Ohio State TT Championships

What can I say. I love Time Trials. No head games, no stratagy, no watching what all the other women are up to. Just you, your bike and the clock. This was a great course. Mostly flat, just a couple of baby climbs each lap. Easy corners, and most of all, shaded and protected for most of it. A little bit of rough pavement on the backside, but they cleaned the burm for our use.

Went into this race with about 4 or so hours of sleep. Conferences, planes and airports don't mix well the day before racing. Plus, no training on the bike for five days. Nashville was just to darn far to drag the bike on the plane.

Thanks to SummitFreewheelers. They did a great job. Everyone was so courteous and cheerfull every lap that you went by them. They cheered us on, even in the parking lot.

Shari, Thanks for sharing the car-ride with me, and all the encouragement. We can just trade state championships back and forth for the time trials!!;)

This race marked my first time on aerobars in 2005 (I'm not counting the 3-mile test run I did on Sat.) Factor in the vastly different riding position (Vern's recommendations for TT had my seat the highest it has ever been, and shifted forward), and I wasn't sure what to expect. Not bad, not great.

I lost to Wendy by a mere five seconds. Crimony! The first lap saw me working hard, way above my LT heartrate. I paid for it on lap 2, where the legs were well on their way to dead by the mid-point of the race. I struggled lap 3 but got motivation from two disk wheels that wooshed past me, and then served as something to chase even as they drifted away. I thought I really was maxed out, but forced myself to begin building my pace with roughly 200 pedal strokes to the end. I've been playing this game with myself, and knew I could talk the legs into a good effort for that distance if the lungs would cooperate.

Well, for a TT, I had way more left for the final sprint than I should have had. My coordination definitely was shot--I was throwing my body so hard left and right just before the line, trying to get every ounce I had left, that I almost dumped the bike when my wheel skipped. Fortunately, I stayed upright, and in the parking lot we peeled off into, everyone got to hear my full-blown asthma attack.

This race was beautifully run by the Summit Freewheelers. Just about every corner marshall gave me encouragement. Thanks, folks! Great job done by the women in other fields (um, most of whom beat me), but especially Samantha House of Stark Velo, who turned in the fastest time of all of us.