Geeze, only 2 seconds slower. That is great! Very nice work. Hopefully summer finds you soon.

and omg the dogs!!!!! That is crazy. That could have been really bad.

As someone that doesn't really bike and definitely does bike with power I am wondering what was the reason for not hitting your wattage target? Was it the weather conditions? I imagine getting that kind of an effort when it is so cold would be extremely challenging in 3 degrees.

And seriously, you really need to not have the worst snowfall in 40 years. That is all on you. 

Still a solid effort considering your weather limitations so far this year.  It's tough when everything in your training tells you that you can hold 20 more watts, but sometimes it's just not there when you want it.

I do not envy your weather at all!  I can't (won't even try to) imagine how brutal that must have been! 

Couple questions for you: do you ride the TT bike on the trainer?  If not, why?  What did you do for your warm-up (i.e. was it really just five minutes?  on the trainer?  any specific intervals?)?

In past years I've had my TT bike on the trainer but I spent most of the time sitting up so this past winter I just left the road bike on the trainer.  Another part of the reasoning for that was that my first big race of the year is Alcatraz and I will be using my road bike for that.

Warmup was more like 10 mins the second time out - not enough at all!  I think this may have been the largest detriment to my performance.

Good job going after it Arend! Definitely tough conditions to ride in.

I don't know for sure, but for me it seems like cooler tends to help being able to go harder until the chills go right through you. Then the body doesn't seem to want to put out as much. Or perhaps risk going all in as if it's instinctively saving something in reserve. Can see some of that looking across a few late season races for me last year. I did about the same in two races with one in nice sunny temps and another down around 45 with some wind. I felt fine down to 45 where it was certainly colder out, but didn't go through to the bones. But in a duathlon it actually felt harder to go 10 watts lower when that feeling came in with the temps being 38-39 at the race start. I wasn't actually cold at all on the bike, but knew the air was cold enough to do that if I stopped. That feeling wasn't present on either of the runs though.

Given the winter, I'd say that was pretty dang great!  To be only 2 seconds off, especially given the conditions, is an adjusted better performance (awkward wording, but you know what I mean).

I find that togging up to deal with the cold just slows me down, period.  Once I have to wear more than bib shorts and a jersey or shorts and a tank, my times get worse.  Nothing to do with training (and I don't know about it being over the line to too cold for you in this particular race - but maybe that, too), but even running in tights and a vest seems to make me slower (and I've never had to race a bike in anything but a tri suit or bib shorts, but I'm definitely slower with all that protective garb).

Maybe you should invest in an aero pair of lobster cycling mittens??

Nice race.

Matt

Wow, that is some cold stuff and you still ended up with the same time?!?! I think that bodes well for your biking this season. Stay warm and Congratulations!!!