The Adventure of Sunol, California

The adventure began very early this morning.  Much earlier then anticipated due to the cat determining that a 5am wake up was pivotal for my time trial successes.  An argument with a cat at 5am is most likely not going to end in your favor.  Oh well, I had plenty of time to get the coffee going and the water boiling for my favorite pre-TT breakfast—oatmeal, honey, yogurt, and a dash of peanut butter.  Yum. 

Loaded up the car for a 7:30am departure to Sunol, California.  Approximate distance: 52 miles.  After a few wrong turns and a misguided detour to San Jose on the 880, 75 miles later, I arrived in Sunol.  Sunol is a cute little town, with a fabulous smelling breakfast buffet in the making in the Town Center.  The air was a little crisp for Summer Solstice, but something about seasoned potatoes, bacon, scones, and omelettes makes you ready to sit down and forget about everything else…except the fact that instead of joining in the local festivities, I was about to partake in another tradition…a 10 mile time trial.  The Calavares Road 10 mile ITT to be exact.   Nothing peaceful and summery about that.  Just raw pain, red hazy vision and hopefully a really fast time assisted by the Look 496 and the sweet Team TIBCO skinsuit.

The warmup went well, and I listened to some of my music that I became slightly connected to in France.  Nothing like a little “Explosion Kiss” or “Poker Face” to get you going into serious focus mode.  Right.

It was great to see some teammates out there.  Kat and Amber were out in full force.  A little chatting at the start, a couple of openers on the way over, and I was in line for the TT.  Where was that focus I was searching for?  Not really present.  No one was holding the riders at the start.  This was only slightly comical to me considering they gave you your countdown and then you clipped in and went.  It resembled my failed TT on Tuesday.  My own countdown and then I would be off.  Hopefully I would be able to last longer then 7 minutes this time.  As I tried to start I could only laugh on my sloooow acceleration… Note to self: work on TT start.

The time trial had started, but where was I?  Not really present.  The TT went up and it went down…it went up and it went down.  It was like a roller coaster.  No rhythmn whatsoever.  Tons of shifting and it hurt.  This is supposed to hurt, but this much?  I went mental once again.  A one mile climb was the only place I could find my rhythm.  Then it was down and twisty.  Up and Down and 1 mile to the finish.  Back to that final stretch and there was my rhythm once again.  Frustrated again by my focus, but I will need to practice that.  It is a funny feeling when the entire TT you what the race to be over because of the flooding of you legs, and then as soon as you cross the line, the burning sensation subsides and you know you could have given it a little more.  Next time, everything will be given.  I am still learning.

End of the day, it was a 2nd place finish for me to Emily Zell of Value Acct and I am going to take some positives out of it:

1) I got to wear my skinsuit.

2) I got to ride my TT bike pretty fast.

3) I get to race Mt. Hamilton tomorrow with some teammates.

4) After the TT I went and ate at the brunch buffet in Sunol.  Nothing like a recovery omelette and potatoes.  Delicious.

5) Team Integrate/FFBC p/b Chipotle put on a GREAT event.  Thanks!

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