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So as you may have noticed, I have had a serious bout of the blahs. Not really interested in doing anything; much less training. And it has shown in my TT times. Redlight dropped me a line today saying essentially that he had caught the blahs as well. The good news for me is that I seem to be coming out of them.

So today I tried a little different warm up for the TT. I had Anne's truck so I was able to get a little more relaxed warm up. I didn't have to worry about my backpack or any of the other issues you have when you don't have a comfy car as your base. The end result is that I got a better warm up. It wasn't perfect though. I wasn't able to get my heart rate to nearly the level I had hoped. Additionally, while getting my handle bars put back into the right spot, I manage to fall off the bike while clipped in and gouged a couple canyons into the back of my right calf. The bike grease and the sweat combined in the wound to produce an angry, bloody cut that screamed at me. This was most likely a positive in that it provided a little anger to my ride.

When I launched, the wind was howling. The good news is that the rain had not come on in force; just a couple of "spritzings" along the course. The wind was so rough that in spots I would look up to find myself blown clear across the road and heading for the ditch. As luck would have it, the gale was in my face on the big climb. I was nearly in my lightest gear (2 up) on a climb that can easily be done in the big ring. Did I say the wind was howling?

The typically fast part of the course was relegated to medium gears and hard work downhill. When I got to the turn around, I had only been passed by the old guy. As I made my way out of the turn around I saw no less than 8 or 9 guys bearing down on me. They were coming so hard that I could feel the heat of the laser sights planted between my shoulders. Yet another reason to go HARD. I went so hard that only two of these dudes got me and that was about 2 miles from the finish.

In the end, I scored a nice 27:39? or so. I was pleased given the viciousness of the wind. I had to go immediately so Redlight was on his own. As I rolled out of the parking lot, in came the rain. Buckets of rain. Rain and cold like what I rode in last week. Speaking to Redlight, he described ride conditions very similar to mine from last week. He just didn't have the hail. I think he froze his tail off. I think he said his time was about 10 seconds faster than mine. I'm not sure how much time the rain cost him but I am pleased that my time is more in step with where I should have finished.

Either way, another great CCTT. I love this racing WAY better than the rec rides.