Black Dog Time Trial June 13th

I finally did my first race!

I managed to leave work on time to find the location of the time trial, not get lost, and even had time to warm up sufficiently beforehand.

Bruce showed up shortly after I did, and gave me excellent instruction on a specific warm-up on my trainer prior to the race. Thanks Bruce!

I think the warm-up really helped. My legs felt good during the race.

I tried to take everyone's advice and start out moderately, but when I looked down at my speedometer, I was at 20 mph. I took it back a bit, knowing that I couldn't keep that up for the whole distance.

I was at about mile 2 when I actually passed a woman who started two places in front of me. I couldn't believe it. I was ecstatic.

At about mile three I started to feel like I was going to throw up. I took the speed down a bit, still felt like I was going to throw up. Realized I was going to feel like throwing up the remainder of the race no matter what, so I may as well go as hard as I can without the HR going over 190.

The turnaround was not very graceful or fast, but oh well.

The way back seemed longer than the way out. I saw the bridge and knew the finish was just beyond it. It occurred to me that this is when I should really push it. But I already was maxed out. When I saw the finish, I imagined sprinting, but I didn't have anything left, except that even stronger feeling like I was going to puke.

I crossed the finish and couldn't remember when I last started my timer, so don't know my real time. Then I rolled around a little afterwards and forgot to look at my avg. pace. Hey, I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice that rational thinking goes out the window when you're in that state of exertion.

I had no expectations whatsoever, since I'd never even tried to see how fast I could go for that distance. I set a goal for myself of an average of 18 mph, and I think I made it.

I haven't checked official results yet, but I'm happy for just having done it :)

Hey Bellas, where you at?

This team has a wealth of talent and experience and enthusiasm, which is why I am so happy to be a part of it. I joined because I was excited to ride with other strong women. However, I haven't seen many Bellas out on rides lately.

My question-- what will it take to get more of us out on regular training rides together?

If the NOW rides aren't a convenient time or location, I'm willing to get something organized for a different time/place in addition to these rides, just so we can get more Bellas out riding together.

C'mon, I know that not everybody is remodeling their condo or healing from a crash...

Kate