Tundra Time Trial - Race Report

This was my 4th year in a row racing in the Tundra TT. It was sunny and 60′s out by the time my start time rolled around, I could not have asked for better conditions. I always look forward to this race to see how my early season fitness stacks up against other area triathletes and also to see how I fair against a pure cyclist.

I brought along my dad so he could enjoy the Silver Comet and check out the race. It was nice to have someone there to help out carry things, hold my bike while I pee, and not to mention pick up the lunch tab after :) Thanks dad!

After a lengthy warm up on the trainer I was ready to go. I got my HR up a towards LT a few times during warm up, and I think that was the first time I had hit that kind of intensity on the bike this season. I knew this was going to be painful with out any kind of TT work or intervals on the bike coming in, but my fitness has really felt great lately so I was pretty optimistic that I could improve my time from last year.

I built into the first 3 or 4 minutes, then I hit the gas to see how deep into the pain cave I could get. It didn’t take long before my lungs were burning like crazy from the cool air and my legs were on fire. I hit the turn around in just over 14 flat and had visions of breaking 28 minutes this year. It always get’s me pumped up when I know I have a chance to hit a PR, so I turned for home and let it rip again. The 2nd half of this race was an absolute suffer fest but I just kept pressing and holding HR right around LT. I hit the line in 28:14, about 45 seconds faster than last year. This was my first time over a 25mph avg for a significant length of time, so that is encouraging – especially knowing that I have yet to add in any kind of speed work on the bike. I took home the W in the Cat V race that was a very competitive field of about 100, many of which are triathletes. My previous 3 years I was 14th, 4th, and 3rd – so it felt good to be moving in the right direction once again.