Dead dog day 2

the double header. Crit at noon, TT start time at 2:43:30. a busy day was ahead of me. I awoke around 7 or so. Breaky, coffee checked out of the hotel and drove out to the TT course to give it a run over. Nice course, wind would make the slight downhill’s hard in the first half and the hills on the way back… still hard. Sweet! At 8888 feet and 1 crit in the legs this should be pretty interesting.
Back into town. Sign in, warm up a bit more and its crit time. Only 50 minutes but I was still worried. After 10’ minutes or so I became more confident as I was cornering well recovering well and with the small field I was able to move up relatively easily. I would have liked to give a cash prim a try but I was always out of position. I moved up with a few laps to go and as the group was chasseing a break with 1 lap to go I gave it everything I had. I managed to stretch the pack and bring the break into striking distance but I just didn’t have the gas to break the elastic and/ or get all the way to the break. I finished in the pack but I very satisfied with my riding. We avg. around 26.8 mph. on a flat, 6 turn course with a bit of wind. Not to bad I thought, especially with only 40 or so guys in the field. Ok, recovery time. I downed some recovery drink and extra water. Spun for 15’. Back to the car, change the wheels, change the break pads, mount the aero bars. “Looks good” I thought.

I hadn’t ridden in my aero bars since last July. Never mind do a workout or an actual Time Trial. But I wasn’t worried. This was training and I was feeling confident after the crit. TT.

The Trihydro High Altitude time trail is the highest, flat time trial in the US. A service road off of I 80. A very picturesque place acutely. With some rather bother-some winds. I felt good after the crit and was ready to go. squeezed into the skin suit and put on the long sleeve. It was only 58 degrees up there, And started with a short warm up. Instantly I felt horrible. “ok ok, don’t worry its just the crit. The garbage will come out of the legs any second now.” … “any minute, ok any time now….” start time.I figured I would take the first 1.5 miles easy. These were down hill a bit so I figured I wouldn’t push it to hard and build into it. I did that and road a pretty steady, solid race. A steady, solid, slow race. I just could push harder than tempo or the legs would fill with lactate and I would practically come to a stop. I did pass my 30” man a bit before the finish but it tock a lot.