The TT - once again

At least this morning I didn't tweak my back. Could breath. Could put my elbows on the pads and get in the aero position w/o serious pain and could breath deeply. 

These are pretty solid things. I ate and timed the eating better. Downed 3/4 of a sleeve of Cliff blocks 15 min before rolling out. And didn't have the major huger crash riding home. Heck riding home felt pretty good. Sore for sure. 

It looks like i was about 30 seconds faster than last week. Turns out comparing your times from past segments is kind of impossible now. You can see your time and segments for each ride but w/o premium no comparison. 

I fucked up the start of the TT, hit start stop instead of lap, that delayed me. Then discombobulatedly slow to clip in (these damn Ultegra SPDs are not counter weighted well - and single sided is silly but they work). Should have gotten up to speed sooner, should have pushed a bit more at the top of that first peak and held that speed a bit higher, but I didn't have the fade by Agricultural and 118 came up really fast, usually there's some holy fuck this hurts moments along that section. Cranked it out feeling good, trying to keep the cadence and speed up and stay in the tuck. It worked pretty well. Surprisingly hit the halfway mark (118) at 9:2something...  that's not bad, hmm...  of course I did full on die on the rise there before the power lines and the right hand turn onto Reynolds. But got to Reynolds, and we all know how much this sucks, today there was a strong headwind on it too. I made a big effort to get up to speed, and looked down and holding 20 or so? WTF - that's pretty good for me for this road over the last few years...  okay lets push it...  felt gassed as we passed under the powerlines, tried to recover a bit on the downhill left hand sweeper, but also tried to keep pedaling... Again on Peck got passed, Ciril passed me, and then, I launched on the second half of the hill on Peck and went roaring past him and crested at a good clip and got it up to 32 and settled and coasted and recovered. Maybe should have started pedaling sooner or kept pedaling the whole time just to keep the speed up as long as possible but the recovery was important, and well I'm a big guy, and this bike rolls well...

Got through the last bit, working hard, but not quite as hard as I could have, I think I was distracted and left a little on the road. Still flew around the corner, probably slowed down too much on the right hander but I finished up and rolled back, then rolled down, adn back. Recovered and chatted (masked up) and then rode home.

Of course - i totally just now remembered some key factor. This morning I took the frame pump off the bike. the clamp rubs the inside of my fat thighs. And hey - I have yet to use it on the bike. Tossed the mini pump in the seat back. On waterfront drive, after dropping my bag off in the car, well...  got a flat. little cut. Very sad. But since I was early, no big deal. Caught a draft on the bullet train (John Harris/ButcherBlock and Davis) over on Brown and that felt pretty awesome. Good wake up. But still riding over felt good. Legs didn't feel terrible. 

And I made it home w/o another flat. But I will need to replace these tires soon. Maybe they'll hang on for a few more TTs. We'll see. 

Just put some lube on the chain - should be ready to go next week! Rear disc cover is pretty sad - needs some repair. Gotta come up with a better attachment system. Or replace it. It's pretty rough. But still aero.

Things have been busy, crazy, nuts. Lots of stressful conflict, but I think resolved. A handful of shit is broken but all fixed now and lots of other things needing work. But it can all wait till Monday. I hope. Gonna take a long weekend, use one of the vacation days I'll be losing if I don't use it. Will I relax? Nah probably head to the bike shop - fix the MTB, get it ready for the weekend one way or another and see what else happens. Odd not having 'the shop' just a few miles away. That one is still there but not quite the same...

Like I told CF - i think i can probably find more time on that course, riding it feeling like I did today is very different than how I rode it the last few (five?) years. Probably can't get back sub 19 min like my 2013 self, but maybe i can get sub 20, and that would be fabulous. Goals, even tiny little insignificant ones are good, esp with how the world is rolling now.

Y'all take care of yourself and everyone around you.

Amor Fati Motherfuckers

heddwch

G