Steven's Take on Yarra Tri ITT Last weekend

The recent weather conditions had made me a little less excited than I usually am leading up to a ‘race of truth’ (Individual Time Trial). It was time to see what fitness I had left after close to three weeks off the road with a broken collar bone from my nasty accident in the Mt Baw Baw Classic. Nonetheless, it was going to be a good opportunity to gauge how I am going now compared to my results on the same course last year. It eventuated into a nice morning (weather wise) and Bike and Bean was going to be well represented with Jose and myself racing. I thought we both had a pretty good chance of placing right up the top although Shane Miller (Time Trial extraordinaire) was toting the start line again after his win in the 2010 race. I was seeded 2^nd meaning I had a long wait until it was my turn to race the clock. With the little training preparation I had I was putting all my knowledge as an Exercise Scientist to good use. Caffeine pills, check. Beetroot juice, check. I was hoping that these well known ergogenic aids could make up for a lack of training!! I was going to need all the help I could get to squeeze out a respectable time. Jose went off about 10min before me and I was putting my money on him to possibly give Shane Miller a run for his money. I have seen Jose’s power numbers in the laboratory and I was thinking that they would equate to a very fast Time Trial.

Even during my warm up I knew that it was going to hurt. The legs just didn’t seem to want to fire on all cylinders. Finally I was off. My power numbers from last time were up around 320Watts average for the 36minutes. This time I was struggling to even get to 300W. All I was hoping was that I could hold off the 2min gap to Shane Miller who I knew would be catching me… quickly!! I couldn’t hold him off and by lap 3 I watched him pass and ride away from me. Undeterred I kept on pushing. I finally crossed the line in a time of 37:49. After rolling around to clear some lactate (and avoid seeing my breakfast again) I went back to the team car. Paul and Shannon were there watching and I laid down all my best excuses to validate my lack of performance. As I predicted Jose had a good race and won his section with the 4^th fastest time of the day (36:21). I had scrapped in the top ten and was pleased with my efforts and was eager to test myself again to see the improvements in a few months time. Especially with the arrival of my new Specialized Shiv I am certain that next time I will be back in my usual form and ready to push the pace.