It's that time again, time for the annual Amateur Time Trial. It's almost always held the day before the Pro race in Philly and varies in name each year.
The course varies a little too. This year, it started on West River Drive, right where it splits near the Art Museum. It ran out to about 100 yards short of the end barrier. The thing about that is that it eliminates the small hills at each end that usually make it a lot easier to get back up to speed.
It was really hot and humid this morning. At my 8:46 start time, I'd guess it was 83 or so. The light winds felt good at the start, not so good once I was on the road.
The short version is that I went out WAY too hard because I was more focused on speed than power. I should have been watching my power meter, not the speed. I was aiming for 25 mph and 270 watts. By focusing on the speed, not accounting for the head winds, I was hitting 290 to 300 watts on the way out. My power tap download later showed that I went over 400 watts a few times. NOT GOOD.
I lost a few seconds in the turnaround. I've practiced left hand turnarounds more times than I can remember. This was the first right hand turnaround in my entire life. It wasn't like I crashed or anything, but I took it really easy.
I was OK for the first few miles on the way back. Around Sweet Briar (1.2 miles to go), I knew I was in trouble. My power was dropping and I was going as hard as I could. My power was down to 250 watts and my heart rate was at 173 bpm. I'm usually only at 162 bpm , so I was working a lot harder than normal.
I held on as much as I could, but I know I lost a lot of time in the last mile. I crossed the line at just 22 mph and 220 watts. I can honestly say that I went as hard as I could, I just went too hard too early.
I can't complain about the final results:
8 miles, 19:21, 24.9 mph, 256 watt average.
I also lost 1.6 pounds this week and hit all my training targets. (yeah, I didn't really taper for this event and it's a "3-week" on the training plan, so maybe I could have taken it easier this week to rest up for the race).
I'm off to a good start to hitting my goals this summer!
