Time Trial #3: 26:15 Unofficial

Results


The 3rd Beat the Clock Time trial of 2009 happened on Saturday and I was excited to tackle this post Devil Mountain and Central Coast Doubles. I figured I was going to crush it and felt pretty cocky, especially since I was sporting my ridiculous LAS Chronos TT helmet. I started out fast and noticed a lot of 30 MPH on the computer in the first few minutes. My joy was quickly crushed as I clearly went out too fast as I felt dead before the turn-around and felt like I was riding in mud. I figured I blew it again, but kept pushing. I got passed a bit past half way mark. It was a good thing I got passed as I was able to focus on something outside of myself and I kept the guy about 150 feet ahead of me for most of the rest of the ride. I was surprised I could keep him the same distance away for the rest of the ride, but I think this guy was much smarter about pacing and looked pretty solid. I think I went out way too fast which is a rookie mistake for these time trials as once you over do it, its really hard to come back. I managed to recover and held 18-19 mph up the last hill and cruised into the finish in approx 26:15 which was 56 seconds faster than my last two attempts. 56 seconds improvement does not sound like much, but I am glad to have picked up some time after suffering that bad. Time Trials are a great complement to the Ultra Endurance events as they are hard in completely different ways. Sure riding 500 miles is tough, but pushing so hard you feel your going to puke is hard even if its for 27 minutes.

About to head out for an obsessive compulsive night ride to insure I lock in 800 miles for May. Nothing worse than an OCD ride at night on the last day of the month to achieve an absurd victory. Luckily its only 13 miles! I can test out my new night light I got for the Hoodoo 500.

Comments

mthead said…
the OCD comment is priceless, I've done that at the end of the year (4 swim miles in 3 days last year) and was considering trying to get to 500 for May, but it would've taken 35 and I was feeling lazy today. Doing 50+ tomorrow, so I'm going to call May a 32 day month.

Good job on the TT, those races are too damn short to go out slow...
mthead said…
also I signed up for the sequoia today. let me know if you're in. wear the aero helmet
nrmrvrk said…
nice write-up. What light did you get?
Chris O'Keefe said…
i am thinking of doing the Sequoia, but I might need to start pretty early. Will let you know if I sign up or not.
Chris O'Keefe said…
Ended up with the Cygolite 600 Trion.

http://cygolite.com/products/new/Trion600/trion600.html

Granger has one, and gave it good reviews. Price was right, it is stand-alone for 2+ hours full blast and you add 5 more with a piggy-back battery. I will take this, two piggy back batteries, plus Granger's mainlight as a backup for the Hoodoo. Will be a veritable smorgasborg of lighting. I did a lot of study of the space, and this one seemed to match the rqmts for the best price. I lusted after the Lupine Betty 14, with 1400 lumens, but it was way way too expensive.. 600 is enough for now.
nrmrvrk said…
Granger rides at night? since when? :)
Richard said…
I just stumbled across your blog.

I agree on the OCD. When you're out there at the end of the week/month/year doing junk miles because you have an internal odometer you know you need some help!!!