unexpected bling

Two interesting things have happened to me in my post La Luz training week. OK, probably more than that happened - but two is all I'm gonna talk about right this second...

First, Thursday Night Time Trials are back in town. I have a love/hate thing with the time trials. Last year I distinctly recall feeling bike envy during this event. I'd go so far as to call it bike inadequacy. It may be just a local event with some dudes on bikes, but the bling factor on this little Thursday night thing is very high.

The course is a simple 8.7mi out and back along a freeway frontage road, carefully guarded by our County's Finest (thus removing the high traffic factor). Out includes some gradual climbing in short stretches; back includes some nice downhill. I'm gonna come out here and admit that I like time trialling. I sometimes get a little freaked out at high speed, but time trialling is fun to me.

Last year at the time trials, it was my first triathlon season. I had Irene with me (back then she was Ira), she weighs about 25lb on a good day. I had clip-on aerobars and that's about it. No fancy clothes, no fancy anything. Average time for 2 (of the series): 26:46 (and I had to work really really pukingly hard for it).

This year I have no feelings of bike envy, it is what it is. It helps that I have Suzy Q - she's carbon and she's fast. I brought Beloved's geeky aero helmet, I stripped Suzy down to nubs. I borrowed a set of Zipps (for the first time evar) and wore as little clothing as possible so as to reduce drag.

This Thursday was a crappy day for time trialling. Heavy crosswinds all the way - it was not a fast day. Time: 25:20 (and it did not seem nearly as difficult - next time, when the winds aren't so crossy and the bike isn't so squirrelley, I can probably work harder)

So the arithmetic is: Fancy bike + aero helmet + fast wheels + 1 year of training = about a minute and a half on a bad day.

I think that is significant.

Second, was the Socorro Chile Tri on Saturday. "You'll train right through this" says coach. It really says something about how much things have changed when I'm in a place where I can just "train through" a sprint...hee hee...

All the outlaws were there, including Geekgirl, Clydeologst, SWTriGal, et. al.

This year's race was a shorter swim (300 instead of 400m), and a slightly different bike and run course. And it was at a different venue, so the transition areas were different. Plus the race entries were capped at about half of what last year's field was, only about 150 people (vs 300 odd). So 2006 and 2007 are not really comparable at all.

However, just for fun, here's 2006 vs 2007:

Total        Swim    Trans1  Bike   Trans2  Run     
1:23:55.7    9:42    2:15   42:19    1:20   28:22   (2006)
1:20:14.9    6:31    2:08   41:33    0:44   29:21   (2007)

Transition one this year killed my race - I spent a full minute in the transition area fighting with my jersey. I thought about wearing it in the swim, but decided not to. In swim practice with the jersey I felt draggy, so I opted to put it on after so I could get a fast swim. I got a fast swim, and I got a slow transition. Lesson learned.

I probably could have been a touch faster on the bike, but I rode the Zipps again (borrowed from Bones, with thanks!) and I was over cautious with braking - the brake calipers grabbed weird, braking felt a little squirrely. This is something that just takes time to get used to.

The run felt long to me. Really long. I can't explain it. Also, I walked through both of the feed zones. That probably cost me my minute and then some.

All this bitching, and I still managed to get 2nd in my age group - woo hoo!

In fact, a goodly number of the Outlaws managed to get bling (including first overall Female and second overall) - how much do we rock?!