OMG I'm Getting Faster!

This morning was a simple Time Trial to 1st Water.  I woke up feeling good and finally recovered from last weekend.  Today I decided to try something different, and took music with me... something I've never done on the Mt. Wilson Trail.

There were about 25 of us in total, with maybe 6-8 beginners.  Parker immediately took off, being chased by one of Shannon's racers, and I fell in to a steady pace.  I wasn't passed by any of the beginners, but the intermediates started catching me by the trail head... perfectly expected.

I loved using the music!  It completely distracted my head and helped set a tempo I could sustain.  I passed countless hikers on the way up (and down) and for the most part found them all courteous and willing to let me pass.

It took until the switchbacks for Corlyn and Navin to catch me... both were obviously not yet recovered from another training session.  Good for me because I set them as rabbits to chase.

I reached 1st Water in 37:42,  5:00 minutes ahead of my last two 42:00 time trials and only 1:42 behind my best time from 2009.  Talk about a pleasant surprise!  That motivated me so well, that I pealed out of 1st Water like my tail was on fire. I caught up with Corlyn, Navin, Shannon and Carrie at the switchbacks, but when we got to the other side the only one I was able to actually pass was Carrie.  (Although she made it very clear that if I wasn't very careful, she would be passing me again as soon as we hit the road!) The rest of the pulled away again... I know for Shannon, the whole idea of Roadkill catching her was the perfect motivation to make sure it didn't happen!  Too funny.

I caught Corlyn again right when we hit the road.  She is such a fabulous teammate, she immediately set in to motivate me to the top of the hill and to catch Navin on Baldwin... then she led by example and took off like her tail way on fire!  I did my best to keep up but those two are seriously fast when they decide to race.  So, instead I just raced like Carrie was hot on my heels!  It totally worked... finish time: 59:06  That's 10:00 minutes ahead of my last time trial and only 1:06 behind my best time from 2009.

I'm telling you aspiring bastards... if you can make the team and hang on through the training sessions no matter how much they suck, you WILL get faster too.  You just have to be willing to pay your dues, no matter how long it takes.

Today's results combined with last weekend are leaving me more optimistic about the AB Qualifier in two weeks.  I'm still a long way away from confident about making the team without Kendall pacing me again, but I'm getting closer...  :-)