Yesterday & today were so loooong… Everything we did seemed to take not much time, but it kept adding up and by the end of yesterday we were beat. Not the best pre-BIG race prep!
Up at 5:45 this morning (because Andy never sleeps when he actually has to depend on an alarm), and to the time trial course by 7ish. Andy’s individual event was at 8:58, so when we arrived we got started right away getting him set up for his race. Once he was out on the course, I thought I would be able to nap a minute or two, but it just didn’t happen. It is great to see so many people you know at these events, but you have to be super anti-social to take care of yourself to prepare for your event, and I didn’t really do that.
Andy came in from the rainy, windy 38k time trial in 50 minutes 52 seconds (or somewhere around that), which was good enough for fourth in his age group (podium!). He didn’t seem terribly disappointed (he shouldn't, that is really good!), as I think his attention has turned a bit from the individual events to the tandem. We came back to the car, and he immediately set about resting up for our tandem effort which was to take place 3 hours later.
This year, we signed up for the Masters Mixed Tandem Time Trial, mainly because my fitness just hasn’t been where it should be all season, but also because we hadn’t won that title. I warmed up on the trainer while Andy took the tandem out for one last check-up. I took care of myself nutritionally the way I always do, which has always served me quite well.
Fast forward to our time trial: gusts of wind blowing down tents and the metal barricades, and a cross-tail wind on the way out with a cross-head wind on the return meant that we were really going to have to kill it on the second half of the course. We went out of the gate last, chasing two teams 2 & 4 minutes ahead of us. Immediately I knew something was wrong with me – my HR was suppressed, so I ignored it, but my perceived exertion also seemed to be stoppered at 7-8 out of 10 – not good! I kept hoping to see the team that was immediately ahead of us, to give us a rabbit to chase, but it didn’t happen. I tried so many different techniques to get my “sea legs” so to speak, to no avail. So this killed me mentally… then, as we approached the turnaround, I looked to see where our competition was. It seemed as if we had put about 15 seconds into the tandem in front of us, but I just couldn’t tell and it further aggravated my mental state that we weren’t obviously ahead of them. Grr.
With about 5 miles to go, Andy started the verbal coaching – “I need you, Cara!” which yanked me out of my reverie but didn’t seem to pull anything out of my legs. Out of all the tandem efforts we’ve done together, this one seemed to stymie me. Even at 1k to go my body seemed to be fighting what I was willing it to do. But as we crossed the line, I almost reluctantly turned my head to look at the clock, and saw emblazoned upon it in red digital numbers 1, and 50:42. Which means, we went damn fast, and we won! Go figure. We also, in the first time of our history of tandeming, went faster together than Andy did individually. Andy was totally wasted, drooling all over himself and unable to speak for a little while. I felt nothing other than a deep ache in my legs (and the now constant reminder of my encounter with the pavement two weeks ago). Therefore, I feel like I let him down somehow. But, at least we won! And, to add a little icing to the cake, we had the fastest mixed tandem time of the day! Mmm, perhaps we SHOULD have entered the elite race…
Tomorrow morning I’ll contest the road race. I still can’t stand on my bike, and that course is super twisty turny up and down. If nothing else, I’ll learn it well for the tandem road race on Thursday, but I certainly have no expectations for the individual. The fun thing about that, is that it usually leads me down a good path…
2 comments:
GREAT JOB!!! You guys look good in stars and stripes!
Great write up Cara, congrats to you and Andy!
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