Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, October 10, 2005

As many of you know, this hasn't been a particularly good year in terms of cycling. Lots of work without many results. I had some results early in the year and then I started working for Nationals. That's when I got to get personal with a really big truck and the bottom fell out. The entire second half of the season has been trying to recover from the injuries sustained from my close encounter of the truck kind.

I didn't really expect to do much racing after the crash, especially after trying to find some climbing legs and realizing the closet seemed to be empty. That's when I found out that there was going to be a State Time Trial Championship after all this weekend. I decided that if I could get Spinblade back I'd give it a try if I could. When everything came together I signed up.

I didn't really expect to do really well. My outside goal was to medal but I really expected a mid-pack finish. As I did some testing the week prior and I found that I had a little power but I couldn't get my heart rate up over 172 very reliably which is about 12 bpm less than I usually run in a long TT. I showed up at the course near Rome, GA and drove the course to get a sense of it. Things didn't look very good. The course, which had been described as flat, actually had a lot more elevation change, especially the climb right after the turn-around. All of the sudden I felt a lot worse about my chances since I haven't been climbing very well.

About 45 minutes before my start time I started my warm-up and felt pretty good. The day was just a little windy and drizzly and after my warm-up I had a bit of trouble staying warm as I had sweated pretty good on the trainer. As I rolled up to the start line I began to dial into the zone. I counted down with the official and powered away fromt he line. I started in one too big a gear but soon got up to speed and settled into my aero bars and began to power. Almost immediately I knew that I wasn't going to get my heart rate over 172. I decided that I couldn't worry about it and that I'd just do as well as I could. The course was challenging in terms of a lot of shallow climbs that sapped the legs. I passed my 30 second man at mile 3, my 1 minute man at mile 4 and my 1:30 man at mile 6. As I hit a harder climb at mile 9 I was caught by the best pro TT man in the state, Tony Scott. No worries I fugured as I wasn't really racing Tony and I could use him as a rabbit. For the next four miles I held him within a 100 feet until he finally dropped my on the false flat after the big climb out of the turnaround.

By mile 16 I was really beginning to suffer but I was holding it together. I kept looking back to see if anyone else was catching and no one was. At mile 19 I really started to try to give it everything I had left. As the pain increased I focused on my breathing and that worked until about two miles out when I began to beg to see the finish line. I was groveling but I kept giving it all I had left until the church where the start/finish line came into view. The whol last mile was a long 2% uphill grade and I powered towards the finish. Over the last 300 meters was a somwhat steeper ride and for the only time in the ride I stood up to get more power and I gave it everything. As I finished I nearly collapsed on the bike. I had ridden hard but I wasn't sure if I had given it enough to end up with a medal. Maybe but I wasn't sure. As I checked my time I had something around 55:45 for a 23 mile course. I had ridden at around 25 mph so I had met a goal I usually set for my long TTs.

After about an hour wait the results were posted. I was stunned to find that I had won my class and had finished withing the top 7 overall including the pros with a time of 55:32. Absolutely unbelievable! To have suffered the accident, the skull fracture, the long recovery and then to still not only compette to to actually win the state championship is just amazing. My mind is still trying to comprehend the fact that I won. I'm sure that God had a lot to do with all of this, if only in the fact that I'm not dead when I surely deserve to be. There's still a lot of work to do to get ready for next year but for the next week I get to rest and recover which is something I need. I haven't hurt after a TT like this ever so I guess I really left everything out on the course. After the week off I'll go back to base miles and see if I can get back to building my LT back to into the 180's.

Thanks for reading.

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