Extreme Momentum

MATTS Harvard 30K Time Trial
April 28, 2007 – Harvard, IL
Cat 4 – 3rd – 54:24.44
260 watts – 24.5 MPH

As a Wisconsin native, I’m amused when a town right on our border boasts the “Milk Capitol of Illinois.” Despite turning into another exburb for the masses fleeing Chicago’s suburbia, the dairy and farming heritage is omnipresent. Not only does Harvard have a giant cow statue downtown, a lady came from a local dairy store was at the registration table handing out ice cream coupons.

I love coming to this town for bike races. I think it’s because it’s easy to get to from the Chicago area, the course is a “lollipop” and not your typical “out-and-back”, plus it has the right combination of hills and turn, and it has a nice staging area. Despite a week of shaky legs and feeling like an infected cow udder, I knew that I would likely have a good race.

I have noticed that the TTs in the spring tend to run a little behind, but I think all of the riders know this and it does give you extra time to warm-up. I appreciated the extra time and my legs were nice and loose. Starting out of the gate, I knew the first several miles would be into a slight headwind.

I might have pushed it too much, but I think my fast start actually helped me in the end. I ended up passing several riders in the first few miles before settling into a more realistic pace. Due to the direction of the wind, some of the course was in a headwind, some a crosswind, and not much of a tailwind. Considering that the wind wasn’t that strong, this might have given me a psychological advantage over the other riders. I just kept plowing on mentally targeting the next rider in front of me and occasionally checking my power.

When I crossed the line, I knew I had a good race based on the number of riders I had passed. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my average speed—24.5 MPH. A new personal record for this distance, which ended up being 32K. I knew that speed afforded me a good placing, but I had to wait until midweek to find how I had done. Third place…my first podium!!!

The most surprising aspect of the race for me was the average power I cranked out in relation to my average speed. CyclingPeaks calculated a normalized power of 260 watts (3.80 watts/kg) with an average HR of 179 bpm and average cadence of 84 rpm. Compared to my first TT of the season, which was only 16K, I can’t figure why I went faster with less power. At the JFMTT, I averaged 22.2 MPH with 264 watts normalized and a cadence of 92 rpm. Apart from having my new spanky XXX skinsuit, the only thing I can attribute my performance to was the wind and better pedaling efficiency.

Overall, the Harvard TT made me feel that I was ready for my first real target race of the year. Now, I was really starting to MOOOOooovvvveeee…:)

MATTS Harvard TT Results

MATTS Cherry Valley 30K Time Trial
April 22, 2007 – Cherry Valley, IL
Cat 4 – 6th – 48:01.45
261 watts – 23.4 MPH

April is a packed month for TTing in the Midwest. It’s a chance for riders coming out of their winter training to gauge their fitness before the summer racing season takes off. In fact, I had nearly 6 straight weeks of TTs from April to May. Yikes! Thankfully, most of the early seasons TTs are shorter and not as demanding as the average 40K. Having a TT almost every week helped me mentally, because I finally started to see my season start to take shape. I had felt mediocre about my results thus far in the shorter TTs, so I was looking to the longer 30K TT in Cherry Valley as a chance for me to improve.

The weather couldn’t have been better for April with temperatures around 80 degrees F under bright sunny skies. The only downside was a 10-20 MPH headwind on the way out. The Cherry Valley course is the typical out and back course with a few rolling hills. I was hoping for a fast time even with the wind.

Start times were delayed again, so I was able to get in a longer warm-up. The Cherry Valley starting area was situated in a nice park near Rockford about 90 minutes from Chicago. There was plenty of parking available, but the actual start line was about half a mile from the parking lot.

My start went well and I got into a good rhythm. The last few miles on the way out were difficult, because they were slightly up hill to the south and into a nice headwind. In this stretch, I passed a number of the people ahead of me. I’ve always found this to be very motivating. Kind of like the greyhound chasing the rabbit. After the turnaround, the next 3 miles were awesome. I was able to average about 30 MPH with the tailwind.

The finish also had a slight uphill to it, but I was really able to hammer it. Crossing the finish line, I knew I had a good time. I’ve learned that my placing in shorter TTs is not as good as the longer, but I thought I’d get into the Top 5. When the results were posted, I was stoked to find that we had 4 XXXers in the Top 10 in Cat 4. Afterwards, I went for a nice mountain bike ride in Rock Cut State Park. If only all of spring weekends were like this in the Midwest!

MATTS Cherry Valley TT Results

MATTS Single Bong 20K Time Trial
April 15, 2007 – Kansasville, WI
Cat 4 – 13th – 30:29.83 (First Race)
Cat 4 – 15th – 30:39.67 (Second Race)
253 watts – 23.9 MPH (First Race)
249 watts – 23.8 MPH (Second Race)

After a disappointing race two weeks before at the John Fraser Memorial TT, I was looking forward to getting in a solid performance. Well, I didn’t expect to have two!

My first Target A race of the year was the Double Bong 40K TT. Considering the distance, I opted to race the Single Bong twice to mimic the 40K effort. I thought the workout would be worth more than my final places. After completing the two races about 30 minutes apart, I realized that my pacing was down since my times were only 10 seconds apart. That got me pumped for the 40K.

Race conditions were nice with temperatures in the mid-40s and a slight wind out of the NW. The day was made better by outstanding performances from fellow XXXers. Three of the Posse–Andrew Nordyke, Adam Clark, and Al Urbanski—showed up to put in some good performances. Considering the relatively few TTers on the XXX team, this was a pleasant surprise.

In the end, I realized I should have entered both the Cat 4 and Masters 30+, rather than Cat 4 twice. Oh, well. I’d highly recommend to people focusing on the 40K TT to race a 20K twice early in the season, because it will give you a good idea to your pacing and endurance. The ABR officials are pretty good with giving you time between your starts, as long as they have spots in the schedule. For example, I could have had an hour between my starts if I wanted instead of 30 minutes.

Good pacing is key to having a successful 30K+ TT. The Bong course isn’t terribly hard, but will influence your momentum enough to force you to have to think about your effort. I really nailed it today.

MATTS Single Bong TT Results