Ouch..Church Creek TT and Peaking.

Ouch is right.  I think I was about the only guy who couldn't sit or stand properly after the TT.  I have to say, my strength is not time trialing or hill climbing. Get me in a sprint, and that's what I like. It's even better when I have a decent train to follow.  

The first 10km I was hammering it (probably averaging about 28 MPH or more).  Unfortunately for me I caught my 30 second guy within about 30 seconds. Then it left me with my minute guy which I could see in the far distance.  For a while, I thought I was catching him.  I was humming and it felt great. I knew that I would probably blow up later on, however I really didn't care, cause I don't think I would be able to hold 25.5  or 25 mph later on even if I did go slower in the first 10km.  Myron had told me that on the back side the wind would change and be helping push me from the back.  I never did find that happening.  What helped was when it got smooth on the road.  I blew up somewhere around 25km to go.   Grant Soma decked out in his long sleve skin suit passed me.  I looked down at my computer to see how fast I was going, and it was on pause! Crap!  The stupid speedo stopped registering for some reason, probably because of the rough roads.   I didn't dare try to fix it while riding, so I just continued on.  Trying not to lose so much time to Grant.  It was a good thing that he passed me as I could figure out that I was going too slowly before.  I had him in my sights, however he was pulling away slowly but surely. I passed another 2 guys however it wasn't my one minute man.   With about 8 km to go, I decided to go all out.  Well, it lasted about 30 seconds and boom.. I couldn't hold that effort.   I originally planned to go with 4-5K as an all out effort.  When I got to 4K, I couldn't muster any effort.  Well, all good plans fail.   I was so toasted by the end that I couldn't even give it any extra effort, even with 500 meters to go, unlike the TT which I did at Tour of Lancaster County, which I had lots of strength to put in a sprint when I saw the officials tent. 

After I crossed the finish line, my hips were feeling that they had gone out of place. There was lots of pain both in my ass and in my hips.  My positioning must have been wrong, especially because I didn't have anyone actually fit me for the TT.   I just swapped out my seatpost and saddle for my old seatpost and saddle which I moved forwards a bit.  I rode maybe three times with the clip on bars which I got from my teammate John Myrick.  And in those times, I adjusted my seat every time.  Actually on one of the rides, I got saddle sores...so something was definitely wrong. Luckily this time I did not, which was a miracle in itself. 

So for the future, I'll need to make sure that I'm positioned properly, mark those positions, probably replace my old saddle as it's totally too pliable now. (Selle Italia SLR Gelflow) .

I rolled around for a bit and then my ass started seizing up.  I could no longer sit and standing wasn't too much better.  I started my trek back to the parking lot which was 5 miles away.  Ugh.. I could barely pedal as the pain was so bad. Even the women who finished later passed me on my way.  Kay, 7 times National Champion, rode by me asking me how I was... All I could mutter was that my ass was killing me.  I finally arrived back having John Myrick load my bike in to his truck as I couldn't even think about performing that task.  Then it was the waiting period.. We waited around for a couple of hours for the results to finally be posted.  Crazy!  Well, it gave me the courage to ask this kind massage therapist whether a massage would help relieve the pain or at least help it heal quicker.  I also did that to spend my time wisely instead of waiting for the results.  As soon as I asked to sign up to be her next patient, the results went up for the Cat4's.  I was thinking that if I did sign up the Masters 35+ would be up.  Well, about 10 minutes later in to my nice massage, they finally got put up.  I really didn't care as the stretching and massage was actually helping me.  She kept saying how I was really tight and I should get massages more often. Don't I wish I could!! However money is a factor and time.   Maybe I'll have my wife get trained into doing massages.. then I could get it free and that I could get it more often.  Plus it would help her stay involved with my cycling.... Not! I don't think she would go for it.  Who knows.  I'll ask her.  Anyway, the massage went well, I hobbled off the table feeling more relieved, but still in pain,  glanced at the results and left.  I have to say I wasn't too disappointed, however not breaking an hour kind of sucks.  Doing it without a TT bike and not having my positioning tuned, makes me think I can go under an hour in the future, if I train at it.  At least I wasn't in the range of 1 hour and 4 minutes or more as I've done this just on my regular drops 15 years ago and got that time. 

I got home took a bunch of ibuprofen and tried to relax in front of the TV.  The next morning I woke up feeling okay, a bit sore on my ass still with hard knots and I still have them today, however much less painful.  I went out on the Sunday 8:30 Bicycle Place ride, thinking of doing a relatively long recovery ride.  Up Mass Ave. the lead pack started hammering away. I didn't think I would chase as this was supposed to be a recovery ride.  However, I looked back and there was only a small group of about 6 riders with me and they wanted to chase. Well, that was the end of my recovery ride.  I pulled several long stints, the A group was long gone.  We however caught a smaller group who fell off of the A group.  Then came up on several more, I got up the Mountain Gate first, and then proceeded to keep going, then passing the left turn I was supposed to go on (it's been a while since I've gone on this route.).  So everyone took the left and I turned around chasing again.  I caught back on after getting back on MacArthur Blvd. and climbed with everyone up the hill towards Great Falls Park, by the time we went down into the park, a bunch of the A group was climbing back up.  I turned around after Chuck Hutch pass ed us going the other way.  Good... no more climbing for me. During the sprint on Democracy, I followed in the back moving up gradually till the sprint started to appear.  Crazy fast, as I was already in my 53 x 11 and spinning as fast as my legs could take me.  A bunch of cars passed us on the left and I caught some of their draft, however I couldn't spin any faster.  I was waiting for SuperDave to pass me however he never came around.  I don't know how fast we were going, but I have to say it was probably the fastest I've gone, however not able to put more power into it as my legs were spinning so fast. 

So anyway.. probably a stupid thing to do to go so hard after the tiring, painful TT.  I was drained after the ride as it totaled about 50+ miles. However, I have to say, I felt that I could chase hard and recover quickly.  There's nothing like being in shape and feeling that you're peaking.  Though there aren't many races left.  So anyway, I'm feeling pretty good for nothing.  Back to the fall and resting and not training much.  I am hoping to keep my fitness, do more base mileage, and hopefully next year will be a better year for me.