After a short, but very hard time-trial effort up Munns Rd on Friday, followed by a hard 2.5+ hour Burnside group ride on Saturday with some solid paceline work and a number of sprint efforts, I was uncertain whether a 50km time trial would be the best thing for me. I have also been feeling residual fatigue from last weekend’s two longer, hilly rides and Tuesday’s sprint session that was followed by a hard weight training session. In short, despite a couple of weeks off prior to last weekend, this last week has been fairly hard, and I’ve been feeling fatigued. I am wondering if I’ve started in a little too quickly with higher-intensity workouts after my break, but one presumes the body is ready for it.
Nonetheless, I had concluded that a good threshold effort today was indeed a good idea, keeping in mind the current objective, the 5-stage international race, the Tobago Classic at the end of September. So, I made the drive up past Duncan with Vaughn Marshall in the pouring rain for the race. The rain was not in the least encouraging, but it was reasonably mild, about 16 degrees, so the worry of severe muscle tightness due to cold was somewhat lessened. For me the threshold for significant and detrimental muscle tightness is around 12 degrees and, if it is raining, even tights will do little to ameliorate this because cold rain will penetrate straight through to the skin. However at 16 degrees, a slathering of Tiger Balm over the legs as a protective coating from the rain is sufficient to keep the legs warm.
The 50km course from the north end of Duncan to Cowichan Lake, and back, is a challenging road of continuous undulations, but overall it is gradually ascending on the way out. I registered as the first rider off, as I simply wanted to get it over with with minimal waiting. Behind me were 16 other registered riders starting off at 1 minute intervals – a small field, likely somewhat reduced by the less-than-ideal riding conditions.
After over-cooking the first corner a few hundred metres into the race onto Cowichan Lk road, I skidded with brakes on hard into the oncoming traffic lane and found myself staring precariously eyeballs to eyeballs, straight-on, with a driver in the oncoming lane. Fortunately the driver slowed and I managed to avert a collision. Duane Martindale later went down on that corner and did not finish the race, but was not badly hurt. The organizers have promised to make adjustments to the course next year to make it safer.
On a course that seemed to be continuously uphill, punctuated by a few short-lived flats or slight descents, a steady rhythm was not to be found. In such a case one must simply adjust to grunting out the pace as best as possible and to the experience of varying degrees of pain and pain-plus-extra-pain.
The turnaround could not come soon enough, but eventually it appeared in the distance after nearly 25km of lung busting. About half a km before the turn, two vehicles passed me only to slow down to a crawl and force me to decelerate considerably, well before the turnaround, accompanied by my overshooting the turn by a significant distance.
By the time I was on my way in the opposite direction for home, I realized there were riders behind whom I had not gained time upon or whom had gained time on me. One of these was Derek Tripp. I learned afterward he took two minutes out of me on the first half.
For the return I felt I could sustain a rhythm that was both hard and focussed, and by the end I had not lost additional time to Derek. I actually thought I would have lost more time in the second half due to my absence of aero helmet, aero-wheels or specific TT bike/set up (I did use aero bars though) and because there was more descending in the second half. So at least that aspect of my ride was encouraging.
In the end Derek (57 yrs old, and an amazing talent) had the fastest time on the day at 1:12.28, Shane Savage (33) from Vancouver was second in 1:13.45 (who was forced to stop near the beginning to adjust his brakes to accommodate a broken spoke), while I was third in 1:14.30. Don Gillmore has the course record in about 1:09, I understand.
I was happy with my day, and was glad for the sustained threshold effort. I have actually done only a couple of time trials this year, and so it was good to get a full-dose reminder of the kind of pain one must endure at that sustained output. Most of my races this year, being road races or criteriums, have required the ability to recover rapidly from continual high intensity, over-the-threshold attacks, and so I have developed that ability quite well. Little of my racing, however, has involved the steady threshold effort of time trialing, and I would do well to do a few more of that sort of effort before Tobago, which will entail a ton of very difficult climbs.
My travel companion, Vaughn, was in at 1:26, which was good enough for the fastest time of two riders in his age category (45-49) but after age-grading he was second to the older rider. His time was roughly the same as his time last year when he completed the race as a two-up with another rider and in better conditions, so his overall ride was better this year.
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