Time Trial Tunnel Vision

Having never time trialed before and looking for something to provide a additional motivation over the winter I decided to sign up for the Fraser Bicycle Winter Time Trial Series. 

Fancy Dungeon

All raced indoors at the Fraser bike lab on one of their 16 synchronized Compu-Trainers. 5 Races, best 4 scores count. I missed the first race in December as I was already in Christmas Cookie eating mode so I raced #2-#5. A nice little variety of courses with unique terrains and lengths. 



Race #2. I talked about that one here, but in summary, 19.7 miles of pain on a simulated Queen K. Closest I've ever gotten to a true FTP Test. I was not surprised by the pain, I was surprised that I was actually able to ride that hard for almost an hour (56min). I set a new personal best for time riding at threshold and a season high threshold power. 

Race #3

Race #3. Only 15 miles this time on the classic Morgul-Bismark course in Colorado (I had to look it up too). I took a rest day before this race and I was able to absolutely hammer this one. 107% FTP (300W) for 30 min. It was brutal, just like the hour at FTP, only a little shorter with unfathomable intensity. I didn't puke but my eyes were quite blood shot afterwards. (one of my many indicators constituting a "tough one"). Here is the full Garmin file.

Race #4

Race #4. Another long one here. 21 miles on a local (Hinds Drive) weekend route. Nearly another hour at FTP. Having a decent gauge on what I had proved to be possible (hr@FTP) really helped me get through this one. It was still crazy scary driving to the shop knowing the level of pain that would be endured....but believe it or not, an hour max effort seemed easier to me than a 1/2hr at a higher intensity. Power, HR and perceived effort were right up where I had expected them. I pushed my FTP up a few more watts. I'm at a lifetime best FTP....even thought my weight is still about 5 pounds above my in-season race weight. Here is the full Garmin file.

Race #5

Race #5. The TT Finale. 10K, 15 mins as hard as you can go. Again, it, was a little tricky to guestmate what an appropriate power for only 15 min would be. I knew what I could do for 30min, I had a pretty good idea what I could do for 5min, so I plotted a line and guessed 120% FTP or 335W. I went into this last race bit fatigued but I rode as hard as I could. I knew during my warmup that I was feeling a little heavy legged but I pushed on. I targeted 310W for the first 5 min, 320W for the next 5min and balls to the wall for the last 5min. As can be seen in my power file, I was going along smoothly for the first 5 but my RPE was bit high. Moving into my second 5 min block the legs just weren't there. I was ticking them over but with way more effort than the numbers on the Garmin were showing me. Moving in to the final 5min segment, I bumped it up to 350 and quickly realized that holding that was not going to be possible, so I endured what I could. I averaged 322W for 15 min.  Here is the full Garmin file.

I ended up in 3rd place for the final TT and 3rd place for the winter series. I finished behind my rookie pro buddy Tom and some guy named Dan Stubleski who later I later researched to be the Amateur World Champion at the Ironman 70.3 distance! Not bad company and it was an honor to test my bike fitness against these guys!
 
Time Trialing takes a unique focus and determination to put yourself through a tremendous amount of discomfort. Experience is the only way to accurately gauge your effort and pacing. I found the pain similar to really pushing a 5K running race or a 1hr sprint triathlon. At the end of the day, I've experience something new and something I never would have thought of doing before. A true 1hr FTP effort hurts. A 30min max effort hurts, as does 15min at max effort. Pushing myself to the limit is the reason this blog exists and now I can continue to frame what is possible with a little hard work and determination.

Until next time,
Train Safe