Sometimes you have a really good day on the bike and you wonder if it was just one day.
Today's RPM was the Iron Man Switzerland course, a pretty painful 37-mile course with 3 climbs between 6.6 and 7.7%, each one about 5 minutes long. Ouch.
Four of us gunned it from the beginning. It was Matt, Pete, Ted, and I. We were pushing the pace pretty hard. Pete dropped off after about a half hour. It's his first season with the team and still building his strength, but he's doing pretty well so far.
On the first climb, Ted and I gunned it a little, dropping Matt. We joked about dropping him, but we slowed down a bit and he got back on. On the first major climb, Matt and I dropped Ted. By the summit, we had over 1000 feet on him. On the descent and flat after, I found something: Matt didn't mind drafting but wouldn't help pull. I debated for a second: could I drag Matt along and still keep Ted off? Ted is a great time trialist and could probably pull me back. So I waited. I slowed to to about 17 mph so Ted could catch back on (he was doing a out 21 mph).
Once he was back on, the three of us worked pretty hard together. Ted called out the rotation, making sure each of us took a pull. We stayed together over the next couple climbs and descents. We just had the 6 miles of flat road until the finish.
With about five miles to go, I was just finishing my 2-minute pull. I was debating how long to wait before making a move and this seemed like a good time. Besides, a song I really liked came on my iPod just then. So I gunned it, hitting about 750 watts. I jumped out of the saddle and gritted my teeth. I watched as I pulled away from Matt, as he slipped out of my draft. Ted shot past him and was on me pretty quickly. After a minute I slowed down a touch and Ted took over. We kept the pace pretty high. I was doing about 300 watts when I was pulling and about 220 in Ted' draft.
I took a really long pull the last couple miles. I wanted to get my average wattage up. It was at 251 watts and I really wanted to get it up to meet or beat my old record. I ran out of road.... Ted sprinted by me in the last half mile and I just rode in at the same speed. I finished with an average of 252 watts, tying my record from last week. Matt came in about a minute behind us (I think, I was pretty beat and not paying much attention).
I was thrilled. To push myself so hard in the TT test yesterday and still deliver this kind of performance today was more than I could hope for. Especially since I'm still coughing and feel a little run down.
This week I'll be doing VO2max intervals and threshold intervals, so I'll probably be a little more tired by next weekend. Hopefully my body adjusts to the new higher intensity!
