Indoor Time Trial: Please Don't Suck...

Joy here...As I was training for August's Ontario Provincial Time Trial, I completed two indoor time trials on my trainer in the basement.  The first one was, well, an utter and absolute failure that beat my self esteem around the block and then kicked it to the curb for good measure.  The second one was better, if not as good as my outdoor time trials on Tuesday nights.

My workout details (courtesy of
Coach Andrew), outlining minutes
and wattage (note: the second-last bullet
is the 10 minute TT).

Well, as I've gotten back into the rhythm of training (slowly but surely) as I try to beat my body back into condition after its lengthy "rest" period, I was supposed to do another indoor time trial on Tuesday so that my coach could look at my numbers and interpret them for me (basically evaluating just how out of shape I am at this point).  But Tuesday came and went, and life somehow prevented me from getting on the bike at all; not to be daunted, I got up bright and early on Wednesday to do the indoor time trial before my workday started.

I had a whole warm up regimen planned to get my legs (and lungs and heart and brain) ready for the TT effort, and as I worked through all the elements that Coach Andrew had devised for me I was beginning to feel like an athlete again (granted an athlete whose body is a little bit more smooshy than usual, but who cares?).  I felt the familiar burn in my legs, and I felt myself huffing and puffing and finding the rhythm of breathing in and out to get my body back into a sense of synthesis where breath and legs all move according to its own beat.  Then I looked at the clock and saw that it was time for me to start the 10-minute section of the TT...ready, set...GO!

And off I went, putting my bike into a bigger gear on the trainer, and pedalling consistently, but at what felt like the limit to me.

Nothing like the loneliness of an indoor ride.

I had covered up my wattage numbers (as per Coach Andrew's request, so that he can see what I can do when not staring at a particular target number), so I just went into my mantra as I pedalled...please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck...The words went over and over, around and around in my head as I pedalled.

I was dripping sweat on my bike; I was feeling like I was going to explode; I felt horrible; I felt awesome.

Then the phone rang.

I wanted to ignore it, but it was a work-related call (before 9am, mind you), and I couldn't not take it, so my TT effort was truncated to 6 minutes rather than 10 minutes.

And as much as I want to be disappointed with that, I kind of can't be, because at this time last week, I was still in "resting" mode...so something is better than nothing!

Over and out,
Joy

Truncated indoor TT stats:
Rode for 40 minutes working up to TT effort, then rode for 6 minutes with an average wattage of 189w, average heart rate of 156bpm, and average cadence of 88rpms.