Time

So simple yet so complex. When not measured, time is limitless, yet limited. When time is measured everything else is limited by it. The clock (or calendar) does not lie like we can. In life, it seems like everything is a trial. Trials are about finding the truth. So calling a time trial the race of truth is a pretty basic conclusion.

Time tells a lot of truths. How much or how little happens. Though it may go on forever, we only get so much, so what we do with it means everything, or nothing depending how you are looking at it.

The time trial at Stillwater revealed some truth for me -- I am not that fast. The course was excellent, a quiet farm road along the Hudson with no hills, just a few gentle rollers. The road surface was not the best, but there were no dangerous potholes, just some cracked sections that were less than perfect, but not stuff to slow you down. There were four concrete slab bridges where small creeks went under the road. I chose to get off the aerobars for each of these, as the transitions from asphalt were jarring due to the lip.

My preparations were pretty good. I got there late on Friday and rode the entire course just before dusk. On Saturday I got to the venue at 8 am and found my start time was not until 12:22. This was a surprise, because there were only 100 or so pre-regged and I had incorrectly assumed 30 second start intervals, which turned out to be a minute. So I was a little short of food. I went out on the road bike and rode 3/4ths of the course again, but didn't finish it because I wanted to be off before the Cub juniors started. I was able to refuel with a few Dunkin Munchkins pilfered from the registration table. Then I got kitted up for the race and did my final prep on the trainer.

My equipment was good. I had a skinsuit and booties, and my aero helmet. I had a Mavic disk shod with a high end Continental tire on the back, and a Specialized Tri spoke with a Torelli branded clincher on the front. On my shakedown run Friday night, the setting sun drew a perfect shadow on the roadside berm for me to check my position on the fly, and it looked very good, nice flat back. I am not totally comfortable with my seat and setup, but it was OK.

The only thing hindering fast times were the constant winds that came up over the region. We would have a stiff headwind most of the way to the turnaround, then a tailwind most of the way back. My plan was to not overextend in the first 10k especially, and build into a stronger ride as I went along. I'd hoped for 56 minutes under excellent conditions, but the wind made it less than ideal, and I didn't know what to shoot for. I rolled out and started at about 41 kph, but took it easy over the first few rollers. The wind did not seem too bad at first. Toward the middle of the course I was feeling it, and my speed was not good. I was in my 53x16 and 15, but nothing bigger, rarely seeing the high side of 42 kph, often much less. My HR was up at LT, and I did not want to go higher at this stage of the ride. I had total control over it; pushed it up at will with more pedal pressure, and stabilized it by backing off. My effort was hard for what I was getting out of it though.

Past 10k I had about 15 minutes on the watch, not good. Things got worse. I could not speed up without going dangerously hard. I was already getting terrible dry throat from mouth breathing. The headwind buffeting got worse and worse, and I dared not get off the saddle to stretch, or even reach down for the bottle. That would be less costly on the run home with the tailwind. I stayed in the tuck and suffered into the wind. Approaching the turnaround, I saw my minute man going back the other way. He was a good rider and I though I might be gaining on him. At 100m from the turn I sat up, drank, and rolled into the tight turn around a cone in the narrow road. It felt good to stand and sprint back out, but not so good to see 30:30 on the watch. Yikes.

The good news is I immediately started to see the kinds of speeds you imagine in a TT. Suddenly 45 kph was almost effortless, and pushing into the 14 and 13 I'd see 48-50 kph on some stretches. I was still metering the effort a bit, but the door was 98% open. I got to 30k at around 44 minutes, and then the door was out to 100%. I still thought I had a chance to rip the final 10k in 13 minutes or less and post a respectable time. These things are often won and lost in the final kilometers, and I dug deep. There was a bit of rise between 4k and 2k to go, and then it was pretty much downhill or flat, so I was emptying the tank on the rise. However, just as the headwind had not seemed that bad in the first 10k, I lost the tailwind here too. In fact, it turned into an annoying and spooky straight crosswind off the river in the final few k, with the gusts pushing me and my disk/trispoked machine over a couple of feet at times, very unnerving. Keeping way forward on the bars and weighting the front wheel seemed to help. I still faded though, and crossed the line in 57:43, an average of just 41.5 kph (25.8 mph). Average cadence was 91 rpm.

Nobody had passed me, so I wondered if conditions were just slow. Then I turned around and rolled back to near the start to retrieve a jacket I'd left there, and Tony Settel (Deno's Wonder Wheel) roared in. He'd started seven minutes behind me, and only four minutes had passed since I finished... He ended up being the fastest Master 45+ with a time of 54:20, so much for poor conditions. There were three in my age group who went over 43 kph, and the overall winner in the elite men went sub 51 minutes for an average speed of 49 kph (29 mph), a new course record.

The truth was painful this weekend. I'm hurting, but I've got nobody to blame but myself. You cannot cheat time. It's still good to know the truth. Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah, saw these on a Zipp wheel. They are cut to match up with the deep dish rim. The end result is a very clean and aero looking setup. Probably not as good as a lenticular disc, but for those with lightweight deep dish rims built on a PT hub, this looks like the way to go. Only $65 and removable. The site also has track axles for the PT hub.