the most often discussed factors for this TT since there is always some kind of wind – it just changes from head to cross to tail and can be the greatest challenge to keeping your focus focused on the task at hand which is, of course, pedaling as smoothly and efficiently and fast as you can without blowing up or falling over. I got in my usual TT warmup, rolled to the start, and the final race of 2009 was on ! I ended the day 2nd overall for women, with a time of :30:52 – second fastest time for that course. It’s interesting that my fastest time ever at Presque Isle is a :30:30 from 2002. I did that race on my Hampsten road bike with clip on TT bars, no TT helmet, no disc wheel, having just started to work with Coach Rob, yet that was my fastest time. And here I am, some seven years later, with a tricked out TT bike, TT helment, shoe covers, and years of structured training and working with Coach Rob to fine tune my fitness, still trying to match or exceed that time. Which just goes to show that as athletes, we can train our butts off, have the latest cool gear, drink the latest greatest sports drink, and yet – sometimes you will just have days when your performance and results are just *there* for reasons that have more to do with art than science. It also is a good reminder that cycling (and other sports) is a long term project — it is the accumulated wisdom and experience of training and racing that collectively, over time, matters, whether it is the perspective of different results for the same race from year to year, the muscle memory of different workouts and efforts, learning how to guage your efforts, to trust your instincts for when to sprint or attack or recover, or the mental map of different courses that allows you to say ‘oh right, that climb that comes at the 5 mile mark is where so-and-so will make a move.’
Tomorrow is the standard Monday Recovery Spin, followed by the Off Season. Time for champagne !
