Leroy Time Trial 08/02/07

Leave it all on the road is how that old Time Trial proverb goes and thats what I tried to do tonight.


The weather was hot and humid and it had just rained. Not that rain affects speed, but the humidity was pretty thick. Air was calm, but it felt like riding into a headwind. The Leroy Rd course off of Vrooman I was made aware of by Nancy Mills. She gave me the secret handshake and I was in. OK, just kidding, but its a great almost 8 mile course, little traffic and out and back with one small rise and one steep short climb right before the turn around. Basically medium fast out and screaming fast on the way home, just the way I like it!!


Jim Behrens is the gracious host of the events and even holds your bike for a standing clipped in start. I practiced a few cold starts when I prerode the course and had to choose between a 53/19 and 53/21 to start. When I saw he was holding bikes I chose 53/19 and I slowly sprinted (slowly sprinted??) off and settled at 24mph as planned untill the small initial rise ended then I upped it to 25 to 26 and paced myself not on power but speed. I basically wanted to remain at 25 to 26mph till the turn. I forgot to cover my wattage like at TOP, but basically ignored what it said.


I made the turn conservatively, but still fast and again stayed on my pacing. I slowed as expected on the first rise and pushed hard over it, but that left me tired for the short steep hill before the turn around where I slowed to 13mph.


My first half stats were:

3.845 miles (probably a little off)
24.3 mph ave speed.
293 ave watts
29.1 max speed
172 ave heart rate (hr)
179 max hr

Now of course every small rise is a down on an out and back course so it was nice to get a breather for a spell at 36mph and then get ready to fly home. I felt like I hit most of my pacing right on the way out, except the last 1/2 mile or so, so I knew all I had to do was get as close to 30mph as possible all the way home and I was assured a good time. I found some rises (very small in reality-but you feel them) were robbing me of speed so whenever the road was flat or remotely down I tried extra hard to reach over 30mph to compensate.

My 2nd half stats were:

3.835 miles (probably a little off)
29.8 mph ave speed
292 ave watts
36.9max speed
179 ave hr
183 max hr

As you can see the speed was high as was my hr. In fact I was pretty much pegged all the way in and in the last 2 miles I finally went all out for the line and those stats are:

29.1 mph ave speed
307 watts
33.1 max speed
181 ave hr
183 max hr

My max hr is 183 so at least from that perspective I was pinned for final run in as your rsupposed to be. Legs were burning, breath was more like huge gasps and sweat was pouring form my entire body, but its all worth it when your going all out for the line.

I went 17:16 making that the 2nd fastest run ever on this course. The record set only last week stands at 16:45 by Matt Weeks. Who by the way went 17:20 somethng his first try on the course last year (the year he won the State TT and fastest time of day). This bodes well for me going quicker as I learn the course and dial myself in. Hats off to Matt of course because going faster than I did is going to be extremely hard work for me. Maybe not use any more power, but a better pacing strategy and using my rear disc cover.

I am constantly amazed in time trials (short ones anyways) how much pain you can put yourself in such a short period of time. Also, running off perceived exertion went well again. I didnt reset any short term power figures, but showed higher average watts for the same distance (and on my TT bike where I make less power vs time) than TOP. Its important to understand that at the TOP race there were significant rises and rollers in the last 3 miles which causes your wattage to be much greater for a short period of time and I got to draft td down AP road.

Thank you Nancy for letting me know about this great TT event and to Jim for always hosting it.

Ray