Well 2013 got off to a very early start again with a local "fun" 10 mile TT on New Years Day, I was aiming for a hatrick of wins, and as usual was up against the usual suspects of Conall Yates and Dave Wheeler. This year I didn't have my usual build up of an illness over Christmas which was nice, though it did mean I had a heavy training load instead. Well if you have time off work, you might as well make the best use of it. It did mean I wasn't going into the event as fresh as I have in previous years, but it is only a fun event at the end of the day ;-)
The weather wasn't too bad, fairly warm for the time of year, and the wind didn't seem too bad. I had noticed Conall had done a couple of road races, so he at least had some higher intensity in my legs. For me it was going to be the first full on effort since September, that was going to be a real shock to the system, added to the heavy training load as well. My legs weren't the freshest they could be, so this would also hinder me slightly.
One of the downsides of no higher intensity training, is the slight lack of knowledge of how hard you can push, I had a faint idea, but until you do it for the first time, it is a bit of guesswork, though that can be good, as you just ride to percieved exertion and not worry too much about the power. I was off 20 minutes after Conall, so I knew if I went past the finish before he finished I would have a good idea of what to aim for.
I started off quite hard and then eased back a touch, realising that the starting effort was impossible to keep up for too long, just after I passed the finish line (about 2 miles from the start) I saw Conall a few minutes away. Trying to work out his finishing time whilst going full bore isn't an easy thing to do sometimes, but I have worked out is was around the 22/23 min mark. With a slight tailwind to the turn I was hoping for a good average speed, but slightly disappointed/surprised at the turn with a average speed that seemed slower than ideally I would have liked.
The return leg was slightly uphill as well as being into the wind, but surprisingly it was pretty fast, perhaps I had miscalculated the wind direction. I pushed on as hard as I could and noticed with a few miles to the finish that the actual time was pretty good, and I was hoping I had got the calculation of Conall's time correct. The last mile the wind really was a headwind though, so with as much effort as I could muster I just tried to keep the speed up. I crossed the line with a 21:28, so a 10 second improvment on my own course record, and nearly a minute faster than Conall.
Very surprised at the time gap, and to be honest my time, it just never felt that fast, and with tired legs from training it was a good sign for the new season.
Steve Berry - Team Swift - 21:28
Conall Yates - In Gear RT - 22:26
Tim Stevens - 34 Nomads - 23:07
Next event will be the East Surrey Hardriders (report to follow)
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