Last tune-up race before Ultramidwest
Today was the first Druber’s 40k Time Trial Challenge in Tolono, Illinois (about 20 minutes south of us). I did it in the Naked/Eddy Merckx/Cannibal/WhateverTheHellYouWantToCallIt (ie, no aero equipment) division.
I woke up at about 6am this morning, had 1/2 a bagel with tahini and a cup of coffee, then left for the race at about 7am. I was scheduled to start at 9:03am, and started my warmup right around 8am. My 45 minute warmup consisted of the following:
- 20:00 easy pace
- 10:00 tempo pace
- 2:00 recovery
- 3:00 threshold pace
- 4:00 recovery
- 1:30 sprint
- 4:00 recovery
- 0:30 high cadence easy pace spin
(all done on the trainer). I have a package of Vespa about 15 minutes into the warmup, and 1 package of Roctane about 15 minutes before the start. I set off at 9:04:06 (by my Garmin), with a couple start problems (I’m not used to having someone holding the bike at the start, so I ended up doing a standing start, and I had a couple pedal issues starting off), but nothing catastrophic.
I got my start issues resolved quickly, and settled into a decent rhythm pretty soon after the start. We had about a 5MPH wind out of the north at the start, which got a little stronger over the course of the race. As I expected, I had some issues at the turnaround (I know that I need to work on my time trial turnarounds), which were made a bit worse by a bout of cramps as I was turning around. The cross and headwind were a bit worse on the way back, as I mentioned, and my speed suffered somewhat as a result, although not as badly as I expected. There’s a highway overpass at about 1.8 miles from the start/finish, and by the time I reached the top of the overpass, my legs were feeling totally fried. I did an easy spin down the other side of the overpass, and then kept up the speed for the rest of the way to the finish. I finished in 1:11 (averaged 20.8MPH, which is only 0.72MPH slower than my PR speed for the Tuesday Night Time Trials, which are only 17.2km in length) and change, finishing in 3rd place in the Naked/Eddy Merckx/Cannibal/WhateverTheHellYouWantToCallIt (ie, no aero equipment) division. I’ve heard that the best way to tell if you’ve pushed hard enough during a time trial is if your teeth hurt by the end. I understand what they mean now.
Heart rate and other data from the Garmin in shown below (click to see a larger version):
Stuck around for the final results, hung out with the other guys from Wild Card, and then headed home for lunch (vegetable dumplings w/ hot and sour broth, big piece of berry pie from the farmer’s market) + sofa time.
12 days until Ultramidwest, and I’m feeling really good about the race…
