There’s nothing you can blame on anyone but yourself in the TT. The formula is easy. It’s MIND + BODY + AERODYNAMICS = TIME.
Aerodynamics are easy - not necessarily cheap, but they’re reasonably objective. TT bike (bars, wheels, frame, all that stuff), check. Aero helmet, check. Skin suit, check. Position, check. At the end of the day, there’s a “fastest case” for this stuff. I’m pretty convinced I’m right about there. I hope there were photogs out there at Church Creek - not sure if there were because I was pretty tunnel visioned for most of it. I really want to see myself in the TT position.
Body - wow.. this is the work part. I blew my pacing plan out the door, and suffered for it. My first 15 minutes were 20 watts above my plan, and my next 40 minutes were 20 watts below as a result. This resulted in power 15 watts below my theoretical pacing plan, and 30 watts below ideal. I will fix this. I will stop making excuses about interval courses and traffic and all the other crap that keeps me from getting long steady state intervals in and I’m moving TT to the trainer for now. No traffic, no lights, no interrupts. Me, the position, the TT bike and training. At the 20-25km mark I knew I was struggling and I knew I was beyond the “standard interval length” that I get. My power file shows it.
Mind - ahhhh… focus Daniel-son. Hoooooooooly smokes. For the first real 40km TT on a course I’ve never ridden before, focusing and not getting beat up in the mind was rough. The mind will follow the body if the body is prepared. (see above)
Results? My goal was 55 minutes. I finished in 55:27.0 at 15-20 watts below my power pacing plan - good enough for second in the Cat 3’s. Goal for the fall Church Creek? 54:00.
Alrighty.. back to work.
PS> Parting shot - the course was nice, flat EXCEPT that middle stretch was a … well.. it was something else. There was NO smooth line on that road, cause I looked for it. If someone out there found the smooth line, please comment and tell me where it was. That road beat the living snot out of my legs for 20 km. I felt like I added a kilometer to the course trying to find a good line. Ah well.. had to have something to gripe about mentally when things started to fall apart physically, right?
Ride safe, ride hard, ride lots!
VW
