So today was my first Davis TT, second of the season. I drove out to West Davis, parked, suited up, then rode the 5 miles to the start of the time trial. The time trial is 10 miles long, 5 out 5 back. Whats nice is that it seemed pretty competitive but it was free. I could have seen them charge like $1-$3 for it to create a prize etc, but still im glad they dont.
It took me awhile to get signed up. By signed up, I mean that a guy with a clipboard was walking around and taking people's names down and gave you a starting place number. I was 27. When you crossed the line, you yelled out your start number. Simple.
I was expecting a whole lot (story of the season thus far eh?) but hoped to not get beat by any girls, dont die, and beat some people.
My start went fair, didnt get clipped in too quick. The course is mostly flat and straight, but ofcourse featured some of the wellknown Davis wind. This time it was blowing from the south---oh and it was a little warm too at about 75F in the shade. Its been raining for the past few weeks it seems.
I caught the person that started 2 places in front of me within the first 3 miles. And i was steadily pulling back the woman that started in front of me. I finally caught her with like 3 miles to go, then she drafted off of me the entire way back. It was very annoying. The rules state no drafting and if you are caught you must drop back and then resume your pace. She felt that it was my fault that I caught her and couldnt not up the tempo---the reason she felt this way was because she was drafting off me. Its really hard to drop someone when theyre in your slipstream and your going into a headwind. Most of all it was annoying and distracting.
I finished well, somewhere in the high 26's i thought, averaging around the 22 mph mark. Not bad considering that I really havent put in any real hard cycling efforts. I am going to continue to do these biweekly tt's to see my times drop.
The results came out today, and i finished 18th out of 42, didnt get beat by any women (except for the ones in a team trial) and I didnt die. So i guess it was a success.
Official time: 26.55 mins avg'd 23.15 mph. Fastest time 21.18 mins 28.17 mph
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
April Spring Kayak race
So today was the next installment of the RCP kayak series. The weather was a little nicer than the last race, which was good. But i still wore long pants and a long sleeved shirt (it was a little cloudy at race start). Not a lot of people showed up today, I was wondering if there was another event this weekend, to account for that? The guys who beat me last month didnt show today, and the guys who beat me today werent there last month, so that kinda sucks.
So, did a little bit of a warmup, and the nice part was the race started right on time---11am. Which is a great time to start a race---it lets me sleep in a bit.
So my goal was to go out hard on the start, cause i really got trapped behind a lot of people last month. The start went well, i pulled into about 3rd place with a tandem canoe on my right. The tandem had a faster pace than me, and i tucked in behind it. So there were 3 boats in front of me. As we came to the Ranger Rick island, i was unable to hold the draft, and the group of three kept going. As I rounded the Ranger island, 2 boats came up on my left side (Gary Johnsrud was one of them). Now, the guys in the front, hugged the right side of the lake, trying to stay out of the faster water. I took a look over my shoulder and mike ammon and an OC2 began to cut directly across the lake. I began thinking that their line was better and said so to the two guys i was with. Gary cut over across the lake, and the other guy blocked me so that i could get over. The front of his boat was at my hip, i told him i wanted to get over but that didnt do anything. About 4 mins later i got in front of him, and began cutting over as well. When i finally came to the other side, Gary was now like 25 ft in front of me, and mike ammom and OC2 were just behind me, as well as the guy that had blocked me. At this point, i really tried to turn up the pace and pull gary back in. I was digging very deep and felt like i cut down his gap a little. what i really needed was for the guys behind me to take up the charge and come to the front. So i slowed down, but they didnt come around me. At that point, i decided that i could kill myself and maybe pull gary back, and then be dead and not be able to beat him OR the guys that just sat in and let me work, so i decided to race the guys behind me. I dropped my pace. It was about this time that we came up to china hat island. the oc2 kept going as did the guy that blocked me in (and kept hitting my tail in the draft) and who else but mike ammon was right on my tail at the turn around, just like last month.
However, last month, when i made the halfway point, i felt dead even though i got a good draft all the way out there. This time, i worked all by myself with virtually no draft at all, but when i made the turnaround i felt very strong. I basically did a time trail (with ammon drafting) the whole way back. 1st and 2nd place never made any more time on me after the half way point, and i got 3rd overall. More impressive to me is that my time was like 2 mins faster than last month (the current was stronger than last month, but that would have an ill effect on my time on the way out as well).
I felt stronger and faster, and i didnt even get a good draft. If i had been able to jump on gary's draft as he began cutting across the lake, i might have been in that front group. Because he really didnt make any time on me after the halway point.
Theres always next month----and maybe more people will show.
So, did a little bit of a warmup, and the nice part was the race started right on time---11am. Which is a great time to start a race---it lets me sleep in a bit.
So my goal was to go out hard on the start, cause i really got trapped behind a lot of people last month. The start went well, i pulled into about 3rd place with a tandem canoe on my right. The tandem had a faster pace than me, and i tucked in behind it. So there were 3 boats in front of me. As we came to the Ranger Rick island, i was unable to hold the draft, and the group of three kept going. As I rounded the Ranger island, 2 boats came up on my left side (Gary Johnsrud was one of them). Now, the guys in the front, hugged the right side of the lake, trying to stay out of the faster water. I took a look over my shoulder and mike ammon and an OC2 began to cut directly across the lake. I began thinking that their line was better and said so to the two guys i was with. Gary cut over across the lake, and the other guy blocked me so that i could get over. The front of his boat was at my hip, i told him i wanted to get over but that didnt do anything. About 4 mins later i got in front of him, and began cutting over as well. When i finally came to the other side, Gary was now like 25 ft in front of me, and mike ammom and OC2 were just behind me, as well as the guy that had blocked me. At this point, i really tried to turn up the pace and pull gary back in. I was digging very deep and felt like i cut down his gap a little. what i really needed was for the guys behind me to take up the charge and come to the front. So i slowed down, but they didnt come around me. At that point, i decided that i could kill myself and maybe pull gary back, and then be dead and not be able to beat him OR the guys that just sat in and let me work, so i decided to race the guys behind me. I dropped my pace. It was about this time that we came up to china hat island. the oc2 kept going as did the guy that blocked me in (and kept hitting my tail in the draft) and who else but mike ammon was right on my tail at the turn around, just like last month.
However, last month, when i made the halfway point, i felt dead even though i got a good draft all the way out there. This time, i worked all by myself with virtually no draft at all, but when i made the turnaround i felt very strong. I basically did a time trail (with ammon drafting) the whole way back. 1st and 2nd place never made any more time on me after the half way point, and i got 3rd overall. More impressive to me is that my time was like 2 mins faster than last month (the current was stronger than last month, but that would have an ill effect on my time on the way out as well).
I felt stronger and faster, and i didnt even get a good draft. If i had been able to jump on gary's draft as he began cutting across the lake, i might have been in that front group. Because he really didnt make any time on me after the halway point.
Theres always next month----and maybe more people will show.
Friday, April 14, 2006
an old friend...
Well, today I had lunch with an old friend (and former paddler), Theo Michel. We began discussing kayaking and the Great Race and such and it wasnt hard to pump each other up, although it never has been very hard to do with the two of us.
The training plans began to get developed, and it sounds like he's onboard with my "2006: the year of the win" philosophy. 5am Natomas paddles are just part of that plan.
As the weather is getting nicer, I'm starting to amass my "team" for the Great Race. I put team in quotations because I'm going to be racing all by myself, but its going to take a village to get me there, or at least a handfull of accomplished athletes.
The Davis 10mi TT's are another part of that plan----I found out today, the next one is April 26th, and they repeat every other wednesday after that. I'm planning on doing all of them (ive missed one already). I was doing this same thing in my 3 month stint in New Zealand and found that it really helped my top end bike speed.
The training plans began to get developed, and it sounds like he's onboard with my "2006: the year of the win" philosophy. 5am Natomas paddles are just part of that plan.
As the weather is getting nicer, I'm starting to amass my "team" for the Great Race. I put team in quotations because I'm going to be racing all by myself, but its going to take a village to get me there, or at least a handfull of accomplished athletes.
The Davis 10mi TT's are another part of that plan----I found out today, the next one is April 26th, and they repeat every other wednesday after that. I'm planning on doing all of them (ive missed one already). I was doing this same thing in my 3 month stint in New Zealand and found that it really helped my top end bike speed.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Run: Zoo zoom 5k
So not that i expected much, but my first 5k didnt go so well. (maybe i have more of a natural talent for kayaking, because i had about as much training in the boat as i did on my run, and my kayak race went much better than this 5k race)?????
anyway, back to the race.
5k April 9th zoo zoom through land park.
it was nice to see some of the old peeps from my running team (River City Rebels), i was sportin the singlet, so that was cool, as was the weather in the morning.
The race went something like this:
1st mile: 6.22
2nd mile: 7.11
3rd mile: 7.44
total time: 22.33
pace per mile 7:16
Overall, i was number 69.
The main Eppies Ironman threat was Mark Barrett at 17.46. Thats 4min and 47 seconds ahead of me on a 5k!!!
For an eppies length course (5.8 miles) that'd be closer to like 8 mins or so. Damn, that means I got a lot of work ahead of me.
Being I'm an optimist: Im going to be training with the Rebels in the near future, and that'll improve my running. My 5k PR is 18:26 which would have only put me 45 secs off of Barrett which is good. But not good enough for 2006. 2006 is the year of the win, not the year of the good.
Next 5k race: Elk Grove Fun Run (May 6th) and Race for Cure (May 13th)
Next Kayak race: April 23rd at Lake Natoma again.
anyway, back to the race.
5k April 9th zoo zoom through land park.
it was nice to see some of the old peeps from my running team (River City Rebels), i was sportin the singlet, so that was cool, as was the weather in the morning.
The race went something like this:
1st mile: 6.22
2nd mile: 7.11
3rd mile: 7.44
total time: 22.33
pace per mile 7:16
Overall, i was number 69.
The main Eppies Ironman threat was Mark Barrett at 17.46. Thats 4min and 47 seconds ahead of me on a 5k!!!
For an eppies length course (5.8 miles) that'd be closer to like 8 mins or so. Damn, that means I got a lot of work ahead of me.
Being I'm an optimist: Im going to be training with the Rebels in the near future, and that'll improve my running. My 5k PR is 18:26 which would have only put me 45 secs off of Barrett which is good. But not good enough for 2006. 2006 is the year of the win, not the year of the good.
Next 5k race: Elk Grove Fun Run (May 6th) and Race for Cure (May 13th)
Next Kayak race: April 23rd at Lake Natoma again.
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