Monday, May 25, 2009

Just another weekend

I'm not sure if it was the new TT steed or the fact that I was chased by one Shawn O'Neal in the time trial Saturday, but it looks like my best time trial run yet.  I finished with a time of 27:53 and 8th place.  This was a definite improvement over the Hermann Time Trial.  I don't attribute this entirely to the bike though.  At about the 3/4 mark, Shawn passed me and that gave me a little mental edge to go harder.  I can even see it in the data from the Garmin.  To keep  improving I need to improve my mental fitness for TT's  I don't think technology can help me near as much as training my mind for the effort.  
Danny did a fare better than me at 27:14, enough for 4th.  So Sunday as a team, our goal was to get Danny into the top 3 over all for a omnium podium.  In general, we had three of us to control the break aways or the field if Danny was lucky to get into a break.  The course was a good one for breaks: lots of corners and narrows with just enough climb to be noticed.  On the second lap, after the 'climb' the whole pack slowed to a crawl.  I wanted this to be faster to weed people out, so I snuck on the side-- a bit dangerous normally, but the curb was a rounded ramp making the sneak really smooth.  I meant only to pick up the pace, but I caught people early and made a gap.  
I think it was Patrick Hawley who joined me on this little break early and we swung it around to the start finish where they immediately called a prime.  Great, just a little more carrot for the rest of the field to chase.  We took some even turns on the lap until Patrick slid out on a corner and swung wide onto the sidewalk and maybe into someone's yard.  I looked over to see that he was okay and coming back on, but it looked like he was going to drop to the pack at that point.  I decided, why not see if I can stick this to the line for the prime.  I renewed effort, solo.  
I brought it around and picked up the prime and then let up for a recovery pace.  If they didn't catch within a half lap I would have renewed a steady pace, but they did and I settled into the field while Devin and Mark handled the breaks and the pace for roughly the next 10 laps.
On the final laps I shadowed Danny.  I kept telling him that I'm there and I'll come around to lead him when the time comes.  That was the start of the last lap.  I came out on the side and powered alongside the field to the front with Danny in tow.  
Danny slid into the front of the pack as I started my final pull of the race.  I held it for half the lap then slid off  the back of the pack.  I gathered what I could and latched onto the back to finish the race knowing that Danny was in the top 5 wheels with less than a half lap to go and all the major turns covered.  Devin was up there with him, but just in case I pushed to see if I could rejoin.  No dice, I was done I filed across the line in the back of the pack.  Danny came out a little early on his final sprint but was able to hold on for a 4th place finish, propelling him to a 2nd place over the two days.  It was an excellent day to see the team execute nicely and finish with a guy on the podium.

1 comment:

billh said...

Good result on the TT Heine, that bike helped!

It's true the TT is a mental game but there must be a different set of muscles or physical process at work too. My power graph looked like a bowl, high at the start and finish, low in the middle, like a crit. I lost huge time in the middle because I couldn't keep power at threshhold, even though I was looking at the power meter read 10W below threshhold in real time, the legs would not respond. I couldn't get the power up until crossed the tracks and knew only a couple miles left. Crazy mind body thing. But I haven't put in any outdoor TT specific workouts, just crits, so I got out what I put it. Guess that's why they call it the race of truth. Have to put in some work before state. In order to put in work, have to find the motivation somewhere. I guess it's to improve the time from last year.