Ramblers Time Trial Championships 2007

[RoadRaven]

Psst... excuse me whispering... but I don't want to shout it loud yet, but I had to tell someone...

Ummm... I am quietly jubilent...

Pending results... I think I might have won the Club TT/vet women - almost certainly come second...

I hope they post results today...

I'll write a race report later... but just wanted to whisper it to you... I had a good race yesterday and I think I did really well... def did a PB...

[Eden]

Whoo hoo! er, em ahem whoo hoo!

[RoadRaven]

Well, it’s official
I am the Club Champs Vet 2 Womens category champion!
LOL, not hard though, as I was the only vet 2 woman to race!

BUT… (and here is my first thrill) I did a PB on this course.
Although I haven’t ridden this course as a TT before, my previous best TT time over 20kms was 38:56mins, with an average of 30.82kph (that’s 19.15mph I think) over a flat course.
This course is undulating hillocks and rises – not the most favourable for my style of riding. Plus I was riding out of my security zone as I had borrowed wheels on which my bike comp was not set up for, plus my heart rate monitor had a dead battery… so I could not ride to a speed or a heart rate, only watch my time when I got to the half-way/turn-around point.

The second thing that thrills me is that I was the third vet woman home! ST and RW (vet 5) are both extremely capable – and I was only 19 seconds behind RW! In the May and June TTs this year, I was 6minutes behind RW in BOTH races! She has not dropped off in her form, but I have closed that gap to less than a minute! Yay me!

The third thing that thrills me is that SL (vet 3) usually thrashes me in road races – I beat her by almost 3 minutes yesterday – that is comprehensive in a TT.

The fourth and final thing that thrills me is that, despite the rolling, not-flat course, this was my fastest average time ever… and when I also consider I am recovering from a cold (nasty cough still) and I was on the heaviest and crampiest day of my period… well, what could I have achieved if my health had been optimal for racing?


Vet 2 Women (20km): Raven 31.50avs (38:06) 1.

Vet 3 Women (20km): SL 29.36avs (40:52) 1; SW (42:29) 2.

Vet 4 Women (20km): CF 29.47avs (40:43) 1; SH (43:18) 2; CM (43:35) 3.

Vet 5 Women (20km): ST 33.95avs (35:21) 1; RW (37:47) 2.

My partner won his grade: 20km ~ 28.21minutes, average speed 42.33km

My 16yr old came second: 15km ~ 23.57 minutes, average speed 37.58km

My 13 yr old came second: 10km ~ 17minutes, average speed 35.29km

[RoadRaven]

Light easterly gusts, mild temperature, watery but warm sunshine…
Almost ideal weather for a time trial.

We rolled up an hour early as my partner wanted to ride the whole thing before the race.
I had my eldest son’s tri-spokes on to “try out” so I went for a warm up and found them surprisingly ok in the cross-wind, and perhaps faster… The road felt good, a tail wind in places out, but I guessed it would be a bit “dead” on the way back as the cross-winds were head-winds in places.

I drank a ‘V’ (first caffiene of the day) then I lined up, joking and chatting with others – explaining my borrowed wheels because I felt a bit of a fraud… so I was telling people that this was a good opportunity to try out different wheels out.

I didn’t try and get into the headspace I usually do til a minute before I set off. Then, about 90 seconds before I set off, I suddenly decided that I was riding a TT and better get myself sorted. So I squeezed “gu” into my mouth, took a big swig of water, put my bottle and rubbish on the ground, took off my gloves and put them with my bottle, hopped back on my bike and clipped in.

It was a held start and this time (not like my last TT) I had my foot in the right place and was able to stand and swoop off and sit and click straight up into the big gears. And then I just tried to percieve my effort – knowing that SL was starting 30 seconds behind me I tried to get out of sight before she started. I don’t know if I did, but I felt like I did. I was good, and didn’t look behind me once during the race, except at the turn-around when I was slowing anyway.

I started seeing the juniors who were only racing 10-15kms and had already turned around and were on their way back. I yelled encouragement, I felt great and I knew they would be flagging. Saw my youngest son “Dig it in, SON!”.

About 7km out, my legs went dead. I had decided to hammer it out to make the most of what tail wind there was, and then just settle into a rhythm on the way back. Obviously I wasn’t very good at judging my perceived effort, and my legs stopped working and it was all I could do to stay above 22kph… pathetic I kept telling myself, pathetic! But 8kms in and my legs started to feel ok again and my speed started to lift. I figured I had chucked away any chances of coming in 3rd or 4th, and just decided to make sure I came in under 40 minutes.

I braked too soon at the turn-around, but I recovered ok, standing and picking up speed as I came away from the cone. I counted 33 seconds from the turn-around until the time I met SL – I was ahead of her – well-ahead… so I decided ‘no sitting in for me, time to REALLY dig in in’.

I noticed people who started behind me still heading out… my partner was moving like a torpedo and he must have really been in "the zone" because he didn’t seem to notice me and he usually does (he confirmed it later). My legs were really starting to hurt now, I could feel my thighs acutely, my calves had weird little spiders running up and down them… I grinned inside… I figured that if spiders could hang on I had to go faster and shake them off, so I tried to grind it up a notch… occasionally I could hear the ethereally spooky sound of my tri-spokes echo off the hillsides…

About 3kms from the end my vision started to blur occasionally – my partner has talked of this, but it had never happened to me before. My breathing sounds like a rythmic rattle – gasp in, rattle out, gasp, rattle, in time with the legs I am pounding into my thighs. I forget where the finish is, and every upcoming corner looks like it might be the last. I wonder if there ever was anything else in my life apart from this pain – and the knowing – the knowing that you have to keep the pain alive until you see the prize… the worry was, what was the prize? What does it look like? How will I know it?

Ah… I see it. I recognise it. The prize. There, in the distance, maybe 1km away… its red, it points to the sky, it sits on the road… the prize is a plastic road cone. I suddenly realise that I haven’t in fact given it everything and lift my speed another kph –where did that come from? Why didn’t I have that before?

I manage to rasp 78 as I pass the prize – I think vaguely that the people gathered there will be interested in my race number… I am past and suddenly need to lie down – I manage to turn around and bike slowly back to the finish line and unclip one foot as I stop. The second foot is much more complicated!... then to try and work out how to get my leg over the bike without falling. Accomplished! Yay, that seemed insurmountable, but now I have the even bigger task of lifting my bike off the road and laying it carefully on the grass before, BEFORE, I collapse beside it. Still wheezing and rattling and gasping I somehow find myself and my bike on the grass.

Two women who have watched and not competed are beside me and say “good race”, my eyes are glazed as i look at them and wheeze – I wonder if they can tell I am smiling from ear to ear…?

[ehirsch83]

congrats road ravin!!! you are very inspiring and what a great way to finish the season with a PB.

[DirtDiva]

YEAH!

Good work.

[crazycanuck]

YYYAAAYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..wahoooeyyyy!!!

C

[RoadRaven]

Thanks Eden, ehirsch, DD and cc...

I am still rapt... still feeling so good about this.

I looked at last year's placings... (our club has around 300 members, but time trials have a lowish turn-out, and not many vet women - over 35years - compete)

13 vet women turned out for the 2006 CCTT, and I was 9th (7th in my category).
8 vet women turned out for the 2007 CCTT, and I was 3rd overall.

In 2006, I was 7minutes and 26seconds behind the fastest vet woman.
In 2007, I was 2minutes and 45seconds behind the fastest vet woman.

And I am still glowing with the knowledge that I have closed the distance between RW and me. I know Time Trials are about individual performance and personal bests... but to see how others did on the same day gives you a measure of your own performance.

And to close the gap by over 5minutes since June... oh, I feel so relieved... I really felt like I was getting nowhere... week after week after week of getting dropped and coming in last or near last in road races can be very disillusioning... this vindicates the training I have been doing, it vindicates me and I am very very pleased.

[SheFly]

YIPPIE! Congrats on a GREAT race, and the PB! You have worked hard all season, and definitely deserve to bask in the glow . Great progress over the season, too - it's always nice to see your hard work paying off.

Congrats again, Raven - you really deserve it!

SheFly

[RoadRaven]

Hey there SheFly... yeah, I do deserve it.
All year I have set up expectations for myself, dared to dream and hope, and then not achieved much at all.
I mean, I know finishing and competing is what I like - I am not saying I have had a bad year - cause I haven't, it's been fun - but it was hard some days cause I wondered if I was making any headway at all with my fitness and level/ability...

But I am so absolutely rapt with this (yes, I am still high as a kite over this - who needs "recreational drugs"? I took nothing except caffiene and am still flying 2 1/2 days later!).

I know you and the other racers know how this feels and I am glad I can share it. One day I'm gonna try doing a TT on the smoother roads of the US or the UK... bet I'll really surprise myself there!

Road~highasakite~Raven

[smilingcat]

Oh dear how could I have missed it...


Belated congratulation on your well deserved race. It sounds like you did it perfectly. Gave it all you've got without losing it at the end.

BIG BIG CHEERS...

Smilingcat

[RoadRaven]

Thanks Cat

I know its weeks later but I am still really pleased with this result.

yeah, I am starting to be able to pace myself at the extreme end of what I can put up with - I can push it harder, I know, but i am improving and I am so relieved I am