The rain and lightning end up delaying the starts by 45 minutes to let the bulk of the rain dissipate.
I managed to ride a better TT this week, averaging 24.5 mph on the lightly rolling 3.8 mile course. For the Cat 4’s, teammates Aaron (8:48) and Bryan (9:10) managed better than my 9:18. I think we ended up 6th, 17th, and 23rd places out of 32 that started. Definitely felt the day of racing in the legs and next week I will start a 1-2 week rest period. I need it. I have had some disappointing race weekends, I might be getting burned. I am definitely paying the price for a lack of winter base training. I could use some race wheels as well, I might need to move that up the list.
A criterium down in Collierville is on the menu for tomorrow. I was originally thinking of doubling up (Cat4 and 30+), but I think the Cat 4 will probably be enough.
Raced part 1 of the local ominum race co-sponsored by my team Memphis Velo. For me (as a category 4), it was 6 laps of a 8 mile course for 48 miles out in the mid-day heat. I generally felt fine and was able to move up in the tightly compacted pack, especially later on during the 2 hour race as people started to weaken due to the heat. The course is rolling hills with nothing to break up the pack, so most that started finished up together. I wasn’t in a great position up the final hill, which sets up the left-right combination to the finish. I would guess I was 25th place, with a hand-full strung out behind me from the field. All-in-all, not bad, but nothing much to write home about. Just another work-a-day in the saddle. At least there were no crashes (that I saw).
Despite drinking 3 bottles plus most of a 4th from the neutral feed, I finished the race very dehydrated. I consumed several gatorades, cokes, and bottles of water before getting home. I was the same weight as this morning, pre-breakfast at 171#. That tells me I must have lost a bunch of water weight during the race.
On my team, I know that Andrea Creasy solo’ed away to take the Women’s cat 4 race, Ben Stone won the Cat 3 race this morning, and David Bell took his race (60+).
As I write this, there is thunder and lightning in Cordova (east of Memphis). The TT is this evening (I go off just after 6p, 2 hours from now) down in Germantown (south-east Memphis). We’ll see how that goes. I should have plenty of warmup time and I feel much better than I did last weekend for the TT.
