Sunday, I did my first ever "official" TT, which I learned about and decided to do the event six days before, so no special prep./build-up.
I didn’t really know what to expect and/or how my body would respond to an hour hard. All went well, especially considering this was my first time doing such an event and with my limited sustained efforts so far this year. The flatness of the course limited the negativity of my sustained 2010 Clydesdale-dness. It felt good, for my first attempt at such an event. A flat course is a very different beast than I have ever ridden. Even though I’m big and heavy, I always ride in the hills. I was certainly a bit scared of what would come, but the other shoe never dropped. My pacing/plan/wattage schedule seemed to be right on.
Since the course was flat and straight I decided to ride TitanFlex Airo-Steed, which got lots of double & triple takes,…the guy that held my bike at the start said,… "Boy, this is a trick bike,…" then I heard from behind me,.. "where is the seat-tube?" I smiled proudly,…
Conditions; sunny, mid-70s (hot for us this year so far), >13mph wind from 350degrees, direct tailwind for first 20k, then block headwind for last 20k. The wind must have been steady b/c I only really noticed it a few times (besides the speed change),… I tried to keep my chin down as far as possible all the way back.
My goal was to go out easy (shooting for an average wattage of 275-285 and <165Abpm) with the tail-wind,… then turn it up for the last 20k into the wind, to minimize time spent at the slowest speeds.
The guy that started 30sec behind me went by at ~6min (I immediately thought, I will get him on the way back), then another at ~10min (he wasn’t coming back), then at ~22min I caught someone that started ahead of me,… another guy passed me at ~23min (he was gone too). On the way back, the first to pass me was ~30sec ahead at the turn and was kind of a carrot all the way back. I just kept telling myself to follow the plan and he would come back, which he was slowly. At ~5k to go he came out of aero for a second,… and the gap closed rapidly. At ~3k to go, I finally caught him as well as another guy at the same time,… I turned up the wattage and proceeded to put 17sec on him.
1st 20k (tailwind), ~29:07, ~25,61Amph, 278Nw(276Aw), VI=1.01, 92Arpm, 158Abpm(165Mbpm). COMFORTABLE
2nd 20k (headwind), ~31:43, ~23.45Amph, 292Nw(290Aw), VI=1.00, 93Arpm, 183Abpm(203Mbpm). "Comfortable" but couldn’t push harder, fitness level is just too low still.
So, 1:00:50 for the 40k effort, ~24.53Amph. 9th in Masters 40-44.
My wattage VI (variability index) was spot on, at very close to 1.0 both directions so pacing/variability in effort level was as perfect as can be.
Looking at my data, I noticed that my wattage profile for the 2nd 20k wasn’t as smooth as the first 20k (fatigue?) even though the VI=1.0.
There is another event on the same course on July 3, which I’m planning on doing. My thought is to do a bunch of 20min TH intervals between now and then on flat roads,…
Anyway, all in all I couldn’t ask for much more.
I liked the atmosphere of a TT event. Everyone was doing their own thing, on their trainers warming up, in their own worlds listening to their music, no non-sense drama, not a lot of chit-chatting.
I will certainly be doing more of these events.
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