March started off with a different feel as mentioned before, but now it was down to what I suppose is my bread and butter, time trials. The first couple were just about getting me used to racing again and getting the legs used to prolonged high intensity efforts. It is all well and good doing short intervals but then extending that interval to the full duration you should be able to manage can be a whole different thing.
I am not normally a lover of short duration TT's (anything shorter than 50 miles for me is short), but the plan was to do a 10 miler and then a 25 miler in preparation to the first of my "target" races. Neither of these were special in the grand scheme of things and were purely training events, so I was training through them and would ride with whatever fatigue I had. The 10 was a really eye opener in one respect, I didn't have the luxury of training normally as I was up in Edinburgh without a bike for work, so the majority of the week was spent running. Even when I got home it was a nice threshold interval session on the plan, definitely not something I would usually do before a race. The race the following morning was just a go balls out and see what happens sort of effort, to my surprised power was good and I managed to win by 30 seconds, I certainly hadn't expected to win, or to ride as well as I did. It show that winter training had obviously been working well.
Just after the start in the VTTA 10 mile TT (photo Courtesy of Bob Burden)
The 25 was slightly different, I originally had intended to ride it solo, but my teammate Tim Bayley suggested we do a 2up, so we entered the 2up instead. Again I wasn't really holding back with the training, and even had a Running School rehab session the day before, and my legs again weren't in the best state. I was (for one the very rare times) quite nervous about holding Tim's wheel and doing my share of the work, I had tried to make sure I was a fresh as I could be, but I did have doubts in the back of my mind. It ended up being a very very good workout and I didn't blow to bits either which was nice, again I was quite surprised at the power I was putting out when on the front, though sometimes I think I might have overdone it as it took a while to recover from. One thing I did notice, Tim starts like a bat out of hell, and goes up hills a fair bit quicker than me. Time for some weightloss I think LOL.
The main reason for doing these events was for the first round of the RTTC TT Series, which I was the defending Vets champion. My aim this year was to always do the first 5 events and hopefully win the series again so this was one of the more important races of the year. The training in the week inbetween the 25 and this race had gone pretty well, though I did notice I was feeling tired in general, and with the family coughing I suspected I was trying to fight a cold as well as recover from training. As the weekend approached I just tried to keep the training load up without overdoing it and although on Sunday my legs didn't feel their best things seemed to go OK.
The race was a very wet and cold windy affair, what had been a bright and breezy day suddenly got very wet about 5 mins before my start time, not the best news I was hoping for. I had only got one set of race tyres, and even these on the roads we were racing on were dodgy let alone when it is very wet. Being a TT Series race the course is a circuit and with this one a very twisty circuit, even better news really when the front tyre is one I don't feel that confident on in the wet. As I started and the wind chill hit, it got very cold indeed, in fact my hands were so cold and numb, it took until halfway (about 12 miles or so) before I started getting any feeling in them, not good when you have to brake for corners.
Even though I didn't feel on top of my game, the power seemed good and although I was tentative in the corners I tried to go as hard as possible where I felt confident. After about 10 miles I kept catching glimpses of my 2 min man in front, this gave me a little incentive to push that little bit harder, I managed to catch and pass around the halfway mark. I thought things must be going pretty well and although I was suffering with the cold and wet at least the rain had stopped. I just tried to keep the power where I thought I could hold it for the full distance, and I also kept an eye on the average speed as I wanted to go under the hour on a course that had only previously seen a handful of people do so. As I got to the 5 miles to go point, nicely marked with a 5 to go sign, things weren't looking too bad, the wind was going to be mainly from behind and I was hoping to pick up some speed.
The last 5 miles were difficult for a couple of reasons, one you are getting tired, there were some flood control works with a nice little chicane, and they were also relaying some of the road (for the Tour de France of all reasons), so we have a section that resembled Paris Roubaix. All in all this section did go well, and with the miles to go boards it kept you focussed on just how much to meter your effort. The Chelmer CC guys also had a prize for the rider who could do the last mile the quickest, this did involve a cheeky little hill about 500 metres from the finish. I knew I was unlikely to ever be the quickest so although I tried a little harder I made sure I had enough for the hill more than anything.
A very cold and wet Steve (photo courtesy of Davy Jones)
I didn't quite break the hour which sort of miffed me a bit, it's been a long time since I felt so slow, even my last 12 Hour TT on lumpy roads was nearly as fast :-o. Overall I should be happy I won the Vets event by nearly 3 mins and the power was good, so the time lost was more about me being sensible around the bends than just being slow. I have no doubt I have become less aero by taking up triathlon, I know I have put on upper body muscle from swimming, I just hope that it isn't too much as I feel the next round will be a little bit more difficult with the likes of Julian Ramsbottom up against me.
RTTC TT Series Round 1 Results
TT Series Round 1 Report
Now I have a couple of weeks of training to fit in and no doubt start building up towards the iron distance triathlons as it isn't long now to the first one, and worries about long duration fitness will no doubt haunt me.
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