Heads of Tails TT - Cycle

At the end of the season last year, my (calculated) FTP was up just over 200W. I'd been struggling through workouts based on this FTP, so I dropped it down to about 190W. In the weeks leading up to this race, I'd done some threshold rides, holding this power for up to 40 minutes, so I was relatively confident that I could hold it for the duration of the race. Marc agreed, so the power target for this race was high-180's to low-190's. I knew there would be EIGHT u-turns on the course, so I was hoping that these wouldn't skew my power too much....I'm not particularly confident with u-turns, as the new bike has "toe overlap" (where the wheel can hit my toe when my foot is at the 3 / 9 o'clock position).

I got started and settled into my power pretty quickly. I started around 188W and bumped it up by about a watt per loop. I got out to the far end and saw what the first U-turn looked like....it was wide enough that I could do it without really having the turn the bars, but mostly by leaning the bike, which meant that the toe overlap concern was not going to be an issue for this turn.

Heading back toward the start/finish, you initially went up a small hill (these hills are from underpasses, so not really a hill, but a short incline) and then found the headwind. To be honest, I didn't really notice the headwind all that much (though many others were complaining about it) because I never once looked at my speed, and simply focused on my power....and the power hurts the same, regardless of wind, speed, whatever :)

As I was nearing in on the other u-turn, I noticed that there was some gravel/dirt leading into it, and it was a lot tighter than the one at the other end. I didn't come out of my big chainring, but slowed down a lot more and came out of the saddle to get back up to speed when coming out of the corner. I crossed the timing mat as I came through and was feeling pretty confident that I could hold this power for the rest of the race.

Second, third, and fourth loops were all pretty similar....at the far end of the third loop, I noticed a person closing in on me and it became my goal to not get passed. Starting the fourth lap, I hit the "lap" button on my Garmin and told myself I would hold more than 190W. I was really proud of myself, as I kept the power up in the mid-190's.

Unfortunately, the person I'd seen on the third loop passed me toward the end of the fourth loop....and it was a girl! When she pulled in front of me, my power dropped by about 20W, so I moved out from her draft zone and settled back into my power. I held strong for the rest of the lap and crossed the finish line, happy with my power output, but not feeling completely spent....so I'm pretty sure I had more in me, physically, but I think I would have struggled mentally to convince myself I could hold that kind of power.

In the end, I held 190W (NP and AP were identical!), which is the most I've held over this distance. Unfortunately, with eight u-turns and somewhat rough roads (oh, and apparently wind!), this was the slowest 40k TT I've ever done. I also think my rear brake was rubbing a bit....not sure how much impact it would have had on my speed, but I suspect there was probably some.

Since we crossed the timing mat each loop, I got splits for each one -- they were 16:34 (didn't get to start on the ramp or pre-clipped in), 16:12, 16:20 (not sure why this was slower...), and 15:58 (bumped up power by a few watts and earned myself some time!).


Get to my race start on time, be confident that I can hold (a little) more power than I think I can


So here's the sucky part....I missed my race start and was penalized by not being allowed to start on the ramp, pre-clipped into my pedals. When they posted results, I saw that I was 1st in my category by over a minute. When they announced awards, they called me 2nd....the girl who was announced as 1st and I were both confused and we both pulled out our phones to show that there was a mistake that was made. They discussed it internally and then told me that I was given a two minute penalty for missing my race start, so not only was I penalized by not getting to start on the ramp, I was also given a time penalty. I get it....it's my responsibility to get to the race start on time, so I'm not going to fight it, but I do think it was kind of BS to get double penalized for this. Starting on the ramp probably would have saved me about 20 seconds (given my splits), so the two minute penalty would still have resulted in me being 2nd, but it would have been close!

Oh, and the results I listed were from the original-posted, actual times, not the penalized time. Also, the overall placement is based on women only.

Just did about 10 minutes of easy riding before packing stuff up, changing into dry clothing, and then eating/drinking a bit



EIGHT u-turns, rough roads, rear brake rubbing, and confidence to shoot for a higher power target



This race is kind of neat because they have a TT, 5k, half marathon, full marathon, and some strongman competition going on at the same time. The full marathon appeared to be VERY lonely (like there were a handful of people out on the four loop course....there were more people racing the 40k TT at the same time than running the marathon). It seemed to be well-organized, but I wish the photographers had taken pictures throughout the full morning (there are none from those of us who started after 10am or so), and I do think the double penalty is a bit much.