35km race of truth.For those of you unfamiliar with cycling, a time trial is simply a race against the clock over a set distance. Riders are usually sent off in one-minute intervals with no drafting allowed should you catch another rider, so it's literally a matter of how deep you can dig. They are, in a nutshell, painful. 😛
On the line this weekend is a state champion's jersey for the winner of each category (I'm racing Cat 3). I'm not holding my breath for a jersey, but am hoping to improve on the 18th place I got in the other TT I did earlier this year. I've been training as much as possible and am down over 20lbs since spring so here's hoping. 🙂I'll try to get some pics and results posted this weekend.
Update 8/28
So I just got back and I am utterly wiped out. I have no idea how I'm going to do an 80 mile road race tomorrow without dying somewhere out on the course. 😛
At any rate, the TT went pretty well. The course was an out-and-back on the same road 95% of the way so absolutely non-technical and really just a pure horsepower kinda thing. Wind was more or less a non-factor but the hills (which seemed really small at first) came into play in the last half of the race. I started out a bit too fast, but did manage to catch my 30-second man within the first 12 minutes. After settling down a little, I got into a good rythym and caught my minute man right at the turnaround. Once I got back up to speed, I [Emiril] KICKED IT UP A NOTCH![/Emiril] and was actually starting to feel pretty good. I caught my 1:30 man on the way back in and took about a minute off my "out" time.
The only annoyance of the day was that my 30 second guy was fscking drafting me the whole race after I caught him. He'd rest up in my slipstream, then pass me, then blow up within a mile, I'd pass him back and he'd go right back behind me (this is totally illegal in time trialing). I and another rider (the guy who started behind me saw the whole thing) lodged a protest at the end of the race as this is just total BS. I mean, I took 30 seconds out of the guy in 12 minutes and then suddenly I can't get rid of him?
At any rate, I'm pleased. Catching three riders and finishing with an average speed right at 26mph ain't too shabby in my book. 🙂
<brHere's my heartrate data for the day.
Update 2:
The results were posted today at the road race; I finished 12th out of a little over 30 riders. 😀
On the line this weekend is a state champion's jersey for the winner of each category (I'm racing Cat 3). I'm not holding my breath for a jersey, but am hoping to improve on the 18th place I got in the other TT I did earlier this year. I've been training as much as possible and am down over 20lbs since spring so here's hoping. 🙂I'll try to get some pics and results posted this weekend.
Update 8/28
So I just got back and I am utterly wiped out. I have no idea how I'm going to do an 80 mile road race tomorrow without dying somewhere out on the course. 😛
At any rate, the TT went pretty well. The course was an out-and-back on the same road 95% of the way so absolutely non-technical and really just a pure horsepower kinda thing. Wind was more or less a non-factor but the hills (which seemed really small at first) came into play in the last half of the race. I started out a bit too fast, but did manage to catch my 30-second man within the first 12 minutes. After settling down a little, I got into a good rythym and caught my minute man right at the turnaround. Once I got back up to speed, I [Emiril] KICKED IT UP A NOTCH![/Emiril] and was actually starting to feel pretty good. I caught my 1:30 man on the way back in and took about a minute off my "out" time.
The only annoyance of the day was that my 30 second guy was fscking drafting me the whole race after I caught him. He'd rest up in my slipstream, then pass me, then blow up within a mile, I'd pass him back and he'd go right back behind me (this is totally illegal in time trialing). I and another rider (the guy who started behind me saw the whole thing) lodged a protest at the end of the race as this is just total BS. I mean, I took 30 seconds out of the guy in 12 minutes and then suddenly I can't get rid of him?
At any rate, I'm pleased. Catching three riders and finishing with an average speed right at 26mph ain't too shabby in my book. 🙂
<brHere's my heartrate data for the day.
Update 2:
The results were posted today at the road race; I finished 12th out of a little over 30 riders. 😀
