...and a new race season begins!

Today kicked off the new cycling season! Ahh...the first day in a whole lotta days of getting up at 6am, eating tons of food, and hauling bike crap all over the place.

Today was a kickass day! The weather couldn't have been better for the IceBreaker this year and believe it or not, I didn't come in last place or even close to it! When it comes to time trials I have no expectations. Last year I struggled at all of 'em and usually ended up in last place or near last place in the Women's Cat 4 field. I've been training hard this winter and I definitely feel stronger than last year, but sometimes it's hard to know for sure. I did pick up an extra 20-30 watts at the CycleU performance test, but wasn't sure how that would translate on the road.

I very nearly missed my start time today, which isn't like me at all. I made note of my watch being 6 minutes behind the official clock, and then totally forgot about it while warming up. I cruised to the line thinking I had lots of time and got there 30 seconds before I was scheduled to go. I got blasted by the ref...sorry about that! I barely got on the bike and was off.

My legs felt great today and the new aero position was surprisingly comfortable the entire ride. Usually I get passed by tons of riders behind me but I only got passed by one other Cat 4 gal and it wasn't until nearly the turnaround. Shortly after the turnaround I had a TGH rider in my sight shortly up ahead and can you believe it....I actually passed someone AHEAD of me in a TT!! Yup, that's DEFINITELY a first! About 2-3 miles from the finish I was starting to hurt badly but tried to keep focused, stay aero, and just crank through. I punched across the line with a new PR of 29:13.

Official results have yet to be posted but I took a quick look after the race and I believe I was 15th out of 33 gals. 15th!!! I'm so used to looking at the bottom of the Women's 4s that I was perplexed when I didn't see my name. I asked someone, "Am I on here?" They said, "yeah...about midway down." Midway? Cool!

Turns out I posted a bit quicker time than the 29:19 I did on this course at the end of last year's season. So, my first TT of the season is already faster than my peak last season? I can totally live with that! Usually I'm 3-4 minutes off competitive. Believe it or not another minute would have gotten me a top 10.

Zoka had a great showing today. Our Cat 3 guys got 2, 4, and 9 I believe. One of our Zoka gals, Marian, placed 11th. Not sure where everyone else placed but I can say for certain I'm about as ecstatic as I can be right now!