Sickly....yet not sickly

J finishes her bike and heads into transition for the run.

Jonnene and I are going thru our own ills right now. She's dealing with the remnants of an apparent gastric bug so she stayed home from work today. I seem to have contracted some allergic reaction to all the dust and stuff I blew around when I cleaned the patio and driveway this morning, using the blower and picking up debris around the house. Plus we're getting the effect of the edges of hurricane E'douard and it's probably blowing some crap around here to dig at my sinuses. Anyway, we're both going in slow motion right now but we should get over it soon.

Last weekend was full of activity to some degree. I went to Katy, Texas (about 36 miles west of Houston) on Friday to participate in the Texas State Time Trial Championships, which were actually being held in Pattison. I shared a ride with Tim, who picked me up on his way there from Monroe, and we got to our hotel in Katy after about 5 hours of driving. We went out to the course for a recon ride. It was nice...wide shoulders that were CLEAN so we didn't have to ride on the road itself (since the course would not be closed to traffic). Good surfaces. We covered about 3/4's of the route but I noted the wind...the course was among all that open land and that invites the wind. The 40-kilometer (24.8 miles) out-and-back course seemed to feel friendly to me and I began to think I could do pretty good out here if I can push my TT bike solidly for around an hour. My whole goal was to see what my fitness level was for the Louisiana/Mississippi time trial championships in LaPlace in five weeks. After a leisurely check-out of the course, we went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and met a couple of Tim's friends who had arrived from Monroe and went out to eat.

Saturday morning we got up, got our gear together, and headed back to the venue to check in and get our race numbers. There were over 380 registered riders in the various categories and age groups. I was in the 50-54 age group with Tim and he was a favorite to win it since he won the 45-49 group last year and had aged up for 2008. I was just hoping for a good showing! I was feeling pretty good and had a good warmup along with getting everything done with time to spare. My start time was 9:09:30 am, so I got there with seven minutes to go, got in line, and eventually rolled up to the start line. The starter counted me down and off I went. The wind was coming out of the west on this north-south course but it was going to be tougher coming back than heading out...that proved true for me. I was doing a conservative ride but I got to the 10-kilometer mark (6.2 miles) in 15:05 and I was very pleased with that. My breathing and heartrate had settled down by then and I felt pretty good. I was out of the rolling hills and now on flat roads, getting to the turnaround 20K mark in 30:11 (my second fastest 20K ever). But the wind was harsher after the turn and the next 10 kilometers saw me lose a lot of time...I think my 30K time was 46:17. I started getting some rhythm back in the last 10K and attacked the hills but I still was losing some time.

When I finally crossed the finish line, I knew I had set a new personal record for the distance. My fastest had been a 1:02:24 that I set back in 1995 in Baton Rouge. But the official time had me at 1:02:01, a 24.05 mph average. I was quite happy with that and it gave me hope that if I train well enough the next five weeks, that I might have a shot at breaking an hour in LaPlace! I'd love to break an hour in a 40K at least once in my life. Tim didn't have such a good ride and managed a 3rd place finish in our age group with a 57:26 (I wish I could get 57 minutes with a good day!). My time, as much as I liked it, was only good enough for 22nd place in a field of 36 riders. That's okay, I didn't seem to mind too much.

During all this, Jonnene was prepping for the River Cities Triathlon on Sunday. Saturday she volunteered to work a few hours to help hand out the race packets and swag bags to race participants. Other than that she stayed home and rested, getting her gear together. I finally got home around 5 pm Saturday and we got her ready for an early wakeup for Sunday.

Four o'clock Sunday morning came early but we popped out of bed, walked the dogs, ate breakfast, and got on our way to Cypress Lake in Bossier Parish. As is our custom, we got to the park 25 minutes before it opened...mainly to be one of the first 50-70 cars allowed to park in the smaller parking lot that's closest to the transition area. If you don't get into that lot you end up in a large field that's a fairly good hike. I don't really like that, so getting there early is definitely worth it.

Jonnene, by-and-large, had a great triathlon. She didn't beat her personal best from almost ten years ago but she was about 3 minutes faster than last year and finished 9th out of 72 women in her age group! The great thing was that it wasn't as hot as it could have been. Later in the day the temperatures reached 104 degrees but that morning there was a steady breeze blowing across the lake that really made the morning quite pleasant...still hot but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Her swim and bike legs were faster (20.9 mph average on the bike!) than I think she was expecting. I'm very proud of her!

Tonight's ride was tough. I thought I was going to just sit in the back and take it easy, but I couldn't do it. I chased a couple of breaks and then attacked the entire pack about a mile from Frierson. Joe called it a "hard move". JP caught me about a third of a mile later and I jumped on his wheel. About a minute after that the rest of the field caught us and we charged into Frierson rather quickly. All that took a lot out of me but it was fun.