Fraser Bicycle - Winter TT Series (Race #2)

For a fun little winter activity and something to throw on the calendar to encourage motivation during the cold winter months in Michigan, I signed up to do a 20 mile Time Trial hosted by Fraser Bicycle.

Fraser Bike's Training Lab!

While I know what riding at FTP feels like and I have a decent idea what my current FTP is, I had never ridden for more than 20 min at FTP or spent any time riding on a Computrainer before. Frankly, while I had followed the appropriate test to approximate FTP, I really couldn’t fathom spending a hour at FTP.

After warming up for about 15 minutes, Ron from Fraser Bike calibrated my Computrainer and I was off, well, not actually off going anywhere….he said “Go” to begin my hour of pain.

From my off-season riding I had an FTP estimate of 270 (@160lbs). My plan was to ease in during the first 5 mins @ 250ish and then settle into my 270W goal. I used 5 min splits on the Garmin to help keep me honest. Keeping the timing interval low allowed me to mentally break the ride down into more manageable segments of pain and to keep a very close watch on average FTP during each segment.

Steady Freddy

I started out strong and felt pretty good throughout. Riding on the Computrainer was a really cool experience. Have trained and raced with power for a few years now I knew roughly what to expect regarding the relationship to cadence and power as the 20 mile Kona compu-course undulated. Just like in real life, I was using my Quarq PM to hold me back on the uphills and to keep me pushing on the downhills. It was fun to downshift into my biggest gear, spin it out to see 250 watts and be “traveling” 35+ mph.

I rode strong, surprisingly feeling “good” for about 45min. Then I found myself looking at the clock a lot, HR started to climb and I found myself up shifting to try to maintain my 95ish goal cadence.

Per my plan, I started to increase my power when I was within 10min from finishing. 278 for 5 min, 291 for 5 min and then “all out” at 325 for the final push. In my 20 min FTP testing, the final push was rarely possible so I was happy to see my 270 estimate was a little conservative. I squeezed out a few watts for a final FTP of 272 for a P/W ratio at FTP of 3.6. 

For the full Garmin File: click here

In the end, I finished up in 3^rdplace in the 19-39 age group behind my powerhouse, rookie pro buddy Tom and another local BAMFer who’s thrown down a 4:10 1/2IM. I’ll likely be chasing these two guys for the reminder of the series (2 races left) but this is just the motivation I was looking for to keep me pushing on the bike in the off season.

In conclusion, an hour at threshold hold is no joke regardless of the environment but I didn’t puke, I finished strong and probably most importantly, I broke through a mental plateau of what I thought was possible (1hr @ FTP). I continue to convince myself that the mental aspect of racing with the front pack is just as critical as the physical aspect.

Nutrition:
1 cup of coffee + bonk breaker bar 2 hrs pre-race. 100 cals of EFS Liquid Shot during my warmup, 1 bottle of EFS drink and bottle of water. Post race a slammed a bottle of Ultragen.

Thanks for reading.

Up Next: My "Off-season" Plan