Moriarty 40k TT
September 8th, 2008
It was a cold and blustery morning. I woke up at ~6am actually feeling pretty well rested… better than Shiva anyway… the low budget motel experience wasn’t working too well for her. Still I’m sure it was better than what Klaus, Karen and their two kids experienced… sleeping in a leaky camper… parked in the mud. Anyway, Shiva went out for coffee (the Lariat does not offer such amenities). I don’t usually do caffeine but I was hoping that it would help. Well… I certainly was awake… and jittery… don’t know if that was good or not. I’m glad I brought the trainer so I could at least warm up a little before I went outside.
When I took off at 8:42:30 it was 58 degrees with a strong headwind, and pouring rain. Not ideal conditions. In fact they were so un-ideal that Klaus decided not to race. He was supposed to start 30 seconds ahead of me and give me something to chase! Not that I would have caught him, and I surely would have blown if I’d tried.
This is a very flat course, so it is good for getting in a steady rhythm. About 8 miles in some guy blew past me… then a few seconds later another guy went by, but not so fast. You might think this was demoralizing, but I wasn’t really paying attention to anything else. I was just trying to feel what my pace was for this distance… and trying to avoid standing water in the road. I’d never done a 40k (24.85 mi) TT before so I wasn’t sure how to pace. I had an iBike powermeter, but it went wonky in the rain so it was no help… just as well though since I prefer to pace by feel. I’ve done a lot of 10 mi TTs this summer, but they are very hilly, which is a totally different experience. I like the flat course better… easier to get in “the zone”.
The second guy who passed me started 1 minute after me (I could tell by his number), and he sort of just dangled there a few hundred feet ahead. After the turn-around I felt renewed with a nice strong tailwind. I knew I was doing ok… I’d successfully avoided going too hard in the beginning, and knew I’d be able maintain the same effort to the end. A few miles later I passed him back… about the same time I was starting to get complaints from my quads and back… not a big problem though… just an indicator that I was going as hard as I could.
The course is quite flat but there is a little bump of a hill about a mile from the end. As soon as I had this in sight I started pouring it on. Unfortunately it was a little farther away than it seemed and I was really suffering when I got to it… but heck then there was only 1 mile left… time to turn it up a little higher yet! I can safely say that I finished with an empty tank. I was going ~35 mph at the end and passing someone, and I guess the officials were screaming at me to get over to the shoulder (according to Shiva; I didn’t hear anything) because that was where they have the little ticker to record your time. Thankfully they managed to get it anyway.
I wasn’t that fast, but I felt like I did a good race anyway… paced well and finished strong. Time was 58:48 which works out to an average of 25.4 mph… or 15th out of 50 who rode it. The wind, rain and cold probably added a couple of minutes to what an ideal day would have been. I don’t think Shiva had that much fun, but I’m glad she was there. Next year she is going to do it!
