Sattley

The district champs were big fun. I met a few new faces, hung out with teammates over some tacos, learned about a egg mcmuffin machine, and set a benchmark for me and probably a PB.

Rode up with Nome on Saturday and went right out to Sattley for a pre-ride, man, what a desolate place!Rode for a bit with Nome, Andrew, and Paul- it was windy, but that's ok with me!

Chico Paul has a beautiful place in Truckee we stayed at, and after hangin out for a while and watching Pure Sweet Hell- highly recommended pre-race viewing, we crashed.
Got to Sattley early, set up Camp EMC and checked it out- slight crosswind that built as the day went on. I got in a entire warmup without falling off the trainer today, so I was already doing well. The first interval hurt bad, the altitude was giving me a headache, but I lined up and did my thing.
I had moved my position back to my old spot after last weeks' fiasco, and felt better. I also had the HRM where I could see it with a aero helmet on, again trying to learn from my mistakes. I had a clean start, nice and smooth, and built into it. Hit the low number in about 2k and started to catch my 30 second man. I could feel a little wind quartering into me, but the HR stayed stable and I caught him in about 8k. I brought the effort up to the middle of zn4, right on my LT for the period between 10 and 25k, then Roemer passed me. I gave him more than a legal gap and tried to key off him as my HR rose a little more. Hutchinson passed me like I was standing still while I was in my 11, not much to say about that one, those dudes are true motors!
I hit the last 8k hard after a few idle thought about how golf might be a nice sport and probably doesn't hurt so bad, sucked it up and went. Actually sped up into the line, realizing I could ride harder than I thought without blowing, about the last 20-25 minutes above LT and the last 2 miles I was right below my sprint HR. My legs hurt more than my cardio system when I was done, an encouraging sign that I could push harder.
Official time was 58:06, my best time on a measured 40k. Goal #1 was to crack a hour, super goal was to crack the top ten, which I did with a 7th. Big time playas in this group, I got beat by everybody that should have beat me, and maybe I surprised a few as well. Andrew from EMC scored the sixth place, and we had lot's of other teammates out there winning their own personal battles .
Season goal number 2- check.