On Sunday, the Time Trialling season finally got underway for me with a 25 mile event that I have competed in for the past couple of years - the Redmon CC 25.
I was quite hopeful that I was fitter this year than I had been on previously, I suppose the problem was just knowing how much fitter I was. I have been doing more turbo work this winter and I certainly think that has helped but this would be the first real test of my fitness. My main aim was to beat my times from the previous two years which had been around the 55:30 mark. Secretly, I wanted to do a 53 something on this course as that would be just about the best I could hope for on this course - it is not the fastest course that I am going to race on this season, in fact, it is probably the slowest.
Anyway, after a mad panic at the start because I could not pump the front wheel up (valve extenders and stuck valves etc) I finally managed to get to the start line in time for my off. I started hard as I wanted to quickly get up to speed but in doing this, I think I pushed a bit too hard as I felt slightly lethargic straight away. Not sure if it was because I had not warmed up enough, or what really. Anyway, I decided to just try and settle down and start concentrating on keeping the speed as high as possible.
After about 5 miles, I was feeling a lot better and was now in to a good rhythm. The undulating section on the back part of the course was quite fast, albeit interspersed with a few short hills etc. Still, I was going well when I hit the dual carriageway for the last 10 or so miles. It was on here though that I really started to lose some of the speed that I had banked. There are a couple of drags and I wasn't as strong as I had hoped on these, although, I was going well as soon as I hit the flats or downhills again.
In the end, I rolled over the line in 54:31 which is 1:17 quicker than last year in what are probably quite comparable conditions. So, this bodes well for the rest of the season I think.
Results are HERE
Garmin output is HERE
I now have a 10k running race on Friday and then it's back to Hampton Pool on Bank Holiday Monday for the first triathlon of the season for Thames Turbo. I should be on my new bike for that one - as part of the Thames Turbo Race Team I am going to be riding a Ceepo Venom for a lot of my races this season. Just hoping that it is fast....
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