Road Bike Racing - FBF TT Race Report

I have to say this before anything: Will (DrWJODonnell for the uninitiated), PLEASE STOP WINNING!!!

Just kidding, man. Congratulations on your excellent two race performances. I don't think I saw you, and if I did, I didn't recognize you. Too many Cervelos.

BTW: I was the dude with the yellow Trek and the blue/yellow Pearl Izumi jersey.

So on to the report:

SHORT VERSION: Pretty bad. Went the wrong way first lap and had to start over...then crashed into a bush on the final lap and hit the deck. Still sore :-(

Pictures will be available soon!

LONG VERSION: This was my first race since April (first non-collegiate race). It was actually a time-trial, which was a great way to start, since I am interested in doing these. However, when I went out for my 30-mile ride yesterday, my legs didn't feel right. They felt kind of tight and tired for most of the time. Combined with some decent headwinds, it was a challenge trying to go over 21 mph.

The same thing happened today. I started off just fine, but my power gradually decreased every lap. Though I made a complete butt out of myself the first lap because I went the wrong way! (If you heard someone shouting 117 at every lap, that was me and now you know why). 2/3's of the course was not too challenging, but the last 1/3 was indeed as windy as advertised. Very hard to push it up to 20 (for me; others didn't seem to have much of an issue).

Thus it was no surprise that I finished the course in 36 minutes, putting me right in dead last. Did I mention that I hit a bush and hit the deck hard?! I'll have teams lining up to have me on their squad for sure now!

WHAT I LEARNED: I need a lot of speed work training, and this winter will be the winter of suffering. I also need to replace my saddle; it started killing me on the second lap and got worse from there. I am really going to need that Kestrel soon...

Congratulations! Every TT is a learning experience and it sounds as this was no exception to the rule. I wonder about how you ended up backwards, as they point you in the right direction to start. Still, strange things can happen when you are oxygen deprived.

Thanks for taking care of my report as well. I didn't have much to say other than I didn't meet my expectations, and I managed to ride with a 15 degree downward tilt on my saddle after a nasty bump mid first lap. Yeah, there were lot's of Cervelos and about the only way to recognize me was either by the Westwood team kit (ugly yellow/white/blue and full of wattage) or the Toyota Prius (Ugly, Silver, and also full of wattage.) I spoke with so many people there, that had we met, I apologize but I may have forgotten your name in any case!

Oh, and I will stop winning. I think I am done for the season.

Ah, the evil headwind. I did the Church Creek TT this weekend. Beautiful day, flat loop course (no turnaround!) with police manning the intersections to make sure you can take the turns without any traffic. But I swear the wind was in my face for 2/3 of the loop. Ended up with a time a full 3 minutes slower than last year. Weird thing was that the best response for me was to gear up and drop cadence into the wind. I swear I did the middle 10 miles at a cadence of 75-80.

At this point, I have no idea what I'm doing or how to train. It was a bit depressing, but you only get better by working through the failures, I suppose.

I will say this, out of close to 250 riders, I don't think I saw more than 10 roadbike with clip-on aerobars, and that includes mine. It was a sea of P3Cs and Zipps. I was lauging at the guy in the tiger striped skin suit until he passed me with a number 20 higher (20 minute later start time) than mine before the finish.

Congratulations! Every TT is a learning experience and it sounds as this was no exception to the rule. I wonder about how you ended up backwards, as they point you in the right direction to start. Still, strange things can happen when you are oxygen deprived.

Thanks for taking care of my report as well. I didn't have much to say other than I didn't meet my expectations, and I managed to ride with a 15 degree downward tilt on my saddle after a nasty bump mid first lap. Yeah, there were lot's of Cervelos and about the only way to recognize me was either by the Westwood team kit (ugly yellow/white/blue and full of wattage) or the Toyota Prius (Ugly, Silver, and also full of wattage.) I spoke with so many people there, that had we met, I apologize but I may have forgotten your name in any case!

Oh, and I will stop winning. I think I am done for the season.

I didn't get too much guidance my first time around. There was a guy and lots of cones, and I went through the first quarter-turn correctly, but mangled up the second one because there were cones and I thought we were supposed to go through them. I'm very fortunate that they let me start over.

Here's the odd thing, though (I'm not sure if you had this happen to you as well early in your racing career); I didn't go hard enough. I knew I didn't go hard enough, but I just couldn't. I already had the mindset coming into the TT that I wasn't going to do well because my legs still felt tired and tight. So when I did the TT, I wasn't doing it the point of complete suffering nirvana; I was doing it where I was only slightly uncomfortable. I knew I was approaching LT because I was going anaerobic, but it wasn't like my body was searching for any oxygen it could get.

Kind of coincidental you had your saddle issue; I just discovered that mine is a complete POS. It's a Selle Italia C2, but it's REALLY hard. I even tried putting Vasoline on my chamois, and that would work...for a little bit. I'm definitely switching it to something slightly more comfortable. This made it really difficult to pedal after a while, and made it impossible to go home afterwards (had to ride 5 or 6 miles to the train station, then a couple of miles back home from my stop).

Oh, and the pics are up. I couldn't get too many good ones because it was my first time doing bike races, and the focus wasn't working properly. I'll try and do a bit better next time around. Link (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016055&l=c93c4&id=47701262)

Well, I ended up out there too.

I've always wanted to do a TT, just to get the gist of it, and ultimately to see how I stack up to others solo efforts. Focusing on road racing lately, I overlooked and passed on many TT events in favor of a road or circuit race. Upon finding out my ride to the Tokenke race fell through, I stumbled upon this race on bike reg only a day before the event date and decided I should head out there and try my legs in a TT.

I Got there nice and early to sign up for the day of registration only to find out I'm not due to the start line for another hour. No problem, because I brought my breakfast. I sat off to the side of the road, chewed on handfuls of Cheerios's and watched some of the earlier departures wizz by on their primitive U.F.O. which were loud and low flying, and probably not quite as fast and advanced as the latest generation of flight crafts.

For the race I brought my Look roadie, which after having typed that, I make it seem as if I chose that bike for it features and strengths that may prove worthy in a race like this, which is actually not the case. In fact, it's my only ride. Thing was, even set up with zipp 808's and bottle cages removed, I still felt under-equipped and incredibly un-aero as most other abound straddled fully decked out T.T. rigs, with their slippery skin suits and pointy helmets.

Well, after swatting away 2 mosquito, and 25 minutes to my start time, I figured now might be a great time to start moving around and start preparing for the race.

Well going into this I knew this TT race would not be easy, especially being my first, but only made worst as my legs were sore from a hard effort at the park race Saturday, but with a nice warm up, I got them as good as good could be.

Time to line up.....
boop...
boop...
boop...
boop...
beep........
Time to go.......
Time to go fast.....
Time to go faster.....
Well, that was it. My brain just failed me and I just blanked out. I had completely forgotten everything. I forgot what the hell I was doing, what the hell I was suppose to do, and committed the biggest no-no in all of racing, I forgot, how many laps I still have to go.
Crap, do I have one left or two...hell maybe that last lap didn't count and I still have three. *****.

Thinking quickly on my feet, or um....wheels, I just figured that I'll wait until the rider in front of me, number fifty something stops and I'll stop when he does. I slowed my pace to stay behind him(within legal distance I presume, as I actually have no idea of the neccessary distance), and from there I'd wait until he crossed the line, If he keeps going I'll pick up the pace and do another lap, if he stops, well, I'll stop, for that was it.

Well, he hit the line, and sat up and coasted....

Damn, I guess that was it, I mumbled, as I hit the line with plenty in the tank, and peeled off wondering and calculating if I screwed up, how, and if so how bad the damage is. Well, whats done is done, and I guess I'll find out for sure once the results are posted.

Overall I suppose I fared well, I passed a few guys, felt good about myself, and should get me in great form for my race Tuesday, where I will return to Floyd, and this time count the laps!

I actually asked how many laps I had...

Boy, did I look great this race!

I actually asked how many laps I had...

Boy, did I look great this race!

At least your bike didn't catch fire.

I actually asked how many laps I had...

Boy, did I look great this race!

Ha, don't sweat it, I saw plenty of other slip ups! It's hard to get it right right off the bat. Next time, next time, when we finally get this TT thing figured out..... :lol:

i have a question for doc o'donnell- for TT's, do you like to use leg speed (a quicker cadence) or do you prefer to use power (a slower cadence)?

i was spinning for the first 2 or 3 laps then later, i dropped a gear and used power (a slower cadence) and i feel like i picked up 1mph. my quicker cadence was around 105 rpm's and my slower cadence was around 97 rpm's.

i have a question for doc o'donnell- for TT's, do you like to use leg speed (a quicker cadence) or do you prefer to use power (a slower cadence)?

i was spinning for the first 2 or 3 laps then later, i dropped a gear and used power (a slower cadence) and i feel like i picked up 1mph. my quicker cadence was around 105 rpm's and my slower cadence was around 97 rpm's.

He negative splits. I.e. upping the wattage incrementally.

He negative splits. I.e. upping the wattage incrementally.


is that a standard practice for TT'ing?


on another topic, i'm curious as to how much benefit using HED wheels, Zipp disk's, helmets, skin suits, and aerodynamic components and frames give- let's say, over a mile over not using them. i know it's going to be a rough estimate, but is it 4 seconds? 10 seconds?

i TT'd cannibal style. i really enjoyed my first TT. especially because the weather was perfect and FBF is a great place to race.


:thumb:

TT's are all about pain. Your first major Time Trial should really suck and hurt. It looks like you accomplished that. I think you should small goals for now, like next time to don't wipe out. Then you can start looking at breaking your times.

My next TT is Frenchtown 36km TT next weekend. If I'm around maybe we can do some TT workouts together Crassic. Either way wish me luck for next weekend, hopefully i wont cramp up like i did in the NJ state TT(40km).

Perez,

I didn't accomplish that. My goal for this TT was to just do it. And that's what I did. I didn't mentally prepare myself to ride myself to astronomical levels of pain. That's the goal for my next TT; if there's another one at FBF, I'm going to try and beat this time...and also ENSURE that when I'm done, I'm in new worlds of suffering (i.e. I try my VERY BEST).

The biggest problem I'm having is that when my legs get to that point, my mind tells them to STOP WORKING. This obviously leads to me performing worse (i.e. going from 23 mph to 18 mph, and from 18 mph to 14 mph, et al). Is that fixable by doing intervals and developign the mindset to keep going?

Perez,

I didn't accomplish that. My goal for this TT was to just do it. And that's what I did. I didn't mentally prepare myself to ride myself to astronomical levels of pain. That's the goal for my next TT; if there's another one at FBF, I'm going to try and beat this time...and also ENSURE that when I'm done, I'm in new worlds of suffering (i.e. I try my VERY BEST).

The biggest problem I'm having is that when my legs get to that point, my mind tells them to STOP WORKING. This obviously leads to me performing worse (i.e. going from 23 mph to 18 mph, and from 18 mph to 14 mph, et al). Is that fixable by doing intervals and developign the mindset to keep going?

Yes, that's what intervals are for. When you're doing your workout, you have to push yourself. If your hurting, that's good. You have to keep pushing yourself, that's the only way to get better. After you do the intervals you will be sore, but that's how you get stronger.

Commuting is not training, do some intervals and hard rides. Do a few laps in prospect in TT mode and see how you feel. Its good practice for your next TT.