Girls Just Wanna Have Fun TT - 2013 7/1/13

No offence to Texas, but I do not still say "I am from Texas." My heart still belongs to New Mexico. Good thing now I know I get to retire there. Facebook is a convenient way to get information and I keep an eye on Bicycle related info in New Mexico the same way I do for Texas. Shortly after we returned from Italy, I found this announcement about girls only Time Trial event, which has special category for first-timers. The flyer had "1st time TT racers warmly invited!" in HUGE print. I have never ever participated in any kind of athletic competition except school annual field day events. I sent an email to Tony and told him about the event is happening while we are over there on vacation.
As we try to catch up with friends and family while on vacation and weekends are good to do that for working people, he said that chance of my being able to participate would be 50/50. But I took this as a good excuse to have some focus on my summer training plan to spice up repeat of Super 6. When Tony first got me a bike and had me get a head start riding a bike, he took out his old cycling training books that talk about racing and training. I was not interested in road racing road events, but time trial seemed like a good option. There is less chance of crashes and injuries. This is all before Spinervals December Challenge, but I must have written on Spinervals web page asking what programs does Coach recommend for TT. I never made any purchases as I did not find a good event to sign up. As I built up Spinervals library, TT workouts took least priority to purchase as I claim I like Spinervals for the very reason for the name, "Spin" plus "Intervals". Why do I need DVD if I just do steady state workout. But now I got excuses to have varieties in TT workout as well and ordered a couple of more TT titles that friends mentioned in December Challenge or daily workout. Now that steady state is my focus, I no longer complained.
Instead of purchasing one-day license for the event, I decided to buy an annual one as I often considered making a donation for USA Cycling. When the physical license arrived, Tony finally gave me a go to sign up for the event and he and I made a visit to bike shop for aero bars and put an inquiry for Spinervals Team page. (Thank you for helping, friends!) So we installed Jammer style from Profile Design. The process was literally blind leading blind, but Team T&K got it done.
As my bike handling skills and balance on bike is not the finest, I saw my training as in two parts. Continue to learn about pacing and intensity through Coach's DVD inside and get safe and straight roads to practice outside. Tony has been doing neighborhood runs for easy days, so we looked around. There was a fairly straight road that I could make it to a loop with slight uphill that takes about 2 and _half minutes and I made it to a Strava segment. Then shortly after that, Tony found the course is a Strava segment. There I saw big hills in profile, but could not picture how hard or easy it would be from numbers.
Fast forward in New Mexico, the day before the race. We arrived in Albuquerque early enough not only for package pickup. We were met by friendly people and I saw lots of young girls talking. Now we have the map, we headed to the course. First we drove the course. It is service road to the Interstate 25, but it goes both ways. It is totally straight and there was hardly any traffic. Luckily, we still had time to ride and Tony wanted to get some miles in, too. I planned to keep it easy, but with altitude and excitement added, my heart rate went way up on the first supposedly easy hill. I used an inhaler before the start, but I was starting to feel tightness in chest about there. But this is just a test, so I slowed down and practiced turns with Tony a few times. Then I found out the back side of the hill is steep in some point, but what is more is long. I remembered the classic American kids vacation expression, "Are we there yet?" I also thought I went too early on hammering on downhill just before the finish. All this time, my heart rate was acting I don't see in Texas. Then we headed to Tony's Mom's birthday party and I enjoyed myself immensely with family/friends company and Mariachi music.
The race morning: Cousin Chuck showed up in the course to cheer! I had two-men local cheering team and solid virtual crowd. We set up a bike in the parking lot with CycleOps magnetic trainer and Tony acted as Coach Troy with spec to Competition 27.0 - Threshold Test & Suffer Fest and stopwatch in his hand. I was feeling in my legs and regretted a little bit about maybe going too hard yesterday. I chewed down another half bag of GU Chomps and headed to the start line. A few racer-looking gentlemen were volunteering as holders and my holder asked me if I ever did it. (I recall in one Vuleta a España, beautiful girls were acting as holders in Team TT and there crashes at the beginning for multiple teams. Holders have to know what they are doing.) I said I have not and he briefly explained that he is going to hold it for me and I should tell him if I am not balanced. But by the time I negotiated with one-side flat SPD cleat, it was time for me to go and I had no time to panic, but to go. I put in big gear, put it in a little lighter than Coach's favorite 15, put my hands on aero bars to test how my legs initially feel, make sure I am settled to move on, then started Garmin (hence my Garmin time must be a little different from official time).
During the warm up, I was noticing my heart rate not moving up from middle zone 3 and Tony mentioned it is fairly typical. But as soon as I get on course, even I thought I started out calmly and told myself that 10 miles is short, but long, my heart rate went way up to threshold! Thanks to good warm up, two medium climbs didn't feel as bad as yesterday (where I felt chest tightness), but heart rate was close to maximum and just didn't come down even in decent. At this point, I was trusting Garmin numbers than my intuition and just kept cadence in check and kept going. Not even a mile in, the 30 seconds behind girl passed me like bullet train. I told myself, nah, I am not going to follow her. I caught my 30 seconds ahead girl and then another one before the turn. I made a laughably cautious 180 turn and headed for the second 5 miles. There were some people cheering on course, which was nice. Then a couple of more experienced looking girls passed me. Then there is this dreaded hill came in my view. Yesterday I thought this climb was two-minute too long. I also thought I started to prepare for climb too early, mentally and also gear-wise, so I tried to stay calm and in aero position as long as I could. I passed a couple of girls, that looked like more casual riders with commuter bike. I usually don't even notice the wind directions (ignorance is golden), but this time, I did. It was noticeably head wind. I was thinking, this hill is going to be five minutes too long. There were more people cheering on this long hill, famous Devil and a photographer. I probably didn't look too pretty: teeth grinding and looking like a devil. While on the last part of climb, I thanked local cheering team and started to call my Spinervals team friends' names, one by one. It almost brought tears in my eyes, but then I was done with the big hill. I saw the Interstate Exit sign and I still had the last girl who passed me in sight. I thought maybe I could catch her. Organizers put handy 500m and 250m signs and that helped me decide when to push one last minute. I never caught that lady, but I finished strong!
Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/335599420
Finish line video
I thanked local cheering team and got changed and Tony put the bike on the rack and locked. We headed to the award tent. Earlier in the email from the organizers, there was an announcement about National caliber TT woman racer is going to give some presentations. Mindy Caruso talked about and took questions about nutrition and her training and asked some questions for giveaway. I name the winner of Tour de France Stage one racer and got a yoga certificate! I also gave puppy eyes to give away of Red Chile powder (I am a green chile gal, but Tony likes red.) and made the MC giving me one without drawing nor questions. Then Mindy had several riders set up their bikes and talked about aero positions efficiency. She put different ladies with different categories and equipment intentionally. Tony was surprised how quickly she figured out and the models looked much more aero dynamic in minutes time. Then we clapped with all podium celebrations and took a look at the results one more time. USAC officials were hanging out and Tony talked to him and pointed out my time should be different. I should have pinned my number on the right side for officials to see. Instead, I put it on Camelbak and although I yelled out the number as I was instructed, it was not audible. So official results are yet to come.
I learned that for summer, the same organizers are putting out TT series using the same course. I had already looked at USAC events back in Texas and I could not find anymore TT events. I was very glad that I got to participate in this event and got a taste of what my competitive friends would go through. I also felt excited that when I do retire in Albuquerque in the future, I already know there is a warm, welcoming cycling community here. 10 miles and 34 minutes is not very long, but I could barely walk when I first got done and took a nap as if I had finished Tough Love. And so did Team Director Tony! Thank you, friends and family for the support and Coach Troy for bringing me to this level with his excellent training programs.