Yankee Springs Time Trial

The "wonderful" sound of the alarm went off at 4:30am this morning and I knew I had to be out the door within 30 min. to get to Kim's house for 5:15am. Paiten (my daughter) had decided to come with me to be my "feed girl" and I liked that idea very much. I'm happy to see that she is interested in being part of the bike scene! Anyways, off to Kim's to meet her and Pak (Kim's boyfriend, our friend and driver of the 2.5 + hours trip NW). We were heading to Yankee Springs, just south of Grand Rapids MI for a Time Trial. This was my first race of the season. I have never been there before and was excited to hear a bit about the trail before heading out for the 2 lap, 35km, TT. We pulled into the parking lot around 9:00 am under cloudy skies and temp around 44° F. A couple of washroom trips, registration, and off for a quick warm up. Okay this was my first sign, my legs were tired and did not want to respond even through the warm up. Come on, alright I tried to convince myself that once I got out on the trails they would get some "zip", so the warm up continued and off to the start line. The women were going to be going 1 at a time with 15 sec. between each. I was 8th of the 9 Expert/Elite riders to start. The women had a fast field and I recognized a few of them. Knowing the competition today was a day you had to have your stuff and legs together. At 'go' the course started with a nice downhill into sweeping turns and flowing single track. In fact this course was all single track, however passes were still very do-able. I caught a few women as the 1st lap went on. The trails were in great shape, the legs were not! Note to self: need recovery! In the end I took 3rd. The MMBA did a great job with this event. My 'company' for the day was great with some good laughs at my daughters expense. (Caution: watch were you walk!) ;) This week will be a light week in preparation for O-Cup #1!!!

"You're only as good as your last recovery."

Cheers,

Sue