race your weakness, train your strength!

That's how the phrase goes, right?

This past weekend Michiko and I made our way half way up Mt. Diablo. Not cause we couldn't make it to the top...it is just the race was only 10km (6.2 miles). This was a time trial-- by far the lamest of all bike events I have thus far tried, in my humble opinion.

Well, I of course got lost and went down Walnut BLVD instead of Walnut AVE on my way to registration. I warmed up about 10 minutes, which made me so good and warmed up, I was ready to go up Diablo at a pace of like 30mph. Afterall, I am long sprinter, and I was not going to let a mountain get in my way to crank that shit out.

So TTs are funny cause they give you a start time (8:29am) and then you roll down this ramp. This was kinda fun, as I felt quite famous with the tent, holder, and ramp. But then I looked down at my jersey and remembered I had my "sponsors" pinned by my jersey with safety-pins.

Anyway, for 36:01 I went up, up, up. There was very little to distract me. You are all alone. It is really hot. We were spaced out every 30 seconds, so it took awhile to catch people. A couple of junior boys gave encouraging words as I suffered up. I kept looking at those stupid markers spray painted on the road: 273, 272....164, 163....43, 42....21. Anyway, I had no clue how to pace myself, so I just went til it hurt. I think I probably could have endured more hurt, but it is hard to know these things. I've never TTed except once before up Tunnel with Michiko. But I think I made it up Tunnel in like 12 seconds, Michiko in 8 seconds--so this was a little bit harder. Anyway, I digress. I guess I came in 10th of 26, not so great..but what can ya do. Go faster next year. It is something to see real climbers climb--and lets just say: I am a poser.

Ooo, look at that hot steel bike.

So when we got to the top, we saw a bunch of really spiffy things: carbon bikes, really skinny women, and those cool TT helmets. Well, our "team" doesn't have that stuff. We have pimpin' steel bikes, exemplified by the old t-shirt, sharpie sponsorship pinned to our jerseys.

At the end of the climb, we discussed how we need to get those cool TT helmets...they are kind of expensive though, so we think we can make our own by cutting poster board in a cone shape and duct-taping them on the back of our helmet.

Some say that steel bikes might be a bit slower. Maybe. But they make your calves really hot. Check out this picture-- do you see all that muscle? That is only something a natural alloy can give you. Synthetic bikes make weak, synthetic legs. Empirically. Michiko's legs are way more cut than mine -- probably cause she has a steel fork on her bike, and I sadly have a carbon/fiber fork.

Well, that was our Saturday up Mt. Diablo. Thanks Kenneth Tam for taking our picture!

Perhaps I'll try another TT...but maybe at the track instead. 3km on a track sounds way better than 10km on a mountain.