Glover Fan
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Almondsbury, Nr Bristol
Afternoon!
Had an early finish at work so I thought i'd try something different apart from a standard ride. Now I knew there was a cycling club near me who did a time trial every Wednesday which starts only 2.5 miles from my house. It's the Severn Road Club if anybody was interested. I looked on their website and they had the route on there which I then copied onto my Garmin.
So it's a 10 mile Time Trial route (actually 9.77). I've never done anything of the sort before as in giving 90-100% for an extended period of time.
Cycled the 2.5 miles to the start line gently, did a few decent stretches as I had a feeling something could easily go snap in my leg and then gave it a good go, now my Forerunner 305 has a virtual partner mode which I set the route at for an average of 23mph. It all started well that actualy route descended for a bit at the start so I just tucked in a little bit to save some energy for the flat and then that was it, pretty much flat out legs spinning like crazy in much higher gears than usual (as in a smaller cog). Was going really well and for the first time in my life I enjoyed a main trunk A road as I was so in the zone I didn't have to look out for potholes or anything of the sort.
First thing to start to hurt was my hamstrings which are notoriously tight at the best of times, but they were feeling really stretched, strangely enough sitting right at the front of the saddle as if the front was going up my bumhole seemed to relieve a lot of the pain! I really enjoyed spending an extended amount of time down on the drops such a comfortable speedy position. I was about 0.3 miles ahead of my virtual partner which gave me a good feeling, then zoomed off on some country lanes, nothing too bad, then a bit of a 5% climb which I stood up for, could feel it in my quads but in a good burn kind of way.
Then it all sort of went downhill. I forgot the route passes a village school and I just happened to go past at kicking out time. GREAT. Chelsea tractors piled up all along, now usually i'd sit back and let them past but I decided to be a bit of an idiot and just zoom pass much to their annoyance and a few beeps of the horns (here's an idea, get your kids to walk or god forbid cycle to school you idiot). This really set me back and to be honest I fell out of the "zone" afterwards, I really struggled to get a rhythm going for the last few miles and I could feel every bump in the road.
All in I did it in 26:40 and averaged bang on 22mph which tbh i'm quite happy with and it is good knowing I could do it quicker with a clear run so to speak. I looked at the results for last week and it would have put my in 34th out of 50, so at least it's not last!!! haha. The course record is 20 minutes something though, so well behind naturally.
Now i'm back I still have quite an adrenaline rush and am thinking about maybe giving a proper night a go, does anybody who does a bit of TT'ing have any tips for preserving energy or strategy that they could give?
Only 2 things that have bothered me today: -
My saddle position
My HR, averaged 173, but a max of 179bpm. I'm 23 and I have never seen more than 181bpm. Though I concede this is unlikely to ever change. But surely my heart can give me more?!
Thanks for reading,
Jon.
Had an early finish at work so I thought i'd try something different apart from a standard ride. Now I knew there was a cycling club near me who did a time trial every Wednesday which starts only 2.5 miles from my house. It's the Severn Road Club if anybody was interested. I looked on their website and they had the route on there which I then copied onto my Garmin.
So it's a 10 mile Time Trial route (actually 9.77). I've never done anything of the sort before as in giving 90-100% for an extended period of time.
Cycled the 2.5 miles to the start line gently, did a few decent stretches as I had a feeling something could easily go snap in my leg and then gave it a good go, now my Forerunner 305 has a virtual partner mode which I set the route at for an average of 23mph. It all started well that actualy route descended for a bit at the start so I just tucked in a little bit to save some energy for the flat and then that was it, pretty much flat out legs spinning like crazy in much higher gears than usual (as in a smaller cog). Was going really well and for the first time in my life I enjoyed a main trunk A road as I was so in the zone I didn't have to look out for potholes or anything of the sort.
First thing to start to hurt was my hamstrings which are notoriously tight at the best of times, but they were feeling really stretched, strangely enough sitting right at the front of the saddle as if the front was going up my bumhole seemed to relieve a lot of the pain! I really enjoyed spending an extended amount of time down on the drops such a comfortable speedy position. I was about 0.3 miles ahead of my virtual partner which gave me a good feeling, then zoomed off on some country lanes, nothing too bad, then a bit of a 5% climb which I stood up for, could feel it in my quads but in a good burn kind of way.
Then it all sort of went downhill. I forgot the route passes a village school and I just happened to go past at kicking out time. GREAT. Chelsea tractors piled up all along, now usually i'd sit back and let them past but I decided to be a bit of an idiot and just zoom pass much to their annoyance and a few beeps of the horns (here's an idea, get your kids to walk or god forbid cycle to school you idiot). This really set me back and to be honest I fell out of the "zone" afterwards, I really struggled to get a rhythm going for the last few miles and I could feel every bump in the road.
All in I did it in 26:40 and averaged bang on 22mph which tbh i'm quite happy with and it is good knowing I could do it quicker with a clear run so to speak. I looked at the results for last week and it would have put my in 34th out of 50, so at least it's not last!!! haha. The course record is 20 minutes something though, so well behind naturally.
Now i'm back I still have quite an adrenaline rush and am thinking about maybe giving a proper night a go, does anybody who does a bit of TT'ing have any tips for preserving energy or strategy that they could give?
Only 2 things that have bothered me today: -
My saddle position
My HR, averaged 173, but a max of 179bpm. I'm 23 and I have never seen more than 181bpm. Though I concede this is unlikely to ever change. But surely my heart can give me more?!
Thanks for reading,
Jon.
