Cycling Memory

Yesterday, this was a "Facebook memory" of mine:

Then a few weeks ago at the Heart of the Lakes Triathlon, I posted a 23+ mph bike split. As part of a triathlon - not just a stand-alone bike race! During a year when I keep saying "I should be biking more because I feel slow," it's good to take a step back and see how far I've come. I think 2009 Steve wouldn't believe my race results of the last few years. Life is good.

Oh, and then today, this was my "Facebook memory." I'd forgotten all about this:

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Tuesday Night Time Trial Photos

I've been meaning to post these for a few months now. Probably about 6 months to be exact. Here are a few photos that my brother-in-law Matt took of me at the last "Tuesday Night Time Trial" that I did to help get ready for Duathlon Nationals back in June:

Coming up a little hill around mile 2.


Close up of that last photo.




Close up.


This photo is mildly depressing because I haven't been able to lift weights in over 6 months
because of my elbow issues, and this is back when I had some arm muscles. Dang.

Back soon with some ACTUAL "training" numbers, and not just easy runs! Oh, and an impromptu end-of-year race. Happy weekend!

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Impromptu "Tuesday Night Time Trial"

About a week before this time trial, the thought entered my mind that it could be a good final "push" just 4 days before Duathlon Nationals. "But would 13-14 hilly miles ALL OUT be too much too close to Du Nationals?" I looked up the time trial website and saw they dropped it down to 10 miles and changed the route again this year. (That makes 4 different courses [all on the same roads] in the last 6 years or so.) I thought 10 miles sounded less likely to kill me and easier to recover from in 4 days, so I decided a few days ago that I'd do it.

I had to keep telling myself one thing: I didn't want use the upcoming duathlon as an excuse to back off a little bit. I didn't want to be hurting 3/4 of the way through the TT and think "You know, my legs are pretty tired. I have that race in 4 days. I should back off from 100% to more like 98.5%." NOPE. Couldn't do that. The only reason to do a TT is to go ALL OUT. I had to keep reminding myself of that.

Yesterday morning (the day of the TT), I Instagrammed this:

"Getting the trusty steed all cleaned up for tonight's impromptu time trial."

Pharmie got home from work to watch the boys, and I took off for the race. The biggest downside to this event is that it's across town during rush hour. It took me nearly an hour to go 23 miles. But I knew I was getting close when...

It was breezy out there. The wind was mainly out of the south, and we were getting ready to ride an out-and-back that was east/west, but people who had been out riding said that we'd mainly feel the wind on the way back. Brother-in-law Matt was out there finishing up a ride, and he confirmed that too. Speedy Leah mentioned that going down "the hill" near the turn-around was a little gusty and scary.

I got lined up and took off. I had no goal but to push like mad throughout. Well, honestly, if it hadn't been so breezy, I was hoping to set a PR here. My best average here was back in 2010 of 23.01 mph (as I was getting ready to set an Oly Tri PR the next month). But with the wind last night, I wasn't holding my breath.

I set my Garmin to take splits every mile. My first mile clicked over in 2:23. "Whoa. That's a 25.2 mph opening mile starting from a dead stop!" I wasn't planning on breaking that split, but then my 3rd mile was 2:18! I knew this was a little "wind aided," but I was hoping to hit the turn-around and keep the effort high. Matt grabbed a photo of me as I rode past the parking lot around mile 1.5:

Climbing a little hill. There's always a hill on this course.


Close up.

Oh, and in a nod to first time trial nearly 6 years ago, I wore the same outfit:

2009

I did that thing that I like to do where I note my overall average speed every quarter to "check in." Here's how it started:

• Mile 2.5 (1/4 done): overall average of 23.8 mph. Nice. Biggest numbers I've ever seen.

• Mile 5 (1/2 done): overall average of 23.9 mph. This JUST knocked down from 24.0 which is INSANE speed. But I had just come down "the hill" and now had to watch my speed drop as I worked back up it. Here's a photo from a 2010 time trial that shows me and "the hill" in the background:

That was when we finished coming down the hill. Last night, it was our turn-around.

My slowest mile on the way out was 2:49 (21.2 mph), but my first mile on the way back up that hill was 3:08 (19.1 mph). The wind wasn't totally in our faces on the way back, but based on the trees next to the road or the angle we were going, it could be better or worse at any moment.

• Mile 7.5 (3/4 done): overall average of 22.9 mph. I was well aware that my best TT was with a 23.01 mph average, and I was digging deep to see if I could hit that on this breezy night. I usually note that I could have pushed harder about 3/4 through any given race, but I was actively thinking about that and making sure I was pushing HARD.

The last mile was an extended uphill section that then opened up by a little pasture at the top where we could feel the breeze in our face. And then we slowly curved even more head-on into the wind. Damn it. I was trying to push, but my legs were done. I had given a good effort.

• Finish: overall average of 22.8 mph.

I Instagrammed this with the caption "2nd fastest time trial average EVER on a breezy night!
(And look at that mile 3 speed!) Next: Duathlon Nationals in 3.5 days... time to rest."


Garmin data: elevation in gray (much worse than it looks),
and speed in blue (better indication of elevation).

Here were my mile Garmin splits: 2:23, 2:49, 2:18, 2:37, 2:22, 3:08, 2:33, 3:00, 2:25, 2:39, and 0:11 for the final 0.07 mile.

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

26:30
23.1 mph
5 out of 12 in the 30-39 age group
30 out of 40 in the "open male" class.
35 out of 64 overall

I'm not sure how it was figured that I got a 23.1 mph average in the official results. (UPDATE: they must have called the course 10.2 miles, which would give me a 23.094 mph average, or rounded up to 23.1.) My 5 other "Tuesday Night Time Trial" rides were 23.01, 22.77, 22.65, 22.54, and 22.16 mph. So on paper, this was my fastest at 23.1 mph. But in reality, it was my 2nd fastest at 22.8 mph (according to my Garmin).

I'm most proud of my placing yesterday, and that helps show that I'm in good bike shape right now. This was a new TT course (and a breezy night), so I can't compare my past times. But in terms of how I placed, this was a good night. Last year, I was 12th out of 15 in my age group, and yesterday I was 5th out of 12 - that's a big jump! Last year I was nearly in the bottom quarter, finishing 54th out of 81 overall. But last night I was nearly in the top half finishing 35th out of 64 overall. (Maybe everyone I beat last year just didn't show up last night. Ha!)

Resting now, and getting ready for Duathlon Nationals on Saturday! More on that tomorrow.

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Vote for Steve's "Coolest Bike in Triathlon!"

I submitted a photo to a Triathlete Mag contest a number of weeks ago and forgot about it. Then I got an email yesterday saying I was in the "top 50." (Probably out of about 52 entries.) Now the public needs to vote me into the top 10 to get into the next round!

Here's the link to the top 50 "Coolest Bikes in Triathlon" contest. In the 52 pages of bikes, I'm way back on page 47. But you don't even have to scroll through to find me - you can just vote for "Steve S" at the bottom of this link. Here's what page 47 looks like:

If you can't read the text, it says: "I have a seven-year-old gold Specialized named 'Goldilocks.' A bike mechanic friend offered to redo my bar tape a few years ago, and he promised to make it 'real nice.' Goldilocks came back with four different colored bars: pink, yellow, orange and sea-foam green. She seems to clash horribly with bright tri shorts, but no one seams to mind - I've been racing that way now for years."

Here's a bigger pic for your ocular enjoyment:

Top: 2014 Trinona TT and 2014 Lake Marion Tri.
Bottom: Waseca Triathlon (2012 or 2013?) and 2013 Lake Marion Tri.

So CLICK HERE and cast your vote for STEVE S!! And big thanks to Sean "Easy" Pease from Gear West Bike and Tri for making Goldilocks "real nice."

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Trinona Time Trial Photos

So this race was just over 7 months ago, but I just found another album of photos from the 2014 Trinona Time Trial. Remember that TT?... It was the one that was only 3.5 miles long, but the last 2 miles were straight up Garvin Heights Hill: one of Bicycling Magazine's "Top 100 Climbs in the U.S."

(This was also the race where I was challenged to race and beat the race founder, Dave.)

Corralling riders before the start.


And I was sent off first!




Andrew and Dave starting 30 seconds behind me trying to catch me.


Dave (back) and Andrew.


Teammate Jenn on the flats before starting the climb.


This was the person who started behind Dave and Andrew
(60 sec behind me) who passed me by this point on the hill!


People climbing.


Teammate Jenn climbing, on her way to 7th overall and 1st female!


The guy who passed me hitting the line first (having passed the "lead car" behind him).


I came roaring to the line a few seconds later...


... still me...


... me again...


... that's how many photos you get of yourself finishing when the
album contains nearly 1000 photos of a 60 person TT!


Slow-poke Dave finishing 5.6 seconds behind me.


A topless weirdo running with bikers at the finish.


All kinds of stacked-up boxes of pizza for the riders at the finish.

There's a "new" (to me) album of photos from the Trinona Triathlon, so I'll share a few of those once I dig through them all. In the meantime, here's the full gallery of Time Trial photos where these images came from, and here's my Trinona Time Trial race report from last June.

Dave was so afraid of racing me this year at the Time Trial that he picked up his family and moved to London a few months ago. So we'll see if I get back down there to race this June.

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Final Trinona TT Photos and Final Race Thoughts

Here are 9 photos that appeared on the Trinona Facebook page from the Time Trial 2 weeks ago:

Me kicking things off as the first rider (I shared this one in my race report).


The 2 rabbits (Andrew and Dave) starting 2nd side-by-side.
It looks like Dave had some trouble with his "big boy pedals" and lost some time right away.


Part-way through the TT start - that's teammate Jenn about to hit the mat!


Andrew climbing.




More climbing.


Rival Dave about to hit the finish. This photo makes it look like he wasn't going fast.
Because he wasn't. I can't blame the photo.


I shared this before too: Dave chucking my "goodie bag" at me
that I got for beating him during the awards.


The top 3 ladies with their engraved cowbells. Jenn was the winner!

And I had 3 things I forgot to mention in my race report:

• Before the Time Trial, I purposely did NOT look at my race report from last year because I didn't want to ever think anything like "oh, I'm doing XX better than last year at this point!" I knew it was all about trying to beat the race founder Dave this year. But looking back to one thing from last year could have helped: I noted in last year's race report that I just had a tune up on my bike, and something got screwed up with my shifters. I hit the hill and said "I couldn't shift into my 'granny gear!' I was one gear up from granny the entire time!" I rode up the hill "comfortably" (quote unquote) this year in my granny gear. Maybe I could have been a bit faster had I shifted one gear and hammered a BIT more. Maybe. (If you want some numbers, my Garmin showed me that for the first mile up the hill, I held an 8.2 mph average. That's a 7:19 mile. Every half marathon I've ran has been faster than that. My fastest speed at the TT was 29.3 mph and my slowest was 6.5 mph.)

• The TT shirts are awesome. The design is cool and they're the cozy American Apparel 50/50 shirts:

• Next year? Yeah, I'm taking Dave down again next year. Super serious training starts now. Step #1: no more body hair to create any drag.

(No, that's not me. Yes, it's a woman. But our physiques are oddly similar. So just go with it.)

See you at the top of the hill, Dave. I'll be the hairless one waiting for you.

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More Trinona Time Trial Photos

Kerry from Yndecam (and his pro triathlete wife CY) were at the Trinona Time Trial 10 days ago. KY took some awesome photos. Here are about a dozen of his shots:

Everyone lined up with me being held for my start to the left.
That car in front of me was the one I followed that got lots of photos for my race report.


Passing KY and CY with smiles! (And an attempted peace sign.)




The 2 rabbits: Andrew Dahl from Dahl Toyota, and my nemesis and Trinona founder Dave.


Andrew starting the bluff.


Dave on the climb.


The stud that passed Andrew and Dave before catching me!


Me climbing (looking like a doof).
I said it in yesterday's post for the millionth time: I don't photograph well on a bike.

I'm half smiling in that last photo because CY was yelling at me as KY snapped that photo. All she said was "Henry says 'GO DADDY!'" I actually got a boost from that. THAT could have been the difference in me beating Dave by 5.6 seconds. So THANKS CY! :)

Climbing, about to be caught by the guy who started behind Andrew and Dave.


Some entertainment at the turn off Garvin Heights Road. Thanks guys!


Patti bombing down the final short hill to the finish line!
She finished as the 2nd female (behind my biker for my relay team the next morning)!


The finish!


K, me, and CY. Thanks for cheering, ladies!

That's all the photos, but I need to end with a funny story about K to the left in that last photo. I met her a few hours earlier at the Trinona Triathlon packet pick-up. I thought she was someone else (I was looking for the person who was going to give me my dorm room info for the night). We briefly chatted, and I was my normal, happy, smiley self. A half hour later, I met her at the start of the Time Trial as I ran into Dave and gave him some crap. Her eyes lit up: "YOU'RE Steve in a Speedo!?" No, she wasn't necessarily a fan. In fact, kind of the opposite. She was the "social media" person for Trinona. She didn't know that all the smack talk between Dave and I that she was seeing on Twitter and Facebook was all in good fun. No one had told her about it. She thought I was a legitimate over-competitive asshole talking all kinds of shit about the race founder! Dave was there to say "but I texted [or emailed] you about it saying to re-post that stuff." But K didn't even know what to make of that because she thought Dave was maybe joking - she didn't HEAR him talk about it so she couldn't gauge his voice.

I guess I won her over enough by the end of the night because she allowed me to put my arm around her as seen in that last photo above. Ha! (But something in her eyes say that she's still not 100% sure of me...)

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