Debbie Betts takes the Gold!!!

California State Senior (I still HATE that term) Olympics
Who raced - just me - Debbie

This week I decided to race the Senior Olympic California State Championships just for the speed work and as a tune up for Track States this weekend. The course is the Eldorado race course in Long Beach in the park which is beautiful, with good road conditions and mostly flat. You have to be 50 to race so I don't have to say that this was much different than racing a 1-2-3 crit where I am all out just to hang on with the pros and 20 year olds. I raced the 5K TT and the 40K road race. With all the work I've been doing on the track in prep for this weekends pursuit I know exactly how much speed and what kind of heart rate I can hold for 2K so I figure just do the math and translate to 5K. My goal was to break 8 mins which I did and being the only women to break 8 mins gave me the fastest women's time for the day and the gold medal in the TT. The road race reminded me that road racing is a game of patience and stratigy. We spend the first part of the race sizing each other up, finding out who was strong and weak, who could stay on a wheel and which wheels to follow and which to avoid. We soon formed a good pace line and rotated smoothly being sure to have the competition get their time up front on the short hill and into the wind ;) I had promised to try to help one of the La Grange racers out if I could and as we pulled through the start finish for the 2nd to last time I jumped off the front in hopes of taking her with me and dropping the others. Unfortunately she couldn't go with me and though I waited for a little while I quickly realized I better just go all out to the finish (another 2K time trial - my favorite!!). I kept looking back but no one was close, I guess nobody needed to catch me and I came through the finish line well ahead of the pack. A great feeling any day!!! This also earned me the Gold in the road race.

Maybe this getting older is not too bad!! It was inspiring to see so many cyclist age 50-80 and up out racing their bikes, having a great time. This was a good confidence builder for track states this weekend.

PS Some of those old guys are SUPER fast!!!