Race: Kissena Twilight Series 8/8 - Cat 3/4

I woke up feeling really depressed today.  I was debating not racing, but since I already had a race paid for from the previous week's rainout I thought it would be for the best to head out and clear my mind.  The schedule called for Kilos and team time trials, but Alan told us that we would actually be doing team sprints instead.  The weather was pretty nice, actually.  There was a decent little wind coming on and off.  It was coming out of the southwest, I would say as it was mostly blowing across track, but you could also feel it on the backstretch.

Keith was the only other Pink Rhino that was racing, but Dave and Aaron both showed up to hang out.  Well, Jen was also there, but I'm still not sure if she's going to the rhino side or not.  We started with 500m TTs for the good amount of juniors that showed up and the women and masters.  Josh S and I helped hold them at their start and then we moved on to the kilos.  Josh went first among the kilos and set the standard to beat with a 1:17.62.  Keith and Mike W were also able to break the 1:20 mark, with Mike having already done a 500m as well.  I went near the end.  I wasn't really intending to, I was just enjoying sitting in Keith's camping chair too much and I didn't see any reason to give that up to stand around.

I felt a lot more motivated this time than I did at opening weekend and I'd say it definitely showed.  I went with the usual 50x15, but I did switch starting feet this time (left foot forward today).  I didn't really notice any difference between the two.  I had a good start, sitting near the beginning of the backstretch, kept up a good head of steam pedaling around 116 rpm and finally feeling the hurt with 200m to go.  I could tell I was getting sluggish, but looking at my cadence I was still at 109 rpm, so I wasn't worried.  Final time was a 1:16.11, which is tied with my previous personal best.  This gave me the big ol' win for the kilos.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208326743

Next was the team sprint.  We didn't have enough rhinos to create a full rhino team, but Andreas K asked if we wanted to race with him.  We agreed, and decided the order would be by kilo time.  This seems to create a very balanced team.  Andreas had a good start and was really able to ramp it up.  Keith maintained the pace, and I brought it home.  The whole thing felt really good.  I felt like we were going really fast the whole time, but I wasn't hurting by the time I had to take my lap.  We ended with a 1:30.50, which was the winning time among the four teams.  Second place was the masters powerhouse team of Mike W, Pete Rizzo, and Derrick Davis.  I won't lie, I was afraid they would give us a run for our money.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208326732

Afterward, I went over to Arby's with Alan, and then drove home feeling a whole lot better than when I woke up in the morning.  Track racing has a great way of doing that for you.  I truly thank my team-mates and everybody I race with for being such a great group of people.