Mike's Bike Blog

As you may recall when I started racing the RunFar Time Trial that my goal for this year was to get a sub 20 minute time. My first time I did the TT I raced it in 20:35:55, the second time I came in at 20:11.90. Tonight was my third try and it was a charm. My official time was 19:56.6 and I averaged 24.1 mph.

There are a few factors for meeting this goal. The bikenoob was there with a video camera filming, so of course I had to rise to the occasion. Unfortunately I was too fast and Ray might have missed my personal record setting race as I didn't see him with his camera again till I was leaving in my car. So much for 15 minutes of fame in a psychology class project.

The other contributing factor was a Super Squadra sandwich. When I started there were 2 Super Squadra members in front of me. Anyway they turned and started down MoPac while I went up La Crosse to flip around and come back down and make my approach onto MoPac that way. On the first 2 mile stretch I passed a few riders and had the Super Squadra in my sights. Could this be, could I be actually closing the gap. On the hill 2 miles in they were starting to separate. Flabbergasted I caught and passed one, not sure if there was a problem with his bike or what ailment was allowing me to close and pass him.

At the turn around point I had closed the gap to the leading Super Squadra rider. I began to think something must be up. Could I really be kicking this much butt, had somebody slipped something into my tea? Maybe it was my Fat Cyclist jersey giving me super human powers? These thoughts ran through my head especially when I passed the 2nd Super Squadra rider. I couldn't maintain my 28 mph speed and dropped down a bit to 24 mph. It could have been the loss of speed and the realization that he had just been passed by a Cat 5er on a straight up road bike with no aero anything but he passed me back. But he dangled out in front of me just enough to keep pushing me. In the last 2 miles it finally dawned on me what was happening, no I had not entered an alternate universe where I was suddenly faster, but the Super Squadra riders were doing a warm up lap. I blocked all thoughts and focused on the finish, this warm up theory was proven when the AT&T rider I caught at the line didn't go over the electronic timing pad thus proving that the big dogs were out there warming up. In any event the Super Squadra sandwich helped push me to meet my goal, but I don't think it was the main contributing factor.

For the past month I have been working on raising my FTP by doing the plan laid out by Jesper at training4cyclist.com. I did his 4 week plan last July as well with great success. A month of hard work paid off raising my FTP up a few watts! Now to come up with a new time for a goal. There are 4 more time trials this year, I'll go with an outlandish goal, but I think I can do it. I want to take 10 seconds off my time each time and at the end be below 19 minutes.

Mile 0-2
Time: 5:07.44
Avg Watts: 289
Speed: 23.5

Mile 2-4
Time: 5:13
Avg Watts: 290
Speed: 23

Mile 4-6
Time: 4:34.68
Avg Watts: 265
Speed: 26.3

Mile 6-8
Time:  4:54
Avg Watts: 293
Speed: 24.5