Week In Review
- Time Spent Training- 6:25
- Time In Sweet Spot- 72 minutes
- Miles Ridden- 113
- TSS (training stress score)- 389
- Weight- 164
- TSS YTD- 2372
- Total Miles YTD- 624
- Total Hours YTD- 34:39
This week was a little different as I had my first time trial of the year on Saturday, February 14th. I adjusted my training a bit to try to be ready for the race. As a result I rode fairly easy during the week. Here’s a summary:
- Monday- 50 minutes at a moderate pace.
- Wednesday-45 minutes with a 5 mile “simulation” at FTP (280 watts) in the middle of the workout.
- Thursday-45 minutes with 20 minutes at 85% of FTP.
- Saturday- 45 minute warmup then Time Trial
- Sunday- 45 miles at a easy/moderate pace.
Time Trial Review
Saturday’s time trial was my first “race” in close to 2 years. I decided that I would do several time trials in 2009 as a away to test myself and provide some motivation for Winter training. The race was actually a little under 10 miles, closer to 9.4 miles in length. I got to the race about 90 minutes before my 10:52 start time so that I could get registered and have enough time to get in a good warm up. It was cool (about 50) with a light mist in the air when I arrived but the precip stopped before my start time. 
I set up my trainer behind by car and warmed up for about 45 minutes. My goal for the warm up was to get my body ready for the very hard effort of the time trial. I spent the 1st 20 minutes spinning at a moderate pace then I did a few 1 minute intervals at race pace with about 30 seconds between. I then did some easy spinning for 5 minutes or so. The final part of the warm up was to do a five minute “race pace” effort with a couple of “sprints” tossed in. I then spun easy for a few minutes before heading to the start line.
Race Time
I got to the start about 5 minutes before my start time. I felt good and started off strong and felt pretty good throughout the race. I didn’t start the interval function on the Powertap so I had to “guesstimate” based on power output. Here is the screenshot of the powertap file: 
My goal was to average 290-300 watts for the race. I figured that I should be able to go above my FTP since the length was well under 60 minutes. As you can see, I achieved my goal, averaging 297 watts for the 9.3 miles and 24 minutes of the race. I was definitely tired at the end but I might have been able to go a bit harder. I also noticed that my average cadence was 98rpm. That might be a bit high. My guess is that I could have gone 1 gear higher resulting in a little lower cadence and a bit faster speed with the same power output. Oh well, that is just some things to work on. My official time is not really official as they somehow didn’t get me crossing the finish line. They had a split time of right at 12 minutes so they doubled the time to get my final time. I was a little upset initially but I realized that I wasn’t in the running for any medals or anything. They did refund my entry fee, which was nice.
Looking Ahead
I was happy overall with my performance and I hope to improve in the next time trial. I signed up for another time trial on February 28th. This one is the 1st in the Georgia Cup Time Trial Series. It is just under 18 miles and is over a rolling course. The series will have 3 races over this same course so if I do all three I will have the opportunity to evaluate my performance over time. I will tailor my training over the next two weeks to hopefully put me in good shape for the race on the 28th.
