In any case, Sunday morning was the Dunlap TT, which I'd done twice before. It's a 30km (previously 34km) TT, and a good warmup for the longer effort of the Sattley TT (40km) this coming weekend, which is the district/state championship. We got there 2 hours ahead, and had plenty of time. It was quite warm, which I was worried about, because my body still thought it was Winter.
Anyway, I kept my feet up while eating second breakfast (race at 11:30 means you have to eat twice). At 10:25, I got on the trainer for a warmup. I had a good warmup and forced myself to go hard a little. That was difficult given the heat, but I was glad I did it. At 11:20, I got off, hit the port-o-let, got my ice-cold camelback under the jersey, helmet on, and my soigneir took my bike out to the road to avoid goathead thorns.
The only difference this year was that we had a start ramp. That was pretty cool, because I could start in cruising gear instead of a couple gears down. I had a good start and then headed on to the course. The winds were slightly off from normal, but close. The only thing was that we never really had a dead-head or dead-tail wind, which evened out the pace and effort a little bit. The first leg, I forced myself to hold back. Then, it was on to the mostly-head-wind, longest 2nd leg. I was doing pretty well on focusing until my camelback started to slither out the bottom of my jersey. So, the next couple miles were spent trying to get it situated where it would stay put. My speed definitely dropped below what it should have been. After the next turn, I caught my 1-minute man, but was also passed by my 30 second and one-minute chasers a bit before the turn. I had expected to be caught by both, however. During the 3rd leg, my camelback finally got situated on my belly. Fine, it wasn't going anywhere, but I was also hitting it with every pedal stroke. I kept telling myself I felt too good, that I needed to go harder. I finally ratcheted it up a few notches in the final 2-3 km after the last turn. I was going significantly faster and still not blowing up. I guess I need to push a bit harder, overall. I felt MUCH worse last year, and was happy I felt well despite the heat this year. Anyway, in the end, I finished in the upper 54 minute range - just under 55 (don't have official time yet). But, I was 56:36 last year, so still a significant improvement.
I felt good about nutrition and warmup. Next week, I will work on equipment and pacing just a bit higher. No camelback next week! I'm looking forward to the beautiful Sattley course.
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