Been a little chaotic in the past couple of days but currently chilling out in the cockpit of the boat watching marina things go by.

Yes, I won my TT in slow, kind of miserable conditions. Not much wind at the beginning but maybe 8mph by he end. We had a wind shift such that about 75% of the race was into a headwind. A little warm for my liking as well.

My main opponent was a woman who I beat last year by 8 min but she’s upped her game this year and won the State RR Championship a few weeks ago. She’s also taken up track racing and is working with a coach who I’ve actually heard of (which is saying something since I am not in that world at all). So I figured she’d be better this year and she was. I only beat her by 3.5 min this year.

I of course wasn’t happy with it. Was sitting on a good time going into the final leg, if I’d smashed that leg, I’d have PRed it. Which would have been something, given the slow course conditions. But I didn’t smash it. I faded. Borderline cramping, hot, miserable. All I wanted to do was sit up and get some airflow over my body. But I didn’t. I stuck it out in aero, at least that’s something...

Overall it was fine. Won the jersey which was my major racing goal this year. But I did not win it in style. I could do better.

Anyway, moving on... met @Cleave this morning to recon the Senior Games TT course. Interesting task, a 5k TT. Just sitting down to figure out how to approach that now. Then we had a nice tour of Cleaves new Green Home. Pretty cool. Then took the dogs to the dog beach, out to lunch, moved the boat, did some chores...

Racing tomorrow am, then mtb fit.

Racing 10k Wed am, then aerotesting, then watching some sailboat racing, then BBQ.

Then home briefly and mtb in Big Bear with friends Fri-Sun.

Lotsa bikes. Staycation #2. Rethinking my approach to bikes and bike racing.

Have fun at the track @sarals, enjoy riding with coach.

I did the Pasadena Senior Games TTs and Tues and Wed. Tues was a 5k TT and Wed was a 10k TT. Wow, those seemed like lame-o short distances to me but it was actually very interesting and fun. Just a challenge to figure out exactly how to ride them and to execute well.

For the 5k TT, I decided to target 111% and wound up hitting 113%. Maxed out my HR, rode it well. One technical lapse which is probably what caused me to finish 2nd by 10 seconds. Oh well, live and learn.

For the 10k TT, I went for 106% and hit 105%. Slight miss but I rode four perfectly negatively split laps, it was technically very well done. Happy with it. Won that one, although only two of us showed up. I think once people qualify on Day 1, there’s not as much need to come back on Day 2.

Coach raced and won too. @Cleave and his teammate were on the podium as well. It was a fun event.

I was surprised at how much I liked these little short distance races. Definitely planning on National Senior Games next year. I’m looking forward to working on developing for these short distance events. Won’t be optimal for USAC Masters National TT but there’s no question in my mind now as to which distance (5/10k vs 40k) I want to work on. If Masters Road Nationals works out, I might try to do it just for the experience. Ditto for the State TT. But I’m not gonna work too hard to make those happen logistically.

Then a productive aerotesting session yesterday.

Good little run of bikes for me in the past few days.

My racing season is now over. My goal events were the NoCal and SoCal State TTs. NoCal was cancelled. I won SoCal. I also wanted to do well in the SoCal TT series but never got much going with that for a succession of reasons- too much mountain biking fatigue early in the season, then missed a few weeks of training because sick, then drama over all the date changes for the State TT created work stress (needing to move vacation time to accommodate the changes) which bled into the training, then I decided to change to a more aggressive TT position a few months ago and am still working through the implications of that.

Despite winning the State TT, I was actually ready to be done with TTing last weekend. All the chaos with the State Championship schedules really does not work for me, I need the training time, I’m not a 1%er on a bike who can just race these things whenever. And it seemed like whoever I communicated with from our local association just didn’t give an F, I just really couldn’t see things getting better, and couldn’t see putting the work into it next year.

But... This Senior Games thing is a reinvigoration for me. A different direction, just when I needed one. Thanks @Cleave and @Racer Ex for suggesting it, and supporting the idea of it.

Basically because:
1. I love my fitter and I just like to see him and chat with him
2. He rarely charges me for follow up stuff, even though he’s supposed to (and I wish he would)
3. We were already down there to do the aerotesting

Before I bought my first mtb, I went to him for a prepurchase fit and we set the Liv up. (This is basically my MO for purchasing a bike, I go to him first to develop a shopping list. The exception was my Madone, which I bought used & just ran the idea by him first, and the new MTB, which I knew would work because I bought it from a friend who is my height). This bike has a 1cm shorter reach and to remedy that would require a new stem. But from what I’ve ridden so far, it felt pretty good. So I just wanted to know if it was worth buying the new stem.

His take was that he thinks the reach is a little short and he thinks I‘ll eventually want a longer stem. But I might prefer the shorter reach descending, it’s worth seeing how it feels. I had some hand numbness on the bike over in Catalina. He thinks that could be that the bars are a little close. But I’ve been noticing that on other bikes too, maybe I’m getting a little carpal tunnel...

Plus my fitter is an avid mtb-er. I kind of wanted to show him the bike. Lol not that he hasn’t seen one...

Omg this new mtb is hot. There’s something about it, I’m not sure what. But it moves very well through curvy, swoopy stuff and switchbacks. Just seems very well balanced somehow. And it keeps its momentum so well, probably by virtue of being lighter and having bigger wheels. Very very cool bike to own and ride. Had a great time riding for three days up in the mountains with friends.

I am smitten.

we have mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, rattlesnakes

i dont carry any animal protection

i do have a bear bell, if that makes me seem responsible