Team Time Trial

I have no immune system. It's true. I had mono for a year and since then....Now, every sniffle turns into tuberculosis. I've had bronchitis twice. And I'm pretty much the most tired person you'll ever meet, despite the fact that I sleep about 9 hours/night.

You would think a doctor might be concerned about this. But they all tell me 'oh, it's just a cold, rest up and it'll go away'. (yes, i'm not really a hospital/doctor fan. We don't talk about it.) I'm pretty sure I have some immuno defiency disorder or chronic fatigue or something.

The point is: a sore throat a week ago turned into horrible congestion turned into an awful cough and I couldn't bring myself to move most of this week. Did almost NO training. But I had already promised and signed up for the Berkeley Team Time Trial with Steve, in the coed division.

This is a picture of the race from last year: (I don't know if you can tell how much I'm grimacing)



Last year, we got third with a a 50:07 effort. This year we got 10th with 49:49. Little bit tougher competition. Little bit.

It was hard. I dropped my chain on one of the uphill-downhills and had to get off my bike. I hit Steve's wheel a couple times, but one time it nearly knocked me off my bike. By halfway through I was having a horrible time breathing again, my lungs have been burning what with the coughing, and I was gasping and hacking. (Spent 10 minutes after the finish coughing so hard I threw up a little in my mouth.)

But most annoying: My threshold is 200W, that's pretty much what I can hold for an hour. But the whole race it said I was doing 230, 240.

I thought I was doing GREAT. I was amazed; I was so excited; I thought we were going SOOOOO fast and I was going SOOO hard. SO even when I started to die a little, down to 200-210W I thought that was still good. Then it was only after the race that I realized when I was coasting at 0W, it was reading from 40 to 100. So my whole powermeter was off and I wasn't really going SO hard. Damn. Damn. Damn.

But I'm not sure I could have gone much harder. I was getting a little wobbly/dizzy and having a bad time breathing. At one point the pieces of glass on the side of the road were glistening in the sun, but I though I was seeing spots.

Isn't biking fun.

Also, Levi was there. He did the team time trial by himself. And won. By 3 minutes.