First Race

I searched the Internet and found the Bicycling Coalition of Maine's Calendar. On it were a series of Time trial races. I had no idea what that meant, but with the glorious Internet i quickly discovered that it meant I did not have to ride side by side with anyone. I was still working on having a conversation with the rider next to me on our group rides, and could not hold a line if I look to my left or right for too long. Time trials sounded like the format for me. I went to a local Bike shop and asked the owner what kind of average I would have to have to be competitive at a time trial. He had years of experience and was happy to share. It was disappointing to hear that 20 mph was the low end for a 15 mile TT, and if i wanted to see top 10 I would need be at least that fast. My average at the time on a good 14 mile effort was about 15-16 mph.
I started reading more about performance training and invested in a heart rate monitor, which I now consider a necessity for any level rider. I continued riding outdoors, and put some intervals in on the trainer. My friends I rode with started to get suspicious when I would tell them that I needed to skip the group ride because I was going to ride the trainer indoors.
I set a date for my first race, and set up a makeshift schedule for my ride times and types. I grabbed an old note book and started recording information on performance, weight, duration and efforts. May 5th, 2007. My first race. I was nervous, excited, but as soon as I was on my bike warming up, I felt connected to the group of people around me in a way I never have. I felt a strange sense of equality, and even though I was the new guy, I was welcomed into this little club of foolish bike racers. I warmed up the best I could on the surrounding roads, and took my spot at the line. One moment I am sitting in line, waiting to go, and the next I am looking down at my heart rate monitor wondering how my heart rate could possibly be at 202 BPM. It was a flat 4 turn course, I got into the best aero position I could (still riding a regular road setup) and tried to get my heart rate with in the ranges I had been reading about for the prior months. Chris Carmichael's Time trial video was a spring training favorite of mine, and his voice echoed through my head as I focused on my cadence and tried to stay at my lactic threshold. Unroll like a carpet... I was racing. I was alive. I finished up 30th overall that day, out of 66 starters, and 7th in my age category, out of 12. I was happy. I rode a time of 33:21
The rest of the race series went well, I also dabbled in a few road races, which I will blog on later, but the TT was my main focus. I ended up buying a Salsa tt bike from Bikeman.com, and informally riding for their team. I was proud to wear a "sponsors" jersey, and finished in the top ten in all the races in my age category. Overall, for the series, I was 6th in my age category, and proud to have raced to the highest level I could have pushed myself for the entire season. At my last race, I averaged 24.66 mph.
As much as I loved racing in the time trials, road races peaked my interest a bit more, so I set off to attempt a few of those....

http://www.bikemaine.org/maine_ttseries_2007results.htm