Harpoon Indoor Time Trial

The Harpoon indoor Time Trial is billed as a 15K iTT to start the winter season.  It is the largest iTTs that I know of with 24 riders in each heat.  I signed up for the second heat which had a start time of 2:45.

Heat bump

The first problem I ran into was when I was contacted by the event organizer.  They wanted to create a second Pro/Elite Womens heat at 2:45 PM.  This means I would be bumped to the newly created 1 PM heat.  I really did not want to be in the first heat of the day which is why I picked the 2:45 heat.  This would prove prophetic later on.  After a few weeks of back and forth, I wound up in the 2 PM heat and there was now a 12 noon heat.

TTX bike

When I signed up for the iTT, I also put in a order for an Equinox TTX 9.5 bike from Trek.  I planned on the iTT being the inaugural race for the bike.  The order was placed on Veterans’ Day, after a fitting from the local bike shop.  The LBS and Trek had said it would be 33 days for delivery.  I thought it would be a nice Christmas present for me.  As of this posting, I am still waiting for the bike, and if all goes well, it might be available for the last iTT of the winter.

Expectations

When I’m planning on a race or a trip for training I set some goals for myself.  I had three goals for this iTT:

1. 300 W average over the 15K.
2. Sub 24 minutes for the 15K.
3. Sustained heart rate at or above 175 BPM but don’t blow up.

I had been monitoring my power output with my Kinetic trainer and NetAthlon2 software, I could sustain 300 W for an entire hour.  In previous iTTs that I did at Champaign Cycle, I was able to do the 10K in just over 16 minutes, so multiplying that by 1.5 and 24 minutes seems very reasonable.  In those same iTTs, I had kept my heart rate around 180 so I knew that was possible and would tell me I was right on the rivet.

Day of the Race

The day before the race, the event organizer sent everyone a note.  Boston was suffering a cold snap and, even though the race itself was held in the bottling area of the warehouse, it was still cold.  The outside temperature when I arrived was about 9 degrees F.  I had never done an iTT with knee and arm warmers before, but I wound up ditching the arm warmers before the race.

The temperature also caused another problem.  I packed two water bottles to take with me.  The first one had Gatorade to have during warmups and for the race itself while the second one had recovery drink.  The recovery drink bottle did not like the cold and the bottom  cracked open in my gear bag.  It was a sticky mess but at least my change of clothes was not affected.

Race itself

The previous heat finished and they stuck me on a trainer in the central 8 rider section.  I got on the trainer and started to warm up.  It took a while before a tech came over to calibrate the CompuTrainer (CT) and, of course, there was a problem.  Seems either the local control unit or the cable to the resistance unit was busted.  There was no power on the LCD.  I was on equipment that had yet to be used.  The third heat of the day was the first one that had 24 riders.  So much for riding a later heat to make sure all the bugs are out of the system.

The route is the last 8 miles (not 15 K which would be 9.3 miles) of Harpoon’s Brewery to Brewery ride.  The first half of the ride is relatively flat.  Then, there is a 5% grade until the three quarter spot and all downhill to the finish.  My plan was to ride around 90 – 95 RPM for the first half, down shift and try to go at 100 RPM up the hill, and then power it around 85 RPM downhill to the finish.

I got going and called down to Scottie to give me more power, but I just couldn’t generate it.  I downshifted one gear and settled down to the 90 – 95 RPM cadence.  I started in second place in my sub-group of 8 but kept loosing ground on the first rider.  I was dismayed because I just could not go any faster.  I was averaging below 250 W and around 20 MPH way short of what I expected.

When I got to the hill, I now was down to 4th place and a few hundred feet behind 3rd place.  I downshifted to my 42×23 but I was not spinning my 100 RPMs.  However, I felt comfortable and was able to sustain around 11 MPH for the entire length of the hill.  I gained on the 2nd and 3rd place riders: this was good.  My wattage did not go up much as I remember; it was a sweaty blur at the time.  My hear rate did jump up 10 BPM and was holding steady around 185.

The hill crested and I shifted to a very large gear.  I was able to grind out over 30 MPH on the stretch and doing 85 RPM as I had planned.  I was still gaining on both the 2nd and 3rd place riders.  About two thirds of the way down the hill, I caught the 3rd place rider but there was still too much of a gap to 2nd place.

Results

Let’s check my goals for the race:

1. 300 W average over the 15K.  No, averaged 245 W.  My lowest power output for any TT, indoor or out.
2. Sub 24 minutes for the 15K.  No, since it was only 8 miles I should have finished in 21:20 but I finished in 23:39.
3. Sustained heart rate at or above 175 BPM but don’t blow up.  Yes, average HR during the iTT was about 180 BPM and a max of 185.  I also finished as strong or slightly stronger than when I started.  I think I paced myself well.

Even though I finished 3rd in my sub-group, I finished 159th out of 281 riders.  If I had hit my target time, I would have finished 70th.

The race was well supported.  They had Mavic providing neutral support for anyone who needed help on their machine.  They provided complimentary Mix1 drinks and, with your entrance fee, you got two beer tokens.  They had BBQ food available – brats soaked in beer, pulled pork, chili, red beans and rice, and veggie burgers.  The food and extra beer tokens were 5 dollars with the funds raised going to several charities.  Hopefully, it will be warmer next year and I’ll be able to enjoy the beer more.  It was weird drinking beer which was warmer than the air temperature.  Even though I was very disappointed in my results I plan on going back next year.  Next year I’ll pick a later heat.

After a few days of reflection on the race and one training session on Monday, I would not be surprised if the resistance on the CT was not set right. I had high expectations for this iTT.  I was the lightest I have been for any race and producing good power numbers in training.  The fact the CT was not set right would keep that delusion alive.  I’ll know more after I collect two more data points.  The next iTT is February 21st at Landry’s cycle shop and the last one is March 20th during MultiSport World Expo at MIT.  The MIT race is one I did last year.