it sounded like such a great idea in january
one of my teammates wanted to put together a relay team for the Wildflower Triathlon. I jumped at the chance! afterall, it would break up the monotony of mtn bike and road racing, and there are really hot guys who do tri and you get to see them half naked. and Wildflower is a big party -- a weekend of camping and racing and debauchery, right?yeah, right! Wildflower is a big hoo-haw (no, not that hoo-haw, VB). it's expensive (all tri's are), it's a logistical challenge, it's a hard course. yeah, that's right! the course is friggin' hard! it's hilly and windy and bumpy.
so, today I decided to head down to lovely Lake San Antonio and pre-ride the course. I wanted to decide which bike to race (tt or road), gearing, pacing, etc. and it was going to rain in the bay area and be sunny there, so why not?
the course is definitely challenging. you begin with a one-mile 9% climb out of the transistion area and then lots of "rollers." the rollers aren't really rolling, but who's complaining. there are definitely some challenging grades but also some nice descents where you can easily hit 40+ mph. and the pavemnt's not that bad. and I saw 1,000s of turkey vultures and 100s of deer (most laying down -- I think they get fed well at good old Lake San Antonio). of course, there will be 1,000s of moving obstacles (ie other riders) on race day.
long story short, not recovered from last night's intervals, with no warm-up, with nothing aero or lightweight on my bike, in a big-ass swirly cross-wind, wearing a shimmel and my bibs blowing in the wind (oops), I beat last year's winning masters women's relay bike split by almost a minute and I was 4 minutes off the pace for the 2005 winner (in a year when there was no wind). can't wait to see what I can do with the carbon tubulars, skinsuit, booties, spaceballs helmet and fresh legs!
amazingly enough, this isn't my kind of course -- I logged almost 1,900' of climbing with many of the climbs settling in at 9-10%. or maybe it is my kind of course now.
Labels: racing, training, triathlon, wildflower
posted by Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl @ 5/02/2007 08:08:00 PM
3 Comments:
It sounds like you have the potential to take the record if you were only 4 minutes off on a scouting ride.
Best of luck.
do you know how to swim?
you don't talk about swimming in your post.
I do know how to swim. I actually grew up on a lake. But, we're doing a relay -- Janet is swimming, I'm riding, Kim is running. I don't know if I'll ever do a tri -- the thought of bumping around in water with 1,000s of other racers kinda grosses me out -- give me a crit anyday, but don't touch me in the water.
Post a Comment
<< Home