Saturday, January 17, 2009

4th place: I'm almost good enough

Last summer I rode in two individual cycling time trials in the attempt to qualify for the 2009 National Senior Games in California. Except that I got 4th place in the 5k time trial and 4th place in the 10k time trial, and only the top two finishers qualifed for the Games. So (even though I did qualify to compete in triathlon at the Games) I scrapped that idea and concentrated on other things (like another iron-distance triathlon in November).

Well, now it turns out that they are increasing the rolldown and allowing 3rd-place and 4th-place finishers to attend the Games - I suppose due to the economy they're not getting as many entries as they expected.

Which did give me a moment of temptation. Maybe I could go out to Stanford for a few days after all and give it a go, just for fun. Even though nearly everyone else in the event would have had five more months of event-specific training than I have had.

But then I read that the 4th-place rolldown applied (inexplicably) to everyone except tennis players and cyclists. Go figure.

So it's out of my hands. I'm not going to travel all the way across the country just to do a sprint-distance triathlon (heck, I haven't done any sprint tris since 2005!

If I want to work really hard on my time trialing this year and challenge myself, there's always the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, June 28 – July 4. I'll think about it. But first I'll have to wait and watch the calendar to see when some earlier ITTs are held locally to try my luck and test my training.

2 comments:

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) said...

Still -- nice to be asked!

(and you ARE good enough, my friend)

Unknown said...

Has anyone tried homeopathic growth hormone oral spray? I hear it's legal for over the counter sales and is very gentle on the system.