General Discussion Race Reports! » Beat The Clock Time Trial Rss Feed  
Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller Reply

Beat The Clock Time Trial - CycleTime Trial


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Woodside, California
United States
Beat The Clock & Help Beat Cancer
46F / 8C
Precipitation
Total Time = 31m 13s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = n/a
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 0500 hrs, and spent about 20 minutes stretching. Then, I ate breakfast and loaded up the Escape to head down to Woodside for this AM's TT. I entered this race because it's a no pressure way to see where I'm at with my bike fitness, and I don't need a cycling license to participate. When I arrived at Canada Rd, just south of Edgewood Rd, Woodside had just experienced a huge hail storm, which covered the road and I-280 in a white slush. Parked near the start, unpacked the trainer, and began my warm-up. I spent 20 minutes warming up before the event and then headed down to the start line to check-in and obtain my number.


Event warmup:

20 minutes on the trainer.
Bike
  • 31m 13s
  • 9.7 miles
  • 18.64 mile/hr
Comments:

This is a very low key event. There are no age groups, but categories such as aero, Merckx, tandem bike, & fixie categories

I am so out of practice with this bike racing stuff. It's been 4 years since I've participated in a bike race. First goof up, I arrived at the start line - 20" late! Thankfully, the lady at the start line told me that so many racers didn't show up this AM, they'd plug me into one of the other vacant start slots. I started at 7:49AM instead of 7:47:30. Second goof up, I forgot to turn-on my Garmin before the start of the race. Duh! Fortunately, I realized this about .5 mi into the race, and I reached down and hit "start". After riding through the melting hail and slush just after the start of the race, my shoes were completely water logged, as were my leg and arm warmers and gloves. The northbound portion of the race went well; my HR stayed comfortable. When I hit the small hill north of Pulgas Temple, I made one small shift as I began the climb, but my front derailleur started rubbing on the chain, so I reached over to adjust it, but went too far, and the chain popped down into my small chain ring causing me to lose most of my momentum. I spent a lot of energy getting back up to speed. Since I was wearing gloves, I could not get the screens to scroll up or down on my Garmin so I could read my HR; this race ended up as a RPE race rather than one where I could monitor my HR & keep it within the desired range. I hit the turn around point feeling fine, and then began the trip back to Woodside - that is, until I was blasted by the gusty winds coming from the south. In all of the years I've ridden Canada Rd, I don't recall there ever being solid gusty winds from the south; cross winds are the norm. So, the southbound portion was entirely into a headwind, and this is where my legs turned to bricks and I tanked. As luck would have it, it started to rain even harder and I could feel the water sloshing around between my socks and shoes and it felt like water was pooling in the toes of my shoes. On the bright side, at least I chose to wear my triathlon cycling shorts. It would have sucked to ride with a drenched butt pad in traditional cycling shorts.

At the end of the race I looked down at my Garmin, and it appeared to have logged the total time spent cycling today; however, I see no evidence it logged my average HR or distance for the race. There is no way my avg HR was 122 and I only rode 2.1 miles; the race is 9.7 mi. Makes me wonder if my 5 year old Garmin is in need of replacement.


What would you do differently?:

1. Train harder!
2. Consider taking a rest day before the race (or at least no PM training the night before).
3. Longer, more intense warm-up
4. Check-in first, then warm-up.
5. I would order a sunny day from the weather Gods.

Post race
Warm down:

Since I was cold & could not feel my feet by the end of the race, I coasted back to the car, and removed all of my wet clothing, changed into dry clothes, and loaded up the car to return home. I had intended to finish the remainder of my 3 hour training ride on the road, but the downpour & limited visibility made me reconsider. So, I packed-up and returned home to enjoy (NOT!) 2 hours on the trainer.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

It rained throughout the entire race, a strong headwind coming from the south combined with being completely drenched & cold made for an interesting distraction. Need more hill work, more intense interval training.




Last updated: 2011-02-14 12:00 AM
Biking
00:31:13 | 9.7 miles | 18.64 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Average
Wind: Headwind
Course: Canada Road: out and back, rolling. To some, the rollers might be considered "hills".
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence: 100
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Average Hills: Below average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

{postbutton}
2011-03-20 11:16 AM

User image

Master
1862
10005001001001002525
San Mateo, CA
Subject: Beat The Clock Time Trial
General Discussion-> Race Reports!
{postbutton}
General Discussion Race Reports! » Beat The Clock Time Trial Rss Feed