My training schedule had me doing an easy 30 minute recovery run with the following instructions: Comfortable pace with good rhythm. Don’t let slower speeds impact your form. I also had a 30-60 minutes recovery ride with the following instructions: Just spin in small chain ring. Purpose of the workout is to keep bike frequency and to flush lactate from previous workout. For the recovery ride, me, James, Carlos, and Ben decided that we needed to get together and practice for the TTT on Sunday. None of us had ever done a TTT before and we wanted at least one ride to figure out specifics and to discuss race tactics. After the ride, James was going to be serving breakfast while we all watched the Tour de France. Since I knew that I wouldn’t get my run in after the ride, I headed out around 4AM and took care of business. Once back, I quickly changed into my cycling gear and rode the 4 miles to James’ house. The four of us quickly saddled up and were out on the road within minutes. The next 1 ½ hours was pretty comical. We were trying different rotations, we were discussing what order we should be in, and were doing it at very slow speeds. This was also the first time since IMAZ2010 that I wore my aero helmet….I was the only one to do so. So, there I was, rolling at an average of 16.2 mph with an aero helmet on looking super cool (sarcasm intended). After practicing, munching on almond banana pancakes, and heading back home, it was time to go to work. Once there, James called me into his office to show me that he Googled “Team time trialing” and ended up with an article by Bobby Julich and the Sky cycling team. Seriously?!?! We were actually Googling for info on how to TTT. Wow.
OK, back to the TTT. We got to the staging area and met up with our 4th teammate, Ben Gherardi, and Crhis Bergeron. Chris was going to do the 20K solo. After surveying the scene, we quickly realized that we had forgotten chairs to sit on and one of those tarp contraptions that you set up to provide shade. The Faster team was set up directly across from us and had everything down to trainers to warm up on, fans to cool them off, and bike stands to work on any last minute adjustments. What did we have? How about a bench seat from James’ truck and a 2x4 supporting the back hatch:
While we were registering, we found out that there were only two other teams and that we would be going off 2 minutes apart. Our start time was 7:36 and we were the last team to go off. After returning to our self proclaimed “Redneck Set-up” we pumped tires, filled bottles, and took one final look around before heading out to warm-up. I noticed that we were the only tri guys there and the rest of the participants were roadies. How could I tell? Well, we were the only four with hydration systems on the back of our bikes and were pretty much the only ones in sleeveless tri jerseys. Almost all of the other athletes had on skin suits and their bikes were clean from rear bottle cages and/or flat repair kits. Anyway, we ended up making our way out onto the main road and started to warm up. Since there was a cross wind, the topic came up of which way we should rotate to help hide from the wind. Really?!? We are about to take off for a 40K race and we are STILL trying to figure it out?!? After about 6-8 minutes, James indicated that we only had about 4 more minutes until we were supposed to start. Since we were about a mile away from the starting line, we had to hustle our way back. As we were rolling up to the start, the team in front of us was just getting ready to go. They only had 3 guys on the start line (the minimum) because the 4th was “MIA” (probably meaning, “Still in the can”). Anyway, they took off without him and he had to catch up. He wasn’t that far behind, but did have to waste precious energy getting there. Now it was our turn, “Two minutes” said the starter. The only other thing I could remotely hear was James saying something about how we were going to catch the team in front of us by the 10K mark. “One minute.” Now a few butterflies started to creep in. “30 seconds.” Now I was focused on the disappearing team in front of us. The clock started beeping every second along with the starter, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!” I rolled forward and tried to clip in my right foot when, all of a sudden, I feel James pushing me from behind. He was already clipped in and helping me out. We were now off! I would learn later that Carlos started off in a gear too big, so he dropped back while we took off. He had to spend some precious energy trying to bridge a gap that had opened. According to my Garmin, my HR went from 135 to 175 in 57 seconds and stayed there until about 18 minutes in where it spiked to 184. At this point, I knew I had to do something to try and bring it back under control or it was going to be lights out for me. After I took my 30sec pull up front, I knew that I had to let James (who was next in line) pull in front of me when he pulled off. By doing this, I would get an extra 30sec of rest AND have a rider bigger than Carlos in front of me before it was my turn to pull again. It worked beautifully as the HR chart shows my HR dipping back down to 175 over the next 3 minutes. We were working great together and were putting some serious time into the team in front of us. When they appeared, just down the road, it was like putting a rabbit in front of a coyote. The event referee saw how well we were doing and ended up riding just ahead of us in his motorcycle. He gave warning to the other team that they were about to be passed and to give room to let it happen. Eventually, we passed them like they were standing still. Now we were hunting down the team that started 4 minutes ahead of us. It wasn’t until the turn-around that we saw them. They looked impressive, but we weren’t that far behind. Pretty soon, the referee came back and was riding along side of us. I would later find out that he was yelling that we were crushing it and that we looked strong. He escorted us up to the first team and then told them the bad news. He indicated that it was now safe to pass and we did with me on the front. We put some more time into that team and crossed the finish line in 1st place. I stopped my Garmin a bit late, but it indicated that we covered 25 miles in 57:02 (26.3 mph). Afterwards, during a bite to eat at MiMi's Cafe, we agreed that we could have gone harder since we all had plenty left in the tank. We also all agreed that this wasn't bad for 4 guys that have never done this before either.
Sprinting for the finish:
After the finish:
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