2008 Texas State Time Trial Championship

I raced Cat-5 in the Texas State Time Trial (Individual) on Saturday 8/2/08. If you don't know, Category 5 is entry level for US Bike Road Racing (USCF). Since I don't maintain a road racing license, Cat-5 is the only division open to me. Based on the number of Time Trial races I did this year, though, I may get a yearly license next year. This race is held in Pattison, a small town outside of Houston, which, unfortunately seems to barely tolerate the event...more on that later.

Its a 40K out-and-back course...pretty flat (couple of rises to deal with), and sometimes a good south wind making a headwind on the way back. ...it is August in Texas after all!

This is the 2nd year I've done this race and I enjoy a flat, non-technical course for a time trial, so that I can focus on running a consistent effort level, right on the edge of my ability.

Hydration is a big part of this event, since temps are 90+ and humidity levels are in the 90% range (I drove through heavy fog on the way to the race site!!).

To prepare, I started drinking extra water several days before, then had plenty of electrolyte drink hours prior to the race and during my warmup, as well as some additional electrolyte capsules.

I carried a 20 oz bottle of water on my bike frame, and drank 10 oz of water just before my start. Warm-up is on a trainer (fortunately, I scored a parking space next to registration, and had a shady spot to set up my trainer!).

Its always a challenge pinning a race number to a one-piece skinsuit. Get it wrong and you've now attached a parachute to your nice aerodynamic outfit! I used suggestions from some folks in Fit2Train on attaching the race number (crumple the number, and used a pillow inside the skinsuit to stretch it out to pin the number on)...that worked great!

I've been racing these events on perceived effort level (instead of monitoring HR, etc), and that has worked out pretty well of late. Starting, I went out hard, then backed it off a few notches and settled into a rythm that I felt I could maintain.

It felt like there was a headwind on the way out, so I was looking forward to a little boost on the way back. At one section, I went through a sampling of 'country' aromas (roadkill, then skunk, then fertilizer/livestock)....reverse order on the way back.

I reached the turnaround at around 31 minutes, a little slower than I planned and headed back....into a headwind....how was that possible?????! I settled into a gear that kept my cadence high, and worked on trying to crank out a good effort without blowing up.

At 5 miles out, I started pushing harder, and at 1K I emptied the tank.

Plenty of hydration and stretching/cooldown after the race!! My final time was 1:05:26 (22.79 mph), 23rd place in Cat-5. That's about a 5 minute improvement from my results last year, moving up 25 places.

As I said, it seems that the town is not very friendly to the race...a van was allowed to speed right past the start line, with the sheriff yelling at the cyclists rather than the driver. And, a racer was actually pulled over and ticketed during the race for apparently crossing out of the sholder and into the traffic lane.

I will probably do this race again next year, but I hope the organizers can either come to a better relationship with the town, or move it somewhere else.