I'll take the rain, but not the cold

Saturday was the most miserable way to TT on my fave course....well, in all honestly snow would have made it MUCH worse, but still.... it sucked. At the St. Peter TT this weekend, it was cold, rainy and windy. Not very adventageous to my goal time of 1:05:00. :(

But, the terminal optimist in me shivered my lil butt over to the start line anyway to give it a good ole college try. The first couple minutes was simply battling my own brain as it screamed "WTF???" and the rain soaked my skinsuit. Once adrenaline took over, though, it was just me and the near silence of my crank arms turning over and over.

(thanks Seth!)

I didn't have any rabbits to chase but I still felt like I was flying. Have I mentioned how much I love my new position? At the turn around, I got a big ole slap in the face when I turned into the head wind. Where the heck had that come from??? It was agonizing fighting my way through it, and it made me realize that the people I had seen going in the opposite direction as I got to the turn around weren't slower than me cuz I was THAT FAST..... it was the damn headwind! So I tucked into my sleeper position and held onto whatever semblance of aero I could.

With three miles to go the adrenaline was wearing thin and my awareness once again reached my skin. I no longer had feeling in my right leg at all, and it was hard to tell if it was putting out any power at all or just along for the ride. My seat was screaming at me and my hands would no longer open. I turned it up another notch knowing, not only did I want a fast time, but maybe I should hurry up and finish for my own health. So I barrelled through the finish line with numb limbs and headed straight to the car. Once I dislodged my frozen body from by bike, my legs gave way and I sat in the rain in the parking lot. I couldn't stand back up until Jay grabbed hold of me and tossed me into the car. The pain was incredible and I could barely maintain control of myself as I attempted to undress and warm up.

It was until about 45 min. and a huge cup of coffee later that my teeth quit chattering and I regained the dexterity of my hands enough to handle common tasks. Unfortunately, after all the suffering and sacrifice, I didn't meet my goal. The highlight, though, was that I was still only 7 seconds slower than last year's perfect condition TT. And, since it sounded like a lot of people had slower times due to the wind and cold, it works for me. To top it all off, I ended up taking 3rd in the women's 4's!!! Now THAT was rad!!!

Hwood and I joined Timmer, Stick, and Madone for some post-race pizza and headed home for sweatpants and nap time. We didn't rise again until 9:00PM! But we needed it. I was so spent from the hard effort, I stayed in my jammies all afternoon and night. But it's nice to have that recovered feeling already. I can honestly say, though, that I could definitely use some sunshine and warmth this week!

Thawin' out,
Kristy Kreme