Double pole time trial 2010

I suppose you can't only write about the good races. Bad ones happen, too. I may have psyched myself out for the double pole time trial, but I think my poor performance was not just in my head - I hurt. Who knows why, could be any myriad of reasons, the biggest one is simply that I was tired.

Ali drove over from Amherst to join me for the test, and we got a bit of a late start because I was having trouble getting my butt in gear. After a barely-adequate warmup, we did the first interval, and I discovered that my poles were occasionally skipping, which was annoying. I was leading up past the steep bit, and then Ali came around, and I was all set to stay with her. But I discovered that my arms just wouldn't go. Neither would my legs - its amazing how much of your legs you have to use when you're double poling uphill. I went quickly into the red, and by the time I reached the top, just after Ali, I was sucking wind and feeling the lungburn. Also close to 20 seconds slower than my first one last year. Not good.

We headed down the hill and started the second, and it was going even worse. I just couldn't GO. Recognizing the incoming negative slump, I started pep-talking, reminding myself (forcefully) that I LOVE double poling, and I love it even more when I its up hills! My brain saw right through this scam, but I just kept repeating how much I loved double poling up hills. It didn't get me going much faster, in fact, I was another 20 seconds slower than the first one. Not good.

Third time up, I managed to talk myself into actually trying, but, that didn't amount to much, as I was only 4 seconds faster than the last hill. Not good. Luckily, at that point Corey showed up, and I had my excuse to stop.

That was certainly disappointing, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I know I'm a bit overextended right now, and with the semester done, and work wrapping up, I should be bouncing back soon, hopefully in time for the races in Sweden next week. But it still sucks to do a test that much worse than the year before. Sigh.