Feeling Speedy

By Katie Norton
Sacramento, California

Last Saturday was the first race of the season for me. I was much more mentally prepared than last year. Dino has been focusing my workouts on speed-work and convinced me to do a harder warm-up. It was nice to race later in the day with the 1/2/3’s. We had a nice little safe field of 26ish.

My teammate Soni and I spent the first lap up front at a reasonable pace. From there on, it’s like a song that got faster and louder. My old friend Mary (Vanderkitten) controlled a lot of the race– toying with us really. I watched her draw people out by hammering up front and getting a little gap, just watching who would follow. I tried to stay on her tail– She could have led me out for a prime but she was just too fast! It was suprising that she didn’t take it in the end. She ended up 2nd to Cal Aggie Amanda. Touchstone looked strong with Kelly and Carol contesting the prime sprints.

I ended up 10th place. I was very happy with that. Good times!

When Dino analyzed my power files later, I had gotten all personal bests (except for 1 second watts). He raised my threshold by 20 watts. A big jump! Amazing after being off my bike for a week with a stupid chest cold. It re-inspires me to work hard and look forward to a good season.

Stats: Average Speed- 23, Normalized (average) power 244 for 50 minutes

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