RR: Masters Nats 2K Pursuit

OK, it's 6 hours after my race and I am STILL jacked up! And no, I haven't had any caffeine!

Tonight's race was the 2K pursuit--6 laps of the track, just you against the clock. Well, there is someone else on the opposite side of the track against their clock.

10 women in the age group.

bike set up was 47x15 again with Mateo's disk wheel and I added Ben's clip-on aerobars. Thanks boys! I went to the track about noon and Donna wasn't going to race for about an hour, so I took the road bike and went out for about 30 minutes down the trail just to wake my legs up a bit. It was hot and sunny but the trail was actually mostly tree-lined, so it wasn't too hot.

Back to the track to watch Donna and Libby race (2nd and 3rd). Before their race, Harvey took my bike over to the UCI measuring device to measure it with the aerobars. Legal on the bars, but the saddle was too far forward by a couple of centimeters. He said they'd put me on it to see if I got an anatomical exception, but since I wasn't short (and have longer legs v. torso, not likely). CRAP! That was the end of the morning session which really was nearly 2:45 PM! Better get something to eat and drink, then back to the track. Got back to the track about 4:00 and weather.com said 94F and 16% humidity. Larry later said his car read 101F. I think that was closer to it. Got changed and got out on the track and did about 10 minutes and spent some time in the aerobars and didn't like how they were angled, so I got Kevin to help me change them and while we were at it, move the saddle back. That actually worked out better since I like to ride out on the end of the saddle when I'm in the aero position and I felt almost like I was on the TT bike. I got Johnny to pin my number, then it was back on the track for another 10 minutes of warmup, then off. Dire need of fluids. Man, it was hot and dry. Last bit of warm up on the trainer, just to keep my legs loose.

I was in Heat 1 of the first race of the evening session and I was paired with Karen Brems (again!) She's the one who is an Olympian and former world champion that I had to ride against a couple of weeks ago. She passed me 3 laps into the race and had a blazing time that day. Let's see when she would pass me today.

Goal: Ride faster than I even have. (Which would be anything under 3:19).

My start was on the start/finish side and my holder was Bob P. While I was waiting in the chair, Leo came up to tell me good luck and don't go too hard on lap 2. He'd had a 9 second improvement earlier in the day. Nine (9) seconds????!!!! Leo, did you skip a lap?? ha I rubbed his leg for good luck and then it was onto the bike. A different count than the day before---15 seconds start, then beep at 10 seconds, then beep for 5-4-3-2-1 and long beep, GO. I took off and I think I had a lot of nerves and wasn't fully paying attention to the start so my start wasn't too good (I think). But luck for me, Karen false-started. Mark A. was in the curve and he was shouting to shut it down. Ride around and line up again and this time I was totally in the moment and got a good start. Up out of the saddle, arms straight, power forward, not down, out of the saddle all the way out of turn 2, down into the aerobars before turn 3--yes!

I was going pretty hard the first lap, but on the second lap I told myself, "Float the pedals", two laps down and then coming out of turn 4 on the third lap, Karen goes by me. This was almost the same place that she passed me two weeks ago, so my thought was that we were doing about the same times as two weeks ago. If that's the case, don't die off and maintain and I'd likely have a PR. I usually get a big slow down in lap 4, but today I didn't slow as much. I felt pretty good and then in lap 5 I maintained and lap 6 I tried to pick it up. Johnny was on the other side of the track as the holder over there, so every time by him he would shout, plus everyone else was yelling so it was nice to have a lot of support. I made a final push across the finish line and had no clue what my time was. The announcer gave Karen's time (2:35!) and then mine.....3:10. NO FREAKING WAY! That was a 9 second PR!!!!!! I was totally jacked and have spent pretty much every minute since then with a huge smile on my face.

I got in a cool down spin (ending the spin with Glenn handing me a beer--that's the way to do a cool down spin!) and immediately started thinking about how I can go faster. I know I can break 3:00 next year!

My first 2K was in May this year and my time was 3:27.32, so I've taken off 17 seconds this year. Not bad!

Karen's 2:35 won. I was 10th of 10, but that doesn't matter.