Cherry Creek Wednesdays

A nice counterbalance to my last two weeks has been a trip north with Karl to do the Wednesday night Cherry Creek Time Trial series, ten miles of fun at Cherry Creek State Park.  About 500 other riders join us as we shove off at 20 second intervals.  Karl heads out at 5:05 and I follow at 5:15:20.  The spacing allows me to keep an eye, albeit one blurred with sweat and whizzing by at 30mph, on him.  He keeps close track of where I cross and pass him on the course each week.

The first week, we crossed paths just before the first turn-around at the west end of the park (week 2-about 200 yds earlier), then I passed him in the final turn-around before the gutbuster climb to the finish (week 2-just at the start of the climb) and then we meet past the finish line when he finishes a couple of minutes after me (week 2, about a minute later).

The first week, our trip was slowed by an overturned tanker blocking I25.  With the detour around, we arrived a few minutes before Karl’s start, grabbed and pinned his number and went to search for the start tent.  It was cold and there was no warm-up for either of us.  My ride was essentially pedaling squares, bouncing around in the saddle and

trying to be smooth.  Karl took a wrong turn and went off course and then turned around and came back. 

He finished with a huge smile on his face.

We both finished last in our groups.  The second week, Karl shaved two minutes off his time to finish fourth and I took off a minute to not finish last. 

New bars for last week’s race made the position a bit more comfortable, up about 10cm and a wider placement of the elbows.

Adding regular, early tt’s to the training is taking the place of a workout with longer cruise intervals and seems to be helping me develop my power at threshold.  Racing with my son on a regular basis has become something much more valuable.