One thing this winter has done for me is that it made me a preparation lunatic. I always kind of was, but now I really am. As I mentioned last week, by making my training more mathematical I've been able to make it more effective and build my confidence in it.
I'm still trying to forget the race I did last fall (my only race for the 2012 season), so this was the first race that I can say I felt even remotely prepared for since fall of 2011.
My winter training this year was probably the best I've even done. Over the last couple months, I've spent two or three rides a week on the time trial bike (including wearing my helmet on the trainer to get used to the weight). I had an idea of how long it would take me to finish the event and worked out what power I thought I could maintain for that duration. I was guessing around 290 to 295 watts.
The morning went pretty smoothly except that I thought my 6AM half-asleep brain knew better than the GPS and took a 15-minute detour, which cut seriously into my warmup time. I got my race number, got in a decent warmup for the amount of time that I had (about 15 minutes, half of what I'd wanted), and got to the start just 2 minutes before my start time.
I had a rough start. The start was slightly uphill and I have never done well with held starts. I need to practice them a lot more. I was in a small gear, too small for this case. I had this dumb idea that I could start in the small ring, get moving, and then shift right into the big ring. It wouldn't shift. I was in too big of a cog and the bike just wouldn't cross-gear like that. Instead, I quickly shifted the rear instead and sprinted up the hill. At the top, I was able to shift enough to get into the gear I wanted. Probably 5 or 10 seconds gone to a rookie mistake. Damn.
After that, it went smoothly. I held a high pace on the way out. The course was slightly uphill and the wind was lightly against me on the way out, so I pushed a little harder on the way out than I would have otherwise. I was having a bit of a hard time keeping my pacing steady on the rolling hills and the slight winds. I was not used to pacing when I could not see the power meter. Something to work on.
I also found that I was a bit wobbly at top speeds. I need to get a little more stable.
Still I did OK, hitting the turnaround, I was averaging 295 watts and 24 mph.
I hit the turnaround of the very narrow, two-lane road with no shoulder. I took it as fast as I could and really didn't think about it much.
The way back was FAST. With the return slightly downhill and downwind, even at a slightly lower power, I was able to keep the speed higher than it was on the way out, pushing over 26 mph. My power dropped a bit because, as planned, I went a little harder on the way out and expected to let the descent and wind do some work for me on the way back.
I saw a rider ahead of me and decided I wanted to catch him. I dug as deep as I could, but I was already going pretty much full speed. I hit the line maybe 10 seconds behind him (seeing his number, he started a minute ahead of me).
I was completely wiped out and felt like I did pretty well for my first race of the year.
Going back to the "preparation" motif: Last weekend, I looked at my power output on past events on other courses and calculated what I thought I could do on this one. I was guessing around 12:30 to 13:00, depending on the wind (which turned out to be harsher than I'd expected and it was a hillier course than I'd expected. I thought it was dead flat until a couple days ago).
Winning time from last year was 12:31. My high speed target would make me the winner; my low speed target of 13:00 would have put me in 5th place last year. So yeah, I was expecting to do well today. It was all I could do all week to not tell my friends that I might be a contender in a time trial when I've never finished in the top half of the results sheet in one before. I didn't entirely believe it anyway. I thought maybe my math was off. But there was a chance...
That's the only reason I stuck around for 45 minutes to see the results sheet. Otherwise, I would have been long gone when they put up the results sheet. When I saw the results, a smile slowly spread across my face and I pumped my fist. "Yes!"
I finished in second place.
I was second by a pretty substantial margin (35 seconds, with the winner at 12:26), so I don't think doing something more smoothly today would have gotten me the win. But I'm not worried about that now. This is not a day to worry about not winning. This is a day to celebrate improving from finishing dead last in my last time trial to finishing at the top end of the event.
What Went Well:
Remembered all my gear
Training.
Predicting power target
Predicting duration to maintain power
Preparing/packing everything the night before (using a checklist)
What to Work On:
Not enough time for a good warmup
Held starts in a variety of conditions
Time outdoors on the TT bike, pacing more smoothly and holding a straighter line
The Numbers:
Distance: 5.4 miles
Time: 13:01
Avg Speed: 25 mph
Avg Power: 290 watts
