Clarks Valley 40K (25mi) ITT

Headed to Mechanicksburg this weekend to visit Brian and participate in the Clark's Valley 40 K ITT. A pretty good race venue except for the turnaround at the 20K point. I really don't like races where you literally have to turn around. the upside to it was they did it on an uphill grade so it made accelerating out of the turnaround much better than others I have seen. The course was fairly hilly but more downhill portions on the return trip. I only remember struggling on 2 of the climbs on the way back.

I felt pretty good this morning and again had pretty high expectations for myself. My start time was at 9:15:30 and was one of the4 last start times on the day. The race started out on about a 3 mile uphill grade. I was feeling pretty good and usually can ride pretty Strong on climbs like this. I was holding between 23 and 24 mph for this entire portion of the ride then things leveled off for a bit then back to more climbing. It was really hard to keep a good rhythm on this course but I was holding my own. I probably went a little too hard though because by the time I reached the final climb before the turnaround i was really starting to feel it. Man I need to lose some weight.

The turnaround as I said want bad and I was able to accelerate back up to speed fairly quickly although I was really starting to feel the first half in my legs. I continued to push myself though and finished with a 1:09:09 time (21.69 mph). I was pretty happy with this time but am pretty sure I could have done better. I did not have any trouble with my heart today but i did back off on my efforts a couple of times during the race fearing that I was riding too hard, I really need to get over that though, hopefully I will over time.

Of course Brian smoked the course on his new REK breaking the sub hour mark with 56 or 57 minutes...Good job Brian.

UPMC ITT, Team TT Family day at the track

The next race I did this month was the UPMC, ITT adn Team TT family day at the track on July 12th. What a great time, Ag3r/indianacycling.com had a good turnout on the day and had some great times to boot.

The ITT was 10 miles on the oval track in Pittsburgh and I was excited about it. I had pretty high expectations for my self on the day and didn't walk away too disappointed. The races got off to a late start, being the first time for this event, but once things got started everything went fine.

I started off the race feeling really good, and ramped it up right out of the blocks , which can be a bad idea for me but seemed to be working for me this particular day. At about the 2 mile mark though my heart kind of flip flopped, so I up shifted immediately and increased my cadence, increasing my heart rate a little. I have found that this will sometimes keep my heart from jumping into affib, that along with some controlled breathing did the trick. My heart held its rhythm and I continued on. Unfortunately though it was in the back of my mind so I kind of backed off the pace for a while. I did however ramp it back up for the last four laps which definitely helped my finish time of 24:34 with and average speed of 24.42 MPH.

Overall I was pretty please with my performance but I know that I could have done better having plenty left for the end. Hopefully as my racing and training increased I will have fewer problems with my heart as in the past.

The other high point on the day was my soine race as well. They had kids races between the ITT and the TTT. ONe lap around the treack sith a rider coach along for the ride. Kids that had parents racing that day got to have them as thri rider coackh so I also got to ride with him. He is only 5 but tey let him race anyway. His one lap time was 02:46 with and average speed of 10.84 MPH. A great time was had by all and I look forewar to next years event.