Bike Time Trial #4

Yesterday I did another bike time trial.
Bike TT #1: 34:18, average speed 35.2kph (21.88)
Bike TT #2: 34:04, average speed 35.6kph (22.11)
Bike TT #3: 34:03, average speed 36.1kph (22.56mph)
Bike TT #4: 34:06 (you see my consistency???) But this time we started from a completely new location but still did 2 usual loops. People said it was 13.1miles and when I mapped it on a map it shows right in that area.
That would give me an average of little over 23mph. Which seems little too fast.
But let’s wait till the club president sends out an email with exact route distance and our times.

I lost my bike computer last week thus was using Garmin but it is such a stupid gadget. I swear it does whatever it wants to. It was working ok for first 2 miles but then I somehow pressed bazel against something and it got all messed up. I fiddled with it for a while but then decided that it was not worth it. But I wanted to wear it because I am very bad at racing/training on a perceived effort. If I did that, all my rides would be like 15mph average. But I had no choice.

But it was hard. It hurt. I turned myself inside out (as people here would say).

It was kind of funny. When I got there the president started to strategize about the order in which we will go. We go 1min apart. He wanted to see what would be the most fun to watch as I crash some male egos. He decided that letting me chase the hockey guy would be the best. Interesting how things turn out, isn’t it? And then another slower guy before him so I had people to chase after for both laps.
As I was starting the president told me to go hard after the hockey guy because he is surely killing himself so I do not pass him. I said that that was THE plan.
As it turned out the hockey guy is no match for me and I passed him exactly after 1 lap. After that I did not have that much motivation but I kept pushing because if he passed me back that would have been a huge blow to my ego But I did not have to worry about it because apparently after I passed him he told to himself that there was no point in killing himself anymore and cruised the rest of a way. I passed the other guy as well.
Overall it was a great ride. Probably the best TT I have done. I hope that jerk comes again next time and they let me go after him. Although I should be nice because he gave me a ride home afterwards since I was in no mood for 16mile cool down. 19mile warm up is good enough
I though I will be tired after bike and run and pathetic swim the day before, but I felt good and fresh.
I would have preferred to be able to gauge my speed with computer or something but it turned out that it was not too bad to just keep my head down (literally, I was mostly staring down and not in front of me) and push and push and do not settle. I think that biking pedals help as well.

I was also wearing my HR monitor to get some data. But that thing is also a stupid garget. It is good for knowing your immediate HR and max and min but I have no idea how it calculates the average. My max was 200 (the finish was up a hill and that’s where I hit 200 mark while my quads were on fire) and average 173. However, I do not understand that. I started the HR watch at the beginning and my immediate HR shoot to over 170 within few moments but after 2miles the average was still showing 151. So I reset it (clearly, I had a lot of time on my hands since I was fiddling around with both Garmin and HR watch while TTing. Each on a different wrist). I was in 175range for the first loop and then the second loop my HR did not go below 182-3. It is not accurate because I was not staring at it all the time, but I looked sometimes and it was in 185range for most of the time. Thus I do not understand how my average can be 173.

I was really tired afterwards but when I got home I could not fall asleep. I was awake until past midnight and then finally fell asleep and then woke up at 3am and could not fall asleep back. So I read a book for an hour. Then fell asleep. Woke up again at 5am and read a book until 6am and then managed to fell asleep. When my alarm went off at 7am I wanted to throw it out the window. So I am functioning on 5 hours of sleep. Not good. It is probably 2 brownies I ate after the TT…

I am going to babysit again this weekend, Sat morning till Sun morning. I have nothing better to do anyway, plus I am sure that that’s how all 26 year old spend their Saturday nights so why would not I help friends out? Plus as my “payment” the friend is going to take me to the bike shop tomorrow to hopefully get a new bike (I am hoping to get Cervelo P2. They offer financing so I should be able to swing that). I cannot get there on my own without a car and he knows I am looking for a bike. He also wants to set me up on his computrainer for my Sat ride so I can knock myself out … I do not fully understand the logic behind this. I am doing something very nice for him so he and his wife can have a date night and he wants me to use a torture machine. Does that make any sense to you?!? Well, no good deed goes unpunished, right? 