SKINS Challenge - Time Trial

This ride is part of 3 challenges to test SKINS C400 bib shorts, Cycle Pro Short Sleeve Jersey and C400 compression baselayer. Not that we wouldn't have done the rides anyway - we now had a perfect excuse to be doing rides every weekend ;)

Time Trial Sunday...

and here we go! got up fairly relaxed at 8pm (Sunday morning), had a coffee (or two?), a slice of bread and smoked salmon, nothing too heavy, partly because I was still full from the bbq the day before.

I left around 9am to drive to Jorrin and go with him to some location in Surrey where we hoped to find a suitable road without too many interruptions, traffic lights, roundabouts and so on to do our TT (15Km/ 10miles). We went along the M3, got off at Exit 3 and went to Lightwater.


Now, I've never done a TT and I was really excited to be racing against myself for this relatively short distance. We took Jorrin's racing bike rather than my 'cruiser' and in borrowed shoes I set off. My heart rate was already at close to 80BPM before getting on the bike which is partly due to the warm-up (stretches really) and partly because I was a little nervous. Should have really done a few miles before even getting on the bike for the actual TT - next time...

On the bike, fiddling with the clip-ins, setting the stop watch on the Shimano flight deck and on the heart rate monitor - 3 2 1 GO

I quickly got to speeds of over 40Km/h zooming along this pretty straight road, hit a few roundabouts but kept on pushing hard. My top speed went down to 35Km/h where I could sustain it... The first couple of kilometres went by pretty quickly and were it not for some stupid motorists I would have been even faster. At various roundabouts without a chance to overtake, those guys slowed down pretty heavily to then turn without indicating, I almost crashed into one as I was trying to overtake...

With 10Km done, I was feeling exhausted already because some of the smaller hills kicked in and got me to stand-up and push on. Another useless roundabout where I had to clip out of the pedal leaving me to struggle for another km to get back in (its just not the same if you're used to your own shoes/ pedals).

13.5, 14, 14,7 arrghhh 15Km. STOP the watch.

STATS:

Ride distance: 15.06Km (10miles)

Time (incl. stops): 00:26:28 h:min:sec

Av. Speed: 34.1 km/h

Max speed: 48.6km/h

Av. heart rate: 123 BPM

BPM% MHR: 64

KCAL: 160

Useful calculator (time, distance, speed)
http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/speed_distance_time_calc.html


The Numbers:

the above numbers don't really mean anything unless they're put in a context. I've checked a few websites and a few different courses and found the Richmond TT results. Provided that the course is different from the one we chose I would have ranked 15th out of 75 people. The fastest person was at 00:23:36 for the distance... Now, that means something!!!

First, do the Richmond TT 10.4 and check actual performance
Second, practice more and warm up before another run
Third, read the TT instructions before attempting another TT

Overall I felt more relaxed doing the 15Km and I knew that I was going to be comfortable in my SKINS shorts and shirt. Again, they performed excellently and I did sweat but felt comfortably dry and well comfy even on an unusually formed seat...

To be repeated and improved upon!!!!!