Sunrise

Sunrise. So beautiful!

I'm up every week day early enough to watch the sunrise, and watch it I do. Today was especially worth getting up for—how can I see this and not praise God for His amazing creativity?

After a lunchtime walk with Valerie and a day of work, I headed to Ravenwood High School for the WCTT: Williamson County Time Trial.

8-mile warm up, 10-mile out-and-back TT, 8-mile cool down

This is something that one of the local Xterra triathletes started last year, but I never participated. I will definitely be making it a weekly or biweekly part of my training (I can't remember whether it's held every or every other week). We warmed up from Ravenwood the 8 miles to the TT start, then seeded ourselves slowest to fastest. I know that Lisa is typically faster than I, and though she was recently injured and off her bike for a while, she's still tough. So I seeded myself first and decided to be everyone's rabbit.

I loved racing from the front! Knowing that there were 7 super fast guys and 1 fast girl behind me motivated me to get moving. I just kept thinking, "Every pedal stroke you take is one second longer that you're staying ahead of them and one second closer to the finish!" I didn't want to get caught at all but did at 23 minutes (8.6 miles) in. After that guy passed me, 3 more did, so half the field passed me. However, I was pleased with my time of 28 minutes, especially knowing that I rode well.

Lisa is convinced that she can do it faster than 28, and I know she can too, so next time I'll aim to better my time. A couple of the other times for the night were 27:30, 26:15, and 23:29 (that guy was MOVING!). I didn't catch all the guys' times, but I know they are fast. Even if I'm out there with a group of people and one of them might be slower than I, I will still likely go first—it definitely makes me work harder!

• Total: 1:18:25, 25.94 miles, 19.8 avg (34.1 max), 1,530 cal, 161 HR (191 max)
• Warm up: 23:13, 7.71 mi, 19.9 avg, 139 HR
• TT: 28:00, 10.21 mi, 21.8 avg, 183 HR (and it was up this high AS SOON AS I STARTED)
• Cool down: 27:09, 8.02 miles, 17.7 avg, 158 HR