Working on the Time Trial

So it's been a while since my last post about the July 2nd, 15 mile time trial I competed in, and since then I have raced in two more time trials, both at the same location as the July 2, time trial.

The first time trial I did following the July 2, event was a 25 mile race on July 30. Now, this was only my second time trial since 1997, and my first attempt at a time trial at this distance. The goal for most cyclists at the 25 mile distance is to do it under one hour. That's a pretty good deal and shows some fitness if that can be accomplished. So, with that goal in mind, I would have been happy with a time of 59:59:99... under 1:00:00.

The start of this race felt much more different than the previous 15 mile race. I was much more relaxed, not nearly as nervous, and just generally feeling very good about myself.  The clock ticked down to my start time... and I was off. Man I felt much better than last time. Comfortable, relaxed, fast. I just got a good tempo and pedal cadence and just ticked off the laps. Last lap, gave it all I had left and crossed the line... 57:09. Whoa! What?! Like I said, I was going to be happy with one second under an hour, but about three minutes? And that was without the fancy time trial wheels or helmet. Nice. Everything just clicked that night for me. No nerves making me tense and uneasy. Good fresh, strong legs keeping the cadence high. It really was all good that night. The time of 57:09 put me in 5th place. What a good night.

The next time trial race was on August 6, with a distance of 10 miles, and again on the same course as the previous two. This one felt a little different for me, again. I was relaxed and confident as I was before the 25 mile race, but my legs felt a bit more tired. And again the clocked ticked down... and I hit the course. In a time trial you have to pace yourself, not going too hard early and blow yourself up, but not too slow and lose a lot of time. This is something I am still working on and learning. This evening I probably went out of the gates too fast. I was going very good on the first half of the race, perhaps too good, but as I was closing in on the last few laps my legs were starting to tire out on me and my average speed was slowly going down. I finished with a decent time of 23:16 for 10.2 miles, which put me in 10th place, but I believe I could have done better. But hey... that's what these Friday night races are for. They're training races (well, to me they are) to help me become a better time trialist for the bigger weekend races.

The next and last Friday night race is on August 20. I'll be quicker this time to post the race report.