Tuesday 4th June 2013
Cycling (9.27 Miles / 00:25:41 / 21.7 mph / Avg Cadence 85 / HRZ 4.4) Club Time Trial
Finally the promise of decent weather emerged and the timing was perfect for the monthly Tri Club cycling Time Trial.
(For those that don’t know, a Time Trial is basically a defined distance to be done individually as fast as possible)
The route is nice and flat but a bit exposed for winds – usually with one way and against the other.
The twenty degree temperature was so welcome and the breeze was not too stiff.
Responsibility had been handed to me to do the timing for the overall event, so Nelson kindly come down early to time me on my run first so that I could then do the timing for everyone else.
I started out hard and after about half a mile thought I was going out too hard but stuck with it. About a mile in to the route I passed a guy on a bike with his backpack on obviously commuting home from work. He had stopped to adjust something on his bike and I blasted past him and said a quick hello on the way past. Feeling smug I almost felt the need to explain that I was doing a time trial – bit I didn’t. Just as well really. As little more than half a mile later the same commuter went past me like a bullet.
He was down in his aero bars and his BIG backpack was sticking up in the air acting like a parachute creating drag and he still left me for dead.
I felt crap!
Here I was absolutely smoking myself on the Time Trial and this guy commuting home just breezes past me – admittedly he must have been doing about 25mph.
I couldn’t stick with him but I managed to hold the gap to about 300M until near the turnaround point where he gained about half a mile on me. Maybe we should try to get him to join the club as he was bloody quick.
After the turnaround I felt the wind start to hit me in the face a bit and I knew that he four and a half miles back would be harder than coming out, but I had the benefit of knowing that I only had a short distance left to bury myself and it would all be over. If I made myself sick so be it. I was going for it.
When I did the dummy run last week I did a time of 29 minutes. This route is probably about 500M shorter than I timed last week, but even allowing for that I knew that I was going to smash that time.
I hammered like hell and then over the last mile the wind seemed to strengthen and hit me in the face. I changed down a gear and kept the legs spinning.
My overall cadence was high with an average of 85 rpm. I’m pleased with that.
I crossed the line with a time of 25mins 41secs. I am so pleased with this and the average speed of 21.7mph is definitely the best I have ever sustained.
Finally after all the injuries, set backs and lack of training, I feel like I am getting in to a bit of regular training and some degree of fitness coming back. I also have managed to lose about 9lbs in weight and this no doubt helps too.
It’s amazing how a 25 minute time trial can give such a confidence boost. I hope it continues.
I am heading down to Camlough on Wednesday evening to do a test run on the swim course and bike route ahead of the Triathlon there on Saturday. Fingers crossed the elbow is OK for swimming as I haven’t had swim since the Roe Valley Triathlon which was three weeks ago.
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