Tuesday Night Time Trial

Matt and I decided to do the local “TNT” on Tuesday night: the “Tuesday Night Time Trial.” We got out to Baker Park, and there was “bike porn” left and right:

I did some last-minute adjustments on my aero bars:

Matt and I warmed-up a bit together, and we watched the sky get darker to the south. I saw a big cloud-to-ground lightening strike off in the distance. We were afraid we’d get poured on!

We got back to the starting area, and started chatting with some people. I saw Jill for the 3rd event in a row (Oakdale Du, GW Du, and now TNT). I said hi to some of the usual crowd: Dan, Suzie, and Chris. Soon we were ready to go.

Lining up for the start


Matt being held just moments before his start


Grimicing to get up to speed. I LOVE his face!


Getting up to speed

The TNT is an 11 mile out-and-back time trial over rolling hills. Here’s a photo from last year (my first and only other TT) that shows the first big hill that we had to climb:

That’s actually Matt half-way up that hill to the right

Matt was off and rolling, and I had about 15 minutes before my start. I warmed up a little more and found my spot in line.

GOALS:

• Keep a low-profile and stay “aero.” Be efficient.

• I did NOT want to check my average mph until the turn-around. Just go HARD from the get-go. Go just by “perceived effort.”

• Last time I negative split the ride, and this year I did NOT want to do that. I wanted to go out harder and just do what I could on the way back.

• And finally, after my TT last year I said “I think I could have pushed a little harder in the middle of the ride, so I’ll try that next time.” (Actual quote from my write-up from last year's TT.) So I made sure to keep that in mind for this ride.

So I took off. I hit the first hill pretty hard. I wasn’t passed until about 7:30 into my ride, so that was better than last time! And it was about that time that I started to feel a few light drops. Oh yay. Nearing the turn-around, I was passed again. I felt like I was working hard. I didn’t know if I was faster or slower than last year, but I knew I was working!!

I hit the turn around in 14:10, and my computer read 23.0 mph. That’s faster than last year at this point!! I was on track with my goals. Good. But unfortunately, being “on track with my goals” didn’t take the pain away. ;)

Shortly after the turn-around, God opened up the sky on me. Thanks buddy. It poured relatively hard for a few minutes. I was having a hard time seeing through my visor. I lifted it up to see if I could see better, but the pelting rain made me quickly lower it back down again. It didn’t slow me down. The rain wasn’t an excuse. I just pushed through it as I was climbing a hill, and tried not to get too depressed at the 15.7 mph I was currently seeing on my computer.

It slowed to a drizzle, and then it poured again. It rained enough in those last few miles to soak my feet through-and-through. Nearing the finish, it let up and nearly stopped. I passed 1 guy (the guy who started just in front of me) as we crested that final hill. I booked it in to the finish where Matt was waiting with my camera:

A little wet and dark, with the biker I passed just behind me


Close-up

The dark clouds really made taking pictures tough, but I kinda like this one that Matt took as I crossed the line:

My aero helmet looks EXTRA long. Kinda like Hal’s helmet in that one episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” where he takes up speed walking. Anyone remember that one? That’s a classic!

Rolling through the finisher’s chute

I went “out” in 14:10, and made it “back” in 14:30, for a total of 28:41. That was better than I did last year!

I circled back around to Matt. He said, “Whoa, that’s quite the boob sweat you got goin on there,” and then snapped this photo:

We went back to guys at the finish and asked for our official results. They had Matt at 25.38 mph, and me at 24.27 mph. We were both TRILLED!! (Out bests last year were 23.44 for Matt and 22.54 for me.)

Matt was 32nd out of 80 overall, and I was 46th.

I wasn’t sure I believed my average speed. My results online were exactly 1:30 faster than what I had on my watch. I e-mail the TT director yesterday, and he got back to me saying there were some kinks in the timing from 3 “no-shows,” and that would equal 90 seconds. Everyone who raced might not be 90 seconds off, but Matt and I were after those 3 no-shows, so we’d both be 90 seconds slower than listed. So calculating my “new” results, I’m at 23.01 mph, and Matt would be at 24.00 mph. That’s STILL better than we both did last year. But there was something nice about thinking I had broken 24 mph....

Anyway, we both had a good workout, and were happy with how we had done. I snapped one last photo showing the dark sky as we were leaving the park:

Nice work Matt! Thanks for the workout and the photos! Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY yesterday! Hope it was fun! (Hope you remember some of it!)