Willow Time Trial 2007

The Willow TT officially marks the beginning of my race season. Everything before is prep.

The preceeding week was a hectic one. I flew all day on Thursday which negated any training. I had every intention of getting on the trainer when I got home but I was absolutely gassed. I had been feeling the accumulation of training stress in the form of leg soreness and fatigue. It seemed wise to just stay off the bike. The next day, Friday, I had to run around town doing errands and working on some home improvement assignments. When I hadn't gotten on the bike by dinner I decided it would be in my interest to not deplete glycogen the evening before a big race so I bagged the whole thing. The funny thing was, my legs started to really feel good by the time I went to bed. I carbo-loaded all day which, combined with rest, made my legs feel like coiled springs. It began to feel as though I may have a good day on Saturday.

Last year I would get so excited prior to a race that I had difficulty sleeping. I did Rochester last year on an hour or so of sleep. This year I feel more relaxed. Maybe it can be attibuted to knowing what to expect. Last year every race was a big unknown.

James, Maria and I made the stop at Starbucks for caffeination on the way to Willow Metro Park. Maria has been playing soccer and holding off on her season until that is all behind her. She wanted to enjoy the race atmosphere with us and help us our by acting as our sounivier. I don't think I spelled that right but you know what I mean. She helped us get bikes set up bibs pinned, etc.. She was absolutely fantastic at this job, dare I say, worldclass!!

James was scheduled to go off first at 830am and I at 1030am so I was able to work with James and the rest of our junior team. As a father and a coach I couldn't be any prouder of our guys! For kids to go out and suffer for 35-50 minutes riding as hard as they can is just amazing! I don't think I had the discipline at that age to do what they do and, in addition to that, they seem to love it! Yikes!!!

We love the pre/post race atmosphere. When James is done racing he will usually spin his bike around alternately watching the race an socializing. We have made so many friends in this community from all over the area. Every race is a like a little reunion! He will ride back to me make a report on results and head back out again for more recon.

Anyway, back to the race. James won his category, (Jr. men 13-14) and improved his time over last year by 7 minutes!!!! He had a smile on his face as he went by us at the half-way point. You just know when you are having a good day and he was. He was kitted out in his AAVC uniform and aero helmet. Check out the pic at the left. Doesn't he look like a bike racer?

He won but not by a huge margin. His teammate Alexey was right behind his time but that was all good! He is thrilled to have a racing buddy on his team after all the lonely races he has done when he starts with the older boys and cat 5's, gets dropped early and guts it out on his own. He is getting closer and closer to being a player in these races.

I don't want to forget my athletes who all had great performances. My teammate Rune "Ruin" Duke improved his time over last year by 44 seconds to take twelth in the cat 3 field. John Burrows knocked off 1:11 from last year to take 12th in a very competitive Masters 45-54 field. Mike Sackett managed to 32:33 for his very first time trial to take 7th in the cat 5 field. This is always a very competitive group because many strong triathletes show up and post very good times. Not bad posting the 82nd out of 230 riders on your first time out! Josh Freeling also did his first TT and he did it without aerobars managing a 38:08! Zach Maino knocked off 2:17 seconds and took 11th in the cat 4's! As a coach I was very pleased with all of their performances. After a good start, my goal is to keep the steady improvement going all the way through the year. We don't want to end up going in reverse like we have seen in the past.

As for me, I managed to clock a 30:09 to take 2nd in the cat 3's right behind my fellow SLC mate Joey Schaard. Remember that name...Schaard. He posted a 28:55!!! That is 12th overall! And this without a disc wheel or aero helmet which easily would have bagged him 30-40 more seconds which would have nudged him very close to a top 5 finish overall. Wow! That's Joey in the pic on the left.

I was very pleased with my time. My target was to get something around 31:00 which would have been a 3 minute improvement over last year. As it turned out, I cut 4 minutes off of last year. What difference one full year of racing can make.

After the racing we gathered for sorting/protesting phase of the day. As always, some folk miscounted their laps and turned impressive 5 lap times! James earned $15 for his efforts and a blue ribbon.