B's 10 Mile Time Trial Race Report...

ABD Cycling Club 10 Mile Biking Time Trial Report:

*** Be Warned...it's long winded ***

On Saturday morning I left home long before the sun even though about shining for a small town named Maple Park which is about 7 miles east of DeKalb, IL. This town is out in the middle of cornfield country Illinois and ever spring & fall the big Chicagoland Cycling Club ABD put on an awesome 10 mile cycling Time Trial. I missed the spring race this year because it was on the same day as the Athens Ohio marathon I was running and there was no way I was going to miss this race even if Chicago is next weekend. So I missed by last 8 mile training run but this is so much more well worth it to race in.

My start time was at 9:02am as I was the second bike to let loose on this awesome course. But before I race I warm-up properly for about 40 minutes on my Kinetic trainer slowly working up my HR to LT zone where a cyclist needs to ride a good Time Trial. About a half hour before my start time I un-hook the bike from the trainer, make sure all bike components are operating properly, change into the TT race outfit and consume an eGel right at this point. Then I head out on the long open stretch of two lane county roads surrounded by cornfields for some high-speed blasts to make sure my bike and body are working properly plus it gets me used to the TT aero-position. The temps were perfect for me at 45 degrees (runners like cool weather) as I pulled into the starting line lane and I was more than ready to roll.

Right at 9:01am the rider with the number one bib took off and I moved up to the starting line as each rider starts at a one minute intervals. There are a couple ABD officials at the starting line as one of them holds your bike vertical via the seat for you as you can then have both shoes in the clips for maximum power right from the start. They use a countdown analog timer just like when I used to downhill ski race in College which really gets the adrenaline going before the ten second beep countdown for release…10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Blast off I go and within 23 seconds I’m near my low end of my LT heart rate zone (for biking) already around 157bpm plus I’m already in my proper gears for the ten mile time trial. As you turn out of the neighborhood region left at full speed your back in your aero position quickly and pounding out the pedals while on the rolling county roads heading east. After an approximate three mile straight away the county road sweeps nicely to the left (northward) before you sent up for the 45 degree right hand turn that turns you eastward again for about a half mile before a very tight hairpin 180 degree turn and then you blast back westward one again semi-county road where its another right turn at fullspeed heading back northward on the better county road. The road sweeps nicely once again to the right before the 2nd & last of the hairpin turns so then you can let it fly all the way back to the finishline clock since your on the nice county road for the rest of the way. About a rolling hill mile and a/half away from the finishline I took my HR into my cycling "red zone" as my hamstrings & cardio were screaming at me to stop it but it’s an awesome short-term pain at this point.

As I crossed the finishline I pushed my Polar HR lap button which showed my time for 10 miles at 23:29…I PR’d this same course from 2006 which I rode it in then at 25:58…that’s a big PR in that short of a cycling Time Trail…below are my race stat’s:

10 miles in 23:29 – average speed of 25.55mph or 41.12kph & my max speed was at the finishline at 28.4mph – my average HR was 156bpm with a max at the finish of 161bpm – my average cadence was at a torquey 93rpm and a max cadence of 105rpm coming off the 2nd hairpin turn…

You can break down the average speed for my Time Trial ride in several ways…I averaged 2 minutes and 21 seconds per mile or 1 minute 28 seconds per kilometer or 11.42 meters per second...

Anyway you look at it I was simply ecstatic in my cycling performance this morning. On my 3 mile cool-down ride I realized that nothing running wise gives me such an adrenaline high as a biking Time Trial. I wish I could bottle this "feeling" for every running race I do.

When I got back to my car I talked for alittle time to some of cycling friends, then I loaded my biking gear in the vehicle and changed into my running clothes and headed out on the chipped, gravelly roads in the other direction westward of the bike race thru the 8 foot high cornfields surrounding me on both sides for an out & back 5.6 mile run in 45 minutes and 11 seconds which is a pace of 8:03 per mile as my average HR was still high from the ride at 144bpm but I wasn’t feeling any pain because of the awesome bike ride I just completed.

When I got home I was very happy to see in the final results in the Citizens Men’s class I tied for 3rd place in my group out of 27 riders…below is a link to the results and also to the course map…

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD2UGnLl-8p__WM3EUt74Kw

http://www.twodogzdesign.com/cycle08/TTMap10408.jpg

Oh yeah...I decide to take a day of rest from exercising on Sunday :-)

Thanks for reading my long winded race report…

b