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.
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