Tuesday Night Time Trial

May 13, 2008
Medina, Minnesota

11 miles

Pre Race
I was really excited about this night. I was a sponsor of the evening's racing which largely meant that I was bringing pizza and soda. Because I needed to be back to coordinate the pizza, I got to be among the first starters. In fact I was the first starter of the night, and the series for that matter. This idea was fun for me, but what made it really cool was that I got to have number 1. I was really excited to tape the 1 on my seat tube. Once I knew I was the first rider to start, I decided that I really wanted to be the first rider to finish as well. I fully realized that goal would largely depend on who was starting behind me so it was not a textbook definition of a good goal but it was what I was thinking about coming into the race.

As I warmed up, I was pretty psyched to be wearing my new race kit. I joined the Birchwood bike racing team and decided to go the full 9 yards as far as TT clothes so I had the skin suit, shoe covers, etc. I felt pretty good with the kit, the bike, the aero helmet and the wheels I had gotten last fall. Simply put, I had all the equipment to excel. It was a question of fitness.

Here is a picture of me in action at the start of the race.

Race
While I like the idea of racing, I think I was a tad too subdued even while at the starting line. After the countdown from 5, I was off. I tried to keep things pretty calm but a quick look at the PowerTap showed that I was not doing that good of a job, over 300 watts was not going to do as I figured to average about 275.

What I quickly realized was that the race was providing a lead car. As my TT position is pretty low I have to bend my neck to get a good view of where I am going. The lead car did a good job of keeping a good gap in front of me, no draft there, but it had the hazard lights on. I could basically sight off the hazards and didn't have to break my aero position much at all. I don't know how much it helped but I really liked the experience.

As I moved through the first half of the course, all was going fine. I was working hard and I felt like I was going pretty fast. The hills start to kick up a bit as you approach the turn around and I worked these pretty hard. I decided that I would let myself rest a bit on the main descent into the turn around. I was not going to stop pedaling, only to let the power drop a bit as I approached the turn. Working for a few miles an hour once you're past 30mph and about to turn didn't make a lot of sense to me.

As I approached the turn around, I realized I was feeling pretty good. I did a good turnarond and started working up hte hill that follows pretty well. I kept the watts up but not too high.

As I made the turn arond I looked at who as coming at me. I saw a big gap and the first few cyclists that I saw were well back of the time I estimated they had started behind. In short, I knew that I a great chance to be the first finisher as well as the first starter. That realization really freed up my mind and I felt like I started to work even harder.

The last miles went pretty well though I was starting to pay for my early enthusiasm with a slight dropoff in my power levels. Nonetheless I kept at it, you can see the effort in my face in the photo below.

I kept working and the finish line approached pretty quickly.

I really liked the photos taken at the event, so you can see another one of me working hard towards the end of the ride. Note the head being down was less than ideal aerodynamically as the tail of the helmet really does increase drag. When you're nearing the line though, I suppose you don't think a whole lot about it. I'm pretty sure my eyes were closed as well, and that surely isn't a good idea when you're riding a bike at nearly 30 mph.

I roll across the line feeling pretty happy with my ride. My time was pretty good, though I couldn't remember exactly how it compared to my previous rides.

Post Race
Not much time to warm down as I had to meet the pizza delivery. I enjoyed a bit of a spin and headed back to hand out food and refreshments. It was a great time and I really enjoyed meeting and talking with a whole bunch of folks after the race.

Power Analysis
I was not really too surprised by what I found in the power file aside from the overall average. I went pretty quickly but the watts were not as high as I thought they would be. I had a pretty good idea that I had started too quickly and the data pretty much shows that to be true.

which you can download here.

Have fun and see you at the races!