Carlisle 40k ITT- 6/19/11

I had big plans for this weekend.  I was planning on going to Pittsburgh to race at the track on Friday and then travel to Erie to race at Presque Isle on Sunday.  After a series of events that included: 1)most of my teammates going to Colorado and 2)I decided it just wasn't worth driving that far on my birthday weekend, I decided to stay close to home and race in Carlisle so I only had to drive 7 miles to the race start.  I made every mistake possible leading into this race:

1)Didn't ride the day before the race
2) Didn't ride 2 of 3 days prior to the race(Thursday and Saturday)
3) Drove 7 hours the day before the race and then sat around for 6 hours at a family reunion
4)Didn't drink enough the day before the race(start of dehydration)
5)Ate bad mayonnaise at the family reunion and got diarrhea (continued dehydration)
6) ran out of Breathe Right strips
7)Ate breakfast 2 hours before race start
8) Arrived at race start 1 hour early(instead of 2 hours early like normal)

The race was pretty uneventful.  The wind was blowing in an odd direction.  It usually blows from west to east providing a tailwind for the return leg of the race but it was blowing the opposite way this day making for a killer return. 
I ended up winning with a time of 55:10 but it is my worst time ever on this course.  I was able to get my 2011 Sub 1 hour t-shirt but that's about all. 

2011 PA State ITT

Podium Pic

The weather was kinda iffy on the drive to the race.  Half of the time I wasn't sure if it was raining or if it was just really dense fog.  Upon arriving at the race venue the fog had lifted but the sky still looked like it might rain at any minute.
I felt good during my warm-up but from about 3 minutes into the race I could tell something wasn't right.  I wasn't able to put out the power that I was normally able to and I my legs just felt heavy.  At that point I made a decision to abandon my power meter readings and just ride as hard as I could and try to hold on for a good finish.  The course was fast and flat.  There were no real turns to speak of.  At one point on the way out to the turn around point I was passed really closely by a large truck and it blew me off of the road and into the berm.  I had to use my CX skills to keep pedaling and look for a low point in the lip to hop back onto the road surface.
After alot of suffering I finally thought I was close to the finish and then the organizers decided to make the course longer than advertised to make it just a little more painful.  It ended up being over half of a mile longer than it was supposed to be.  I hurt so much after the race that even cooling down was difficult.  I was very excited about the win (and my mini medal)

results

2011 Philadelphia Amature TT

This was a short painful 8 mile time trial along the Schuylkill River.  There was little wind and the weather was warm and sunny but not hot.  It was a great day for the event.  My Dad was with me at this race which doesn't happen very often so that was nice.  I ended up winning Cat 3 with a time of 17:05 @ 28.4mph.  The best part was that my power output is really where it needs to be with the State ITT coming up next week.