IL State Championship TT
I'm not much of a time trial specialist, but in my disregard for doing things I'm actually good at (like drinking coffee and watching bike racing on TV) I decided to try my luck at the state championship 30K TT in Harvard, IL. Adam, Tim, Patrick, Brie, Quinn, and other Tim joined me for the race.
The weather was primed for a fast course; not too hot with a slight breeze. In my excitment about the race I hastily built a sweet TT rig from old and borrowed parts. I'd spent the previous week working on my aero position and trying my max-effort thresholds for 20-40min intervals. I felt relatively confident that I wouldn't take a spill and damage J's disc wheel.
In speaking with the experienced UCVC racers about how to ride a TT, I was told to go out smooth and then increase my effort over the distance rather than going out hard and then dying toward the finish. This was the plan I was committed to. Of course, as soon as my starting bell rang; I bit my lip, threw strategy to the curb, and started hammering. Probably exactly what everyone expected from me.
I rode the first 5K at a heart rate of ~192bpm. It actually seemed like a good idea at the time; "just keep this up for another 40 minutes and we'll be drinking coke and eating sharkies", is what I was telling myself. This didn't work very well and my legs quickly started refusing to turn over. I had to slow my pace and eventually settled into a good cadence that lowered my HR to something that I could actually sustain. The course was decent and not too challenging; it sort of saunters through country roads that were clear of traffic but quit rough/bumpy for a number of sections. At about 15K into the race, I hit a huge bump and my bars twisted downward- "Oh No!!! of course something had to go wrong". There wasn't anything I could do expect ride the remaining 15K on my bullhorns and limp to the finish. This really killed my motivation and I had a tough time getting into any sort of aero-ish position. Going slow and looking sad I was caught and passed by some very fast large-quaded individuals on the second half of the course. I recovered over the last 10k and posted a very nice finishing leg even passing my 3-minute man. Even though the race didn't fair well for me, I'm definitely looking forward to my next TT and will certainly post better results in the future. remember; tighten your bars on and pace yourself.
The weather was primed for a fast course; not too hot with a slight breeze. In my excitment about the race I hastily built a sweet TT rig from old and borrowed parts. I'd spent the previous week working on my aero position and trying my max-effort thresholds for 20-40min intervals. I felt relatively confident that I wouldn't take a spill and damage J's disc wheel.
In speaking with the experienced UCVC racers about how to ride a TT, I was told to go out smooth and then increase my effort over the distance rather than going out hard and then dying toward the finish. This was the plan I was committed to. Of course, as soon as my starting bell rang; I bit my lip, threw strategy to the curb, and started hammering. Probably exactly what everyone expected from me.
I rode the first 5K at a heart rate of ~192bpm. It actually seemed like a good idea at the time; "just keep this up for another 40 minutes and we'll be drinking coke and eating sharkies", is what I was telling myself. This didn't work very well and my legs quickly started refusing to turn over. I had to slow my pace and eventually settled into a good cadence that lowered my HR to something that I could actually sustain. The course was decent and not too challenging; it sort of saunters through country roads that were clear of traffic but quit rough/bumpy for a number of sections. At about 15K into the race, I hit a huge bump and my bars twisted downward- "Oh No!!! of course something had to go wrong". There wasn't anything I could do expect ride the remaining 15K on my bullhorns and limp to the finish. This really killed my motivation and I had a tough time getting into any sort of aero-ish position. Going slow and looking sad I was caught and passed by some very fast large-quaded individuals on the second half of the course. I recovered over the last 10k and posted a very nice finishing leg even passing my 3-minute man. Even though the race didn't fair well for me, I'm definitely looking forward to my next TT and will certainly post better results in the future. remember; tighten your bars on and pace yourself.
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