This past weekend we headed up to New Hampshire for quite the weekend of racing and training.  It started with Timberman Sprint on Saturday morning. Anyone who has done any of Keith Jordan’s races can attest to the fact that the man knows how to put on an event.  He and his crew turn Ellacoya State Park on Lake Winnipesaukee into a family festival each year.  The two main events at this extravaganza are the Timber Sprint on Saturday and Timberman 70.3 on Sunday.  We opted for the sprint as we are still getting our trailing volume back up to snuff following Placid.  This little doozy included a 0.3-mile swim, 15-mile bike, and 3-mile run.

I went off in the 6th wave, was anaerobic within the first minute, and kept the heart rate well above threshold for the remainder of the 70-minute race.  I got a nice, clean start, weaved my wave through bits of the earlier waves, and came out of the water ready to crush the bike.

Because it was such a short race, the instructions from Jesse were to go as hard as I could throughout, and try to average the highest wattage I could.  Alrighty! I ran out of transition and was about to hit the road when I noticed that my chain was off.  For the love! I grabbed the chain, fumbled with it for a second, got my hand nice and black, got it into place, and took off like a madman.  I stood on the pedals immediately, getting the power up right off the bat.  I never do that – it was fun!  I pushed as hard as I could, forcing my legs and lungs to burn, riding like there was no run to come.  Obviously, that was not the case, but I wanted that power number!

I ran out of T2 hard, right past Tim and Jesse, who were hanging out in the finisher’s area having started 25 minutes ahead of me.  Everything continued to burn as I forced myself to keep pushing.  It’s only 3 miles.  That’s less than 20 minutes.  Come on! I raced a guy right down the finish shoot – haha!  I love passing guys!

Tim won, Jesse got second, and I took 5th overall with the 8th fastest ride on the day.  Woop woop!

QT2 rocked:

Wheeler – 1st  20-24

Molly – 1st  30-34

Chrissie – 2nd  30-34

Trent – 3rd  30-34

Rachel – 1st  35-39

Rob – 2nd  40-44

Nancy – 1st  45-49

GOOD DAY!!

More on the weekend to come…