Jun 12, 01:24 PM by Steve | 17 minutes flat
Posted in Cycling & Race-Report
Old San Marcos isn’t very long, but it makes up for it in pain and suffering. A few weeks ago Seth broached the idea of starting a monthly lunchtime time trial up OSM similar to one he did in Pennsylvania.
This is a staggered start time trial where departure times of the riders are based off of previously recorded times up the climb. The slowest leaves first and the fastest last. If nobody sand bags you’ll have a bunch of men, and maybe one day women, to chase to the tree.
As you can guess, a lot of sandbagging ensued as we declared our times. I was hesitant to use my PR time of 17:26 from nearly a month ago as I was feeling slower and had gained a few pounds, so I gave 18:00. I did it yesterday at a high effort (but nowhere near max) with Bill in 18:50, and didn’t think I had a minute and a half in there to shave off. It seems many people took 1 minute to a minute and half off their PR times. Bill did a 17:50 a little while (two months?) ago and gave 18:35; Mark has done 14:30 and went in with a 16:00. I think the biggest sandbagger award has to go to Ron with 17:45, who did a mid-17 on a mountain bike last year! Chester called me last night to “veto” my time, but I guess Seth didn’t change it so I still went at 18:00, with Tom.
Tom and I started together and rode side-by side up the first incline until a car came up behind. He went in front and when the car passed I went to his other side. When the next car passed I went in front and then steadily pulled away on the flatish section about half a mile in. I was keeping an eye on my heart rate and checking my time at known landmarks. I was under 4:00 to my “5min” VO2Max workout driveway, and my HR was in the mid-170s and climbing. I hit the1 mile sign at exactly 5:00 and my HR was now at 180. The last time I did the first mile that fast I blew up spectacularly later so I was a little worried, but figured it’s all-or-nothing and kept pushing hard. I was catching people on the long straight and could see Eric and Bill up the road. Bill was my target, I wanted to catch him. I seemed to be gaining on him but he was frustratingly far away.
I caught Eric in the twisties before the hairpin and shouted some encouragement as I went by. I hit the mailboxes (2 miles) at about 10:40, so I was losing time but still on pace for a PR. Although my HR was in the mid-180s and had been there for a while I didn’t feel like I was going to blow. I shifted up and pushed a harder gear on the flatter section to give my aerobic system a little rest before the switchbacks. Bill was now right in front of me, rounding the first corner of the switchbacks just as I started on the approach. I looked back as I rounded the corner and saw a line of several guys on the approach. That sight motivated me to push even harder and I hit 185 going around the next corner. I eased off to recover a bit on the approach to the next set of switchbacks and then punched it again around the corners. I caught a few more people and I was nearly to Bill. I looked back and saw Marco closing in on me so I burried myself. That last quarter mile section is surprisingly long and steep but I pushed on to hold off Marco, and caught Bill at the line for a time of 17 flat. I circled around a bit and when I finally came to a stop my HR was still over threshold!
After my last PR, my next goal was to average over 10mph—my computer shows 10.3 so now that’s out of the way. Under 17 minutes is my next goal. The weather data for the ride shows moderate winds from the south, so I did have a bit of a tailwind assist that will make it more difficult to match the time in the future.
<< Monday Night Time Trial Pictures
Good summary. Although I wasn’t sure at the start now I think our Wed preride pace worked great. I need to shoot for 17:30 next time.
— bill at Jun 13, 10:54 AMYeah, I think it was just the right effort to prime me for the TT run without tiring myself out. The great thing about the way Seth set this up is that we could only really sandbag once; our next month’s start times will be set by yesterday’s times.
— Steve at Jun 13, 11:13 AM