TTT, Time Trial Triumph (sort of)

Joy here...A Time Trial is a strange thing; it's just you on your bike and the clock to keep you honest.  There's no competition, no adrenaline rush of chasing down a pack, or being pulled along by the riders around you.  There's nothing but you, your bike, and the thoughts running through your head.

Bradley Wiggins storming to a
Time Trial Gold medal
at the London 2012 Olympics.

Now when you're outside doing a time trial, at least you have the road that you've covered to help you gauge your distance and give you motivation ("I'm almost halfway done," "I am halfway finished," "I'm almost done!"), and there are other riders out there who you might pass or who might pass you ("I can catch her, I know I can," "shit, I hope no one catches me!").  There's the wind blowing over your face and the sound of your bike against the asphalt.  There's the momentum you gain from simply being an object in motion, especially if there are little descents out on a time trialling course.

However, when you're inside, on a stationary bike you have none of that external help.

It's just you, your body, and your brain.

You stare down at your computer screen, willing your body to just stay focused and hit the numbers you want; and then you battle with everything in you not to give up.

For me, I usually give up.  Basically, I always give up.

So as I got on my bike and worked up through the warm up protocol that Coach Andrew had given me, I was having my own internal motivational monologue, as I tried and tried to convince myself that this time would be different; this time I would finish my indoor time trial; this time I would feel successful afterwards, not full of my own failures.

What I did to prepare myself for completion (rather than failure) was to take a piece of painters' tape (the opaque green stuff) and covered up my speed and wattage numbers on my computer.  Before when I've done time trials (both indoors and out) I always look at my speed and wattage to gauge my efforts, and increase or decrease according to my plan.  But Coach Andrew wanted me to focus on how I felt, and not on some arbitrary number that I thought I could hold (and then ultimately wouldn't hold, and would end up leading me to jump off the bike in a fit of anger).

Coach Andrew competing in
a Time Trial (he reached
60km/hr in the finishing straight
in this race!)

So I ended up looking at the cadence number as my main focus.  I tried to keep my rpms above 90, but I started off in a harder gear and after 3 minutes of that I really could only hold around 85-88rpms, so I switched to a slightly easier gear and upped my cadence.  Then after about 8 minutes of that I was thinking that I just wasn't pushing hard enough, so I switched back to my original gear combo for another 3 minutes but just could get my cadence above 90rpms, so I switched back to the easier gear combo, but for the final 3 minutes, I figured "what the hell, I'll just ride!"  So I switched to my original combination and rode my little heart out to the end.

And it turns out that after Coach Andrew looked at my data, he said:  "Perhaps you are trying too hard to keep the rpms up. It could be that 90+rpm is too high a cadence target for you. Looking at the file you were doing higher wattage when below 90rpm. This might be your self-selected cadence range 85-90rpm, the area where you are most efficient."  So it seems that all my freaking out about cadence and numbers and toggling back and forth between two different gear combinations was my own stupidity at play, and I would have had a better TT had I just focused on myself and not on any numbers at all, settling in for a sufferfest and just staying there.

Next time I'm using more tape to cover up the whole, damn screen!

Oh, god, did I just say next time?

Over and out,
Joy