I ordered some arm warmers back in June, only to find that they were too big. I sent them back to exchange them for a small, but somehow I left the return address off of the return form (I guess I was assuming that if they’d sent it to me, then they’d know where to send it back).

Well, the replacements were sent to the only address they had in their system- my former apartment. I realized today that I hadn’t received the replacements (I hadn’t been thinking about winter clothes because it’s been hot). I emailed them, and figured out what happened. Even though I was the one that screwed up- they’re sending small arm warmers to me (at the correct address) anyway.

You guys rock.

Well, I thought about it, but then I would have been copying this guy, who was wandering around on Nashville’s Gateway Bridge with a bible and a bottle of water during our races Sunday morning.

My race was not so spectacular. After getting 3rd in the Saturday afternoon time trial (behind Kirsten Sass and Debbie Milne), all I could do was hope to place well enough to hold on to 2nd in the omnium. However, sprinting for too many primes would be my downfall. There were 4 offered, and I went all-out for all of them (losing each to Debbie). By the 4th one, Debbie countered her own attack and dropped the rest of the field (including me). We actually had a pretty good chase going, but as soon as the officials gave us the “3 to go” sign, everyone sat up, and Debbie’s 11ty-billionth solo victory was in the books.

How’d I finish? Well, I’d done 4 all-out sprints already, so of course, I didn’t have a whole lot left in the tank and ended up finishing 3rd in the pack and dropping me to 3rd overall in the omnium. I keep telling myself that I can’t expect to be kicking a ton of ass at the end of a couple of pretty tough weeks of training, but it doesn’t make poor racing strategy any easier to swallow. However, a 24oz Fat Tire at Mellow Mushroom does help a little

Ryan raced a couple of hours later with several of his teammates. They were all pretty tired from their 60 mile race the previous day, and a 3-man break (not including any of the Memphis Velo guys) stayed away, leaving Ryan in the pack to sprint (though he did make a couple of valiant efforts to get away from the group when it looked as though they were going to quit chasing).

I’ll post some photos soon!

Debbie got away from the field about 1/2way through the 1st of two RR laps. I was chasing with a couple of other girls who didn’t seem too concerned with catching The Milne since she wasn’t from TN (so she wasn’t a threat to the championship jersey). So, I threw in a little attack on a little hill and got away from them. The course was tough, and the temp was over 90, but I managed to stay away for the remainder of the race (though I never caught Debbie).

I was 2nd overall & won the State Championship. It would have been nice to not get beaten so badly, but considering I am training through this race (over 200 miles for the week), I can’t be too suprised that I couldn’t keep up with her attack. It’s aight- I get a nice, new TN state champ jersey for my troubles

Here are the current omnium entrants:

You’ll notice that Debbie Milne is going to be there. She and I have been swapping wins this season, although hers are usually more of a beatdown, and mine are a little bit more luck :)  The last time we raced, she and Lauren kicked my butt all over the place (in my home town, no less), so I’m hoping to dish out a little revenge on Saturday!

Other riders of note:
Though she’s not listed in the overall competition, Kirsten Sass, who dished out her own beatdown at the State TT, is signed up for the Allanti TT. She told me last weekend that she was still on the fence about the road race, but that she wasn’t riding in any more crits for a while since she had some big triathlons coming up. I hope she decides to come out & suffer with us as we chase Debbie over the hills.

Also, worth a quick mention is Mary Mayhew. She is ahead of me in the TBRA BAR points at the moment, but since the powers that be changed the points calculations to even the road for those of us that don’t attend all of the TBRA races, I should be able to catch up with her in the next few race weekends.

I’m feeling much better about this weekend than for the Memphis race. My training volume has been high, but it’s helped me drop a couple of pounds and get acclimated to the heat & humidity. See you all on the road!

I am very impressed by the base bars- they have a fat, grippy section in the middle for the aero extensions to clamp onto. I also like how the base angles downward ever-so-slightly (as opposed to making you choose between either straight across or angled steeply downward). The outer grips are also comfortable for riding since they’re fat & sort of hand-shaped.

The clip-on extensions are infinitely adjustable and the bend is just right to keep your wrists comfortable. I’ve also sweated on the elbow pads like crazy and they’ve yet to become stinky

The SRAM shifters & brake levers are nice, and the carbon ties everything together. The shifters are a new style that don’t rotate as far down as the current style, making it easier to pull the lever back up if it’s ever all the way down.

The verdict- get it now! You can’t go wrong with Zipp/SRAM.

Why do I ride in the heat? Acclimatization!

The more time you spend in it, the more tolerant your body becomes. Apparently the race organizers in my area think it’s fun to schedule the women’s races in mid-day time slots. Example: state championship RR this weekend- 11:55 start time followed by a 4:00 time trial. It’s cool, guys… we don’t need time to eat, rest, and rehydrate, or anything…

At least the guys get some heat payback the next day when the pro 1/2 men get to race in their crit at 2:10

Anyway- I hadn’t trained for a 40K time trial on any terrain, so the hills were no excuse for a less-than-stellar performance. Kirsten Sass is a monster- she turned a 1:00:01- landing her the championship as well as in 21st overall out of 104 people. My teammate, Lori Jug also kicked some butt and picked up the silver medal with a 01:03:03.

I finished 4th with a 1:05:30. I was pretty bummed because it was 8 seconds slower than the 3rd place finisher. I’m pretty sure I lost that time when an SUV pulled around me just before a blind hill and curve in the road and decided they couldn’t get around the slow guy I was preparing to pass, so I was forced to slam on my brakes and wait for what seemed like an eternity for the car to figure out when it could safely pass a guy going about 20mph (I was railing down the previous hill at about 35 when they passed me). LAME! That was at nearly 5k to go, and really took what little wind I had left in my proverbial “sails” at that point.
Oh well. At least my bike was awesome…

I got right back to training this morning with a 72 mile trip to Shelby Forest and back. My legs actually felt pretty damn good considering the effort I put in yesterday. Maybe I’m destined to be a stage racer