Hammer Time!

This morning's ride was going to need to be relatively short, as I had gotten a late start to the day. Hmmm, I guess I could do the TDF Long course again (I don't know why it's called that, it's only 24.5km long. - and I think it's identical to the TDF short course.)

Anyway, as I was getting dressed and ready to jump on the computrainer (hey, it's CANADA - you didn't think that I was riding outside, did ya?) I decided that maybe an attempt at a new personal best without drafting was in order.

I started out with a pretty good cadence, the course has a slight positive grade the first couple of km, and let my legs warm up. The first 15 minutes of any ride always hurt until I get warmed up. I decided that the effort would be based largely on wattage output. I have yet to do a ride where I average over 200watts for the whole ride, so I decided that this time, that was gonna be my goal.

By the time I hit the flats my HR was pounding in the mid 160's and I had managed to keep my average wattage around 195. The rest of the course is either flat or slightly uphill and I figured now would be the time to try and bump the average wattage. The nice thing about riding a trainer for personal bests is that you can go all-out and if you crash and burn it's not like you have to find a way to get back home. The Kitty, I mean, computer generated rider, in front of me kept my pace high and hard. At one point I actually dropped back a loooooong ways (like 140 bike lengths).

With 1km to go my average wattage was at 207, and it's a slight down-hill run to the finish. I kept kicking the pace up, holding the wattage output in the mid 200's, and then with .2km left, I sprinted - HARD! I hit almost 700 watts and pushed my HR above 180. I wasn't completely exhausted, but I'd done a new PB both time-wise and average wattage-wise. I managed a 208 average. Now to extend that over a 40km ride.

I'd really like to break one hour for a 40km ITT this year. If I can manage that and get my weight down, look out Kitty!!