This morning, I did one of my favorite training races: The West River Time Trial in Philadelphia.
It's an out-and-back course on mostly flat roads. It follows a bend in the river, giving it a boomerang shape on a map, and the winds are always a little odd. The course is about 8.3 miles round trip.
This is my first time doing it in two years. Heck, it was the first time I was on my time trial bike in two years.
Warming up, I was a little wobbly. Not being on aero bars for a long time can have that effect. I felt strong, though. I was surprised to see numbers like "23 mph" while warming up at my intended heart rates.
At the start, it was good to see my old teammates and meet some new ones. Guys like Ted Slack and Rob Brothers gave me a warm welcome back. To be honest, it felt really good that someone noticed I was back riding. Dave Harwi kindly noted that I'd "bulked up." Thanks, Dave ;-)
When I stepped up the the starting line, Rob was timing. His words echoed in my head. "It's a new beginning. You know how to do this, man!" He counted me down. 5...4...3...2...1...
For those of you not familiar with it, a time trial is a bike race where one rider starts every 30 seconds. You ride the distance as fast as you can, not really knowing how anyone else is doing. 30 seconds is a LONG way, considering most cyclists are riding at 20 to 25 mph. If the riders are evenly matched, you barely see anyone the whole race, except people going the other direction. It's all a matter of discipline to keep the pace high, self-knowledge of your thresholds so you don't go too hard and burn yourself out, and tolerance for pain as the lactic acid accumulates in your muscles. I, being the sick person that I am, love them. The other draw, is that as you lie on the aero bars, it almost feels like you're flying.
I barely remember the time trial itself. I remember the start, the turnaround, catching the guy who started 30 seconds ahead of me, and getting passed by two other guys who started behind me. I had two goals: keep my heart rate near threshold (about 160 BPM) and my cadence 90 - 93 RPM. I have a bad habit of pushing too big a gear at a lower cadence.
For my first day back, I can't complain. I covered 8.3 miles in 22:34, about 21.9 mph average.
Waking up at 191 pounds and 26.6% this morning, I still have 26 pounds to lose before I hit my target weight. I can only imagine how much faster I'll be able to cover that course carrying less weight.
