Cool

After a break on Monday, yesterday was another double workout day. After a nice solid drill set swim at lunch (which included an impromptu race with one of my masters teammates), I headed out to the Sidney Velo Time Trials.

What a cool experience! I have to admit, cycling is the last of the three sports of which I have gotten into the specific community. I am pretty entrenched in the running community, I swim in a masters group, but I do not do any cycling workouts with "cyclists." There are a few reasons for this. First, I don't have a road bike, which is a big no-no for group cycling. Second, the strict rules of cycling groups kind of distract me. Last time I was in a group I was concentrating 100% on not breaking any rule of the pack, and not on my workout.

Anyhow, that being said, I went to the 18km TT with an open mind, and ready to get my ass kicked. I arrived at the start and did a quick warmup ( I tried to watch as much of the Canuck game as possible), and proceeded to the start line. Although the TTs are low key, it is pretty cool to line up at the start with someone holding your bike up and the guy counting down from 10. I was actually shaking I was so excited! I shot out of the start gate and gave it a pretty hard go for the first km. I knew I wasn't really warmed up, so I tried to get there as soon as possible. After about 5km the first cyclist passed me, but I wasn't too worried. I went out around 35km/hr into the wind, and was cruising at around 42-43 km/hr on the way back. I finished the first lap in 13:51, which I was happy with. I had no idea what to expect for this TT, so I was going to be happy with anything under 30 minutes. The second lap felt way better. I was warm and feeling good. The legs were burning but for 30 minutes I can handle just about anything. I got passed by coach Dan on this lap (who blazed through the TT with a time of around 25:30), who was the second and final person to pass me. I finished the second lap in 13:46, for a negative split. Total time was 27:37. We'll have to check later if I was DQ'd though, since my wheel locked up on one of the turns and I hit a pylon, which is an offense.

All in all it was a great experience. I will be hitting this workout every week now, as it is just an unparalleled intensity workout that is so good for the legs. This morning was a Fartlek run at 6:30 am, and I'm heading to the pool at noon.