Last night was a great training session. I checked in to make sure that sprints were still a good idea two days before a 40km TT. Coach said yeah so I met Lesley for sprints. We were both behind schedule. The difference is that she rode to Hains Point and I drove. So I got 8 minutes of warm up before the first sprint. She won that one easily. Her suggestion was to sprint on both sides. I've done it before so I agreed, knowing how tough it is. 2nd sprint I won, no sweat. 3rd sprint went to her again - that side was into the wind, so not surprising really. 4th sprint got just a tad dicey because the bunch came up on us and the first guy was not the best of bike handlers. It was a photo finish and 33mph! Then we sat up and did a single sprint a full lap later - last one for the night. I botched it - should have eased back one gear instead of going one gear harder. It was Lance and Jan... she jumped and I was on too big a gear to respond quickly. Then Lesley headed home and I continued to ride as I only had 45minutes in and the plan was for 90. I was just relaxing in Z2 when the bunch came around me again - big bunch last night 40 riders or more. One of the Rt 1 guys yelled "Come on, Mimi!" and I took the bait, though by the time I got up to their speed I was at the back of the group. Still it was good to respond and at least know I could jump on as the wind up took us up toward 30mph. I was happy that I could do that and not be redlining. I stayed with them around the recovery side - turning 23/24 in Z2 with the help of the pack, which was way cool for me (usually my HR runs a lot higher). But I decided I wasn't going to do any more so when they ramped it up, I sat up. Finished up my 90 minutes in Z2. I'm still amazed at the new numbers and how they translate on the bike.

I'd been hoping to get out for a run all week. Monday was too nasty with the rain, Tuesday and Wednesday it just didn't happen, so I hatched the plan to run after my ride last night. That way I'd avoid running in the middle of the day when it is hot and I'd see if I could do a "brick" more comfortably than the last time. So I put the bike away, changed from cycling shorts to running shorts and dumped the cycling jersey. Doron was just finishing up her ride so I walked over to talk to her briefly. She's going to do the National Du Championship on Sunday without having ever done a Du competitively before. I tried to talk her into running with me, but she decided not to. Oh well. I ran on my own, nothing major, nothing brutal. Just 25 minutes with an average pace of 8:55 minutes. The important thing was feeling pretty good in the run. Of course in a Du I wouldn't be standing around for 10-15 minutes between getting off the bike and heading out for the run. I'll work on trimming down the transition time in due course. Think I'll have to spend money on one more bit of non-team clothing and that's at least a pair of tri-style-bike shorts, the type that one can run in without being hampered by a large chamois.

One thing I did notice, getting on the Serotta after two consecutive days on the Ordu. The saddle is a lot lower on the Serotta. When I first got on it, I felt like I was sitting in a hole. I'll have to talk to Pierre about that and see if maybe I should drift the Serotta saddle up just a little bit.

I kept debating with myself about tomorrow's TT. I'm gonna have to get up really early. But I really feel the need for doing a competitive event. So I went ahead and signed up and I'll just suck it up and get up at 4am. The nice thing is the drive should be pretty easy that time of the day. And I'll be done with the TT plenty early to get to Lisa's in Cherry Hill with lots of time for a shower and time to chill before we head into the city for dinner and the concert. Can't wait for that - Sibelius and Bruckner, yeeha!