derek_i14

There is an informal weekly time trial that has recently started. So I headed out there tonight on my new TT bike and aero helmet thinking I've totally geeked out. Well in comparison to the other guys out there... I have not yet begun to geek. Skinsuits, disc wheels, and tri-spoke wheels galore.

The course was 10.4 miles long with a bit of a headwind for about 3/4 of it (enough to get a flag waving pretty close to horizontal). For some unlucky reason I got to start first and was passed by two guys. The first started 30 seconds behind me, but the second guy blew passed me going at least 5 mph faster than me. I wanted to cry. Except for the fact that he recently signed with Columbia-Highroad, which is a team that is currently racing the Tour de France.

I averaged 26.2 mph and most of the other guys (ie not recently sponsored) were a bit over 27 mph. So I'm in the ballpark, but not quite there.

I got a swim lesson today. The Kiwi that is up here training for UCI
Worlds swims at my pool about the same time as me and he finally
couldn't take watching me any longer.

Evidently I swim with my butt in the air, my head and shoulders below
the water, and with a snake like wiggle between my torso and legs.

Not good. My mental image of an inch worm flopping from side to side amuses me.

She got into Lake Tahoe for the 4th. Evidently things are going pretty well and her legs are holding up. She said her left knee is a little sore but not too bad. The ankle seems to be ok.

I didn't get to talk to her too much since they were pretty busy trying to find a hotel and get resupplied but she sounds good.

I miss her and hate that we don't get to talk very much. It is very hard.

She left last Friday and has been hiking. Unfortunately she is out of cell phone range and I haven't heard anything. :(

I miss her and I am amazed at how much more enjoyable life is when I wake up with her next to me.

It was a dark and stormy night last night... well at least it was rainy. It looked like much more rain to the south so instead of going to my usual group ride, I went to Wednesday Night Worlds. This is the group ride that the local pro-riders do.

It hurt. A lot. But since they meet past the north end of town, there was no traffic to contend with and everybody in the group was incredibly smooth.

Since there were only 7 of us, they didn't do the regular Worlds course, but instead went over the dams and up to Horsetooth. I stuck with them up till Horsetooth Mountain Park and then flipped as I saw a couple of friends heading back into town.

I have a strong suspicion that they were not going very hard but they were certainly killing me. Very fun ride. I might try to do this ride every other week and see how it goes.

I did a road race today. At one point I was somewhere in the pack that I shouldn't have been (mostly because I haven't been doing enough interval workouts) and looking at what people were doing, I realized that there was going to be a crash. So I moved farther to the back of the peleton and within a minute or two, somebody hit the deck and due to where I placed myself, I was able to avoid it. But I got popped off the back. Grrr.

I love my Wednesday night rides because while they are a suffer-fest, nobody violates the "Don't be stupid" rule. It is a fairly safe environment among a group of people that I really like and trust. The triathlons I've done usually have the same vibe because mostly we are all racing the clock. Road races are completely different and people seem to do stupid things for the sake of position and the attitude of some of the racers is downright repugnant.

Maybe I should accept my true calling and learn how to swim.

First off the stats...
1.5K swim - 35:12 447/632 (7 seconds faster than last time!)
T1 - 2:01
30 mile Bike - 1:18:03 28/632 23.0 mph
T2 - 1:50
10K run - 45:20 113/632 7:18 minutes per mile
Total time 2:42:28
Overall 120/632
Age Group 14/42

Aubrey woke me up at 4:29 am and we got out of bed, and I ate some oatmeal (no muffin, only what I normally eat) and we were out the door. The set up as fine and everything seemed straightforward. Although I was a little short on time due to a second trip to the port-a-potties. :)

The swim went surprisingly smooth. I was slow, but not particularly stressed out. Initially I was feeling pretty good and was thinking about my hips. Eventually most of the wave behind me past by, and then the one behind that... I really need to learn how to swim. :) As I got tired, my stroke got sloppy and soon I was zig-zagging all over the place.

After I got out of the water and stripped off my wet suit, Aubrey said some words of encouragement as I jogged to the transition area. After a quick change, it was time to hammer. The bike route is one that I am intimately familiar.

Initially I was passing a lot of people. One guy was pretty far to the left in the lane, so I passed on the right. Unfortunately he chose that moment to spit. Ewww. As we climbed up to Horsetooth Mountain park, I passed lots of people but was passed by one guy. That is NOT supposed to happen. He was pushing pretty hard to pass me and we were climbing at about the same speed. I was wondering what I was going to do with him because it is obnoxious to play leap-frog, but I have to stay out of his draft. So I was about 30 ft behind. As we started the first descent he stayed on the aero bars while I got onto the bullhorns and into an aero tuck. By the bottom of the hill, I easily had 10-15 mph on him and screamed past him coming out of the scary turn at the bottom. I never saw him again. :) The next (and last) major descent I pulled the same trick.

During the bike ride, I experienced one major gear issue. A few days ago bought a waterbottle that attaches to the aerobars and you just move your head and drink from a straw. The top is designed so that you can pour the contents of a gatoraid bottle into it, but there is a nifty little foam covering that prevents the contents from coming out. In theory. The front of my bike is covered in sticky gatoraid. My legs were covered by the end of the bike leg. I was NOT IMPRESSED.

I came into T2 feeling strong and started the run. Normally it is pretty hard for me to make that transition, but this time it went pretty well. I think a big part of this is that I'm on a proper TT bike which utilizes the quads more, so the hamstrings still have something left for the run. Even though it is better to climb on a road bike, overall I was faster on the P2.

I quickly settled into a solid pace and kept that pace for the whole 10K. By the end, however, I was dead. The last mile really hurt, but it ended well. Evidently Aubrey was cheering for me at the finishing chute, but I completely missed it. Oops.

It was a good race. I wanted a solid run and to dominate on the bike leg. Both occurred and as I look over the results, I can't help but think that if only I could swim....

The last time I raced the Lake-2-lake is here.

Aubrey is home and it is good to be with her. Home seems a lot more like home now. :)

Evidently she has had some issues. :(

She managed to get some pretty bad shin splints while descending some pass and was able to hike for awhile, but they just kept getting worse and worse until she got off the trail at Independence, CA. Right now she is on a bus heading for Reno, NV where she'll catch a flight back home this evening. She'll be home for 10 days and then fly back out and try to continue.

I am both happy and sad about this. I get to see her and get to spend time with her again which is great... but I know this is hard for her. She has been looking forward to the Sierra's for 700 miles and now this. So sad. :(

Hopefully 10 days off her feet and resting will be enough.

Last Saturday we had several out of towners on the group ride. There were two semi-pro female riders from Texas that were getting some high altitude training before heading over to Europe and there was a male Kiwi that was training for the world championships for the Olympic distance triathlon.

Since the ride was out on the flats, we were rolling along quite nicely in a happy peloton when I noticed the tri guy was nowhere to be seen. Evidently he popped off the back at some point. Huh, we weren't really going all that hard.

This morning, as I was getting read for my swim workout, I ran into him and asked what happened. Evidently a 25-ft hill caught him unaware and as we all sprinted over it he popped off. Cycling in a group is all about being able to lay down a lot of power in a short duration and then being able to recover efficiently. Steady power isn't enough.

The last couple of days I've been gearing up for my first race of the summer. Yesterday I did a 60 mile ride, then went to a bike store in Boulder, a Tri shop in Loveland, a feed store for cat food, and then finally to the local bike shop. My kind of shopping.

But in the end, I wish that Aubrey was here to share this build up. Racing is giving me a nice goal for the summer, a reason to pull myself out of bed in the morning. But that goal pales in comparison to joy of waking up next to somebody, working hard during the day so that I can come home to her.

Really the motivation to work so that I can race isn't as strong as the motivation to be able to come home to Aubrey. Hmmmm.

Since my first triathlon of the season is coming up quickly, I opted to do my first ride on the P2 instead of the Wednesday night group ride.

It was pretty windy out and I only averaged 23.2 mph on a flattish course for 31 miles. Not bad.

I wore too much for today's ride. When I left the house it was overcast and the hills (where we were going) were socked in with mist. So I brought the jacket instead of vest and arm warmers.

It got nice out and I roasted. Oops. The trip up Rist was still fun though. :)

It is impossible to go mountain biking without sacrificing a little blood. Since it has been a long time since I last went, I had to make it a good one.

A tight rock constriction followed by a tricky little switchback (going downhill, shortly after where Loggers and Mill Creek meet up) caused me to go over the bars and scrape up my forearm and butt.

A trip to Walgreens on the way home, lots of soap and neosporene and I'm good as new!

Chicks dig scars, right?

We went up to the hills and did Horsetooth, down Glade, and back up Eden Valley. I was with the front group over Horsetooth and the loop around Eden Valley, but fell off at the top of Horsetooth. Not bad. :)

We were cruising pretty easy through Eden Valley until two guys (who started the ride, but fell off the back and then did the route in reverse) joined onto the group. Clearly the guys at the front were having none of that because the pace immediately increased. The first good incline popped them off the back. I was pretty amused.

It is all about a rotating belly button... huh.

I figured out why I couldn't breath to the left. After watching the TI video again last night, I thought about trying to synchronize my stroke and a strong rotation with my hips. It turns out that I wasn't rotating my hips to the left. Once I did that, breathing to the left was easy.

For record keeping: I was able to do 50 meter lap in 60 seconds. When I was counting strokes: 24 per 25 meter length. I'd like to figure out how to get that down to 20 per length.

At least I *think* it is a 25 meter pool...

I realized I hadn't uploaded any pictures from Canyonlands. So here they are. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/derek.sonderegger/CanyonlandsAndArchesSpring2009?feat=directlink

Swimming is the part of triathlons that I suck at. And this is not false modesty, I really do suck. So I tried to swim a bit this spring, but school kept getting in the way and I'd blow it off. Now that summer is here and my first race is less than a month away, I can't ignore it and hope it goes away any more. So I'm back in the pool doing technique drills. The last time around I did the Total Immersion drill sequence and I'm redoing that. I'm confident that by August I'll be at the point of less suckage. By mid June, I'll still be pathetic.

The last couple of days have been good on the bike. Due to the threat of rain we stayed close into town, but still had fun. I'm getting stronger. :)

There was a motorcycle rally going on and they were really loud. Generally they were nice when passing, but a couple went by with only inches to spare while I was climbing a 9 percent grade. I was not amused.

After a weekend off the bike my legs were a little sluggish. I did ok, though. I finished with the main pack (even though the pace was high, we didn't drop too many people) and even threw down an attack and pulled back two escapees. At one point when the pace really started to pick up as we neared the end, I glanced down to check the speed and the peleton was cruising at 34 mph along the flats. It only got faster as we neared the designated finish.

Just in case I haven't made it clear enough... I love my Cervelo Soloist. It fits me incredibly well. Bliss.