As many (most?) of you know, my racing in cycling has either been non-existent or rough since the end of June. I lost a lot of fitness. But I had finally gotten back to the form I feel that I had wayyy back in May this spring. Luckily, I was going to have a true test of that form with a 40K time trial in the Lobsterman Olympic Tri Relay. I was excited to do a real man's TT (I had done shorter ones, the most recent of which was when I had a sore hamstring in a stage race so I was focused on keeping myself in good form rather than burying myself as deep as I possibly could). This 40K was a real chance to test my fitness and, more importantly, my ability to dig deep - something I hadn't really done any of since I was doing actual workouts in June.
The relay was a guys vs gals throwdown, the teams were quite evenly matched. We had calculated out the expected times and it was looking like we would be within one minute of each other by the finish! I was excited for the race as I was expected to make up some noticeable time, as the female swimmer and runner were exceptionally strong (Amanda - runner - was fastest woman runner of the day!).
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| Right after mounting. Not wasting a moment to fire up to speed! |
My plan was to go 63 minutes or less, I had tempo'd the course a couple weeks before and figured at my planned wattage I could be 62min + mount/dismount for around 63. My guess from riding and some short intervals was that my FTP was sitting somewhere above 320W, so my goal was 325W. I figured at this effort I would be sustaining a Heart Rate of 177bpm, which equates to a lot of pain. If I got above 325 I'd be very happy, and if I was above 330 I would have my Quarq checked for accuracy! I started the bike 4+ minutes behind and wanted to bridge the gap early, then put time in the bank for my runner (Amanda's Dad).
My two days of CX last week paid off :p, my mount onto the bike was super smooth and there was no delay in flooring the gas down the hard-packed 200m dirt road that started off the bike. I climbed out of the park, focusing on an even but strong effort. Little did I know, I was pushing over 360W for over 5 minutes to start the TT...well above my hopeful 325W average. I figured out I was going too hard when I finally looked down at my computer and was averaging 341W 10 minutes into the TT. As relays started in the final wave, it made the TT excessively mentally taxing - as if the physical aspect wasn't sufficient effort. I was passing people by the 10's, hitting the brakes, accelerating, and so on. This was obviously less than optimal, but it kept me from putting my head down and blowing myself up, although the accelerations really crush you in a TT. I hit the 20min mark just slower than a 60min 40K - 13.18km (39.55km/h). I knew the climb out of the park slowed the first part's average, but the second half had some noticeable climbing, especially for a TT. Things started to hurt right around 20-25mins, and at first I worried that this whole time trial thing was a bad idea. Luckily, I remembered TT's past and my lackluster running career: "If you're not hurting by halfway in, you're not doing it right!" I was coming up on 20K and kept rolling along hoping I'd be under 30mins, at this point I knew I could toss 62mins out the window...I was shooting for a sub-1 hour 40K on a darn hilly course & on a road bike without aerobars. I thought this was well beyond my abilities, especially given that a good TT setup could definitely benefit me over 90 seconds and at best over 1mph (3mins). I think my setup on my road bike is pretty optimal, so I'd take the 90 seconds before the 3 minutes (Thanks Dave!).
At 20K I was barely under 30:00 and was averaging 323W (NP = 329W). I had used a little of minutes 20-30 as recovery and my power had dropped off a fair amount. I told myself a little mantra I have developed "If you can get 50% there, you can make it all the way". I was hurting, but knew I could make the push to hold tight for another half hour. It was now time to focus on staying steady and in the 320's. For the next 10 minutes I felt like I had to grind to get up over 320W, I didn't know if I was going to be able to hold my goal average but I knew if I did it was going to require a lot of digging deep. 40 minutes came along and I was climbing up to the highest point of the course, there was a little cross/headwind but the elevation drop would help, as my avg speed was now down to 39.3kph. I focused on smoothness and cadence, and hit the next 6 minutes at over 45kph (28mph). I was back on track to be sub-60min. But alas I was back at the elevation of the finish, meaning it was up to me to keep the pace and pacing uphill and keeping the throttle high on the downhills, there was no more resting to be done unless I fully spun out (120rpm) in the 53-11 or it was a turn I couldn't pedal through.
With 10K to go, things started to become a blur. Scott cheered for me around 8K but I swore I heard him with 3K to go. Luckily the passing became less dense and I had sections where I had no one withing 50-100m of me, which meant no dodging people and I could focus on the road and throwing everything into Slice of Life motoring along at a clean 25mph. My back was absolutely killing me. I was thankful for every little climb where I didn't care about staying low/aero so I could sit up and let it release. I was out of the saddle going up the South Freeport Rd climb. Hitting the last little dip before entering Winslow (after the church/French school) with 4 miles to go absolutely did me in. At 54 minutes my power dropped below 320. My displeasure with this is shown that from that moment until the finish my heart rate escalated from 177 to the finish at 189. Entering Winslow Park I blew through the turn far faster than I otherwise should have, but I couldn't sacrifice losing a single second. Out of the turn and I was sprinting to regain speed for the downhill. I absolutely floored it, in the drops and out of the saddle on everything more than 3%. The final 4 minutes I put down almost 340W and it nearly killed me. I barely managed to dismount my bike on the dirt transition, and probably had the most horrifying display of running form of the day as I ran to rack my bike, hand off the chip, and keel over.
My final time was 59:40, power of 322W (NP of 325W), HR avg was 179, cadence was 95, and speed was dead on 25mph (40.2kph) - not including the runs for transition. The TT was the hardest thing I've done on the bike. I knew it would be, but actually going through with it was excessively difficult and even more exhilarating. By the end of it I couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears dripping down my face, but either way it was a blast. I wouldn't do one tomorrow, but it's definitely not something I'm 'afraid' of anymore. TTing isn't my strongest discipline but this was a huge step in getting mentally and physically prepared for being able to hit strong time trials.
Last, but not least, by outperforming even what I could put down for a time (and I am very realistic with my estimations - although I did nail the power part of it!) the guys ended up taking the girls by over 4 minutes. However, we were 7th place Male Relay and the ladies won by 5 minutes! So, in essence, everyone came out winners...but the guys will get dinner taken care of by the ladies :).
(More pictures to come when they're out)
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