I changed my training this year, realizing finally that I'm not Lance Armstrong, and focused on pedaling on a higher gear at a slower RPM, utilizing leg strength more than aerobic capacity. This worked very well for the bodytype I am, and I shaved about 3 full minutes off of last year's time pretty much at the same bodyweight just be changing my training. I had a mid-life crisis 4 years ago and bought my dream bike - a Trek Hilo 2000. It is awesome for short races and triathlons I do, but not a real comfortable bike. The bike leg from Bachelor to Bend is about 22 miles, with one short, hard uphill, approximately 7 miles of rollers/flat, and then the remainder various degress of downhill - including a section where I've gotten up to 54 MPH! That, dear reader; is a rush. Here's a pic of my bike:
In 1999 we actually got third (I think in our category (business/service teams), but as the race became more competitive and we have gotten older, we lost some focus and have been finishing out of the top ten. It's been interesting to look at our previous results, check out how close the times have been 2002-2004:
2002: 2:30:14
2003: 2:30:45
2004: 2:30:28
2005: 2:24:15
Yup, 2002-2004 we were literally within seconds of the same time. This year, about 5.5 minutes faster! We would have broken the top ten this year but there was a blown exchange and that approximately 45 seconds was just enough to bump us to 13th in our division. Oh well, there's always next year!
