Race Report: State Time Trial

No jersey, not even a podium for me today.  I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with me.  I don't feel like I've been racing well for the last month or so. 

The weather was sunny, humid and windy.  The temp was in the high 70s/low 80s.  I got about a 35 minute warm up in, raised my heart rate in the 160s twice.  I pulled to the line and felt great.  I was good off the start and settled into my rhythm quickly.  I was passed 7:23 in, but was expecting because Chris Harre was starting behind me.  I had a slight cross tail during the first 10K.  I did that section in 14:54.  

Moving into the 2^nd quarter, I could see a rider in front of me, so I set out to catch her.  The wind direction became more a true cross or a diagonal head wind in some spots.  I went 16:08 to the turn around.  Eduardo started four minutes back of me, he passed right after the turn passed me.  I had expected that as well.  I began having trouble holding the gear I was in.  My cadence would drop sub-100 and I would take gear off, then I would be able to get it back to 107/108 so I would add gear.  It would drop to 104, I would hold it for 30 seconds to a minute and not sustain it.  I did the 3^rd quarter of the course 16:49.  I kept getting slower.  

It was at the 30K mark when the wind became awful.  My cadence dropped to the low 90s at one point and I was working hard to keep it there.  My heart rate also popped to 191.  I really struggled and pushed to finish the last 10K.  My last quarter was 18:13.  My overall time was 1:06:04 which put me in 4^th and slower than last year. Maureen, the winning women, came in at 1:02 and some change.  My heart rate average was pretty high for the race 181, and I maintained a 104 cadence, which is normal for me in a tt.  

I'll work tonight to get my head in the game for tomorrow.  We'll have a tough field, a lot of the same ladies that raced last Sunday.  Good news is the high temp for tomorrow is supposed to be 83.