The Peter Teeuwen Memorial Omnium 23 Mile Time Trial #1 (whew!)

Posted by Dan on 17. June 2009 20:19

Sunday was the Peter Teeuwen Memorial Omnium 23 Mile Time Trial #1 on our old friend, Shillelagh Rd in Chesapeake. As far as time trials go, this was pretty uneventful. Chesapeake Airport's automated weather observation system reported winds from the north about 4 mph. That meant a nice push to get things going and a little resistance coming back. The push was actually pretty decent, as my average speed approached 30 mph in the opening stretch. It was right around 80 degrees and muggy. I nearly dehydrated myself on the trainer long before my start time.

My start was good, which is a constant worry these days. I don't know if it's a problem with my Keo pedals or the new cleat placement, but I frequently miss the clip-in and have to pay far too much attention to the process. Anyway, that didn't happen on Sunday. The PowerTap helped keep things under control in the first few miles, letting me know when I was getting a bit too overzealous. Once my rhythym was established, I quit looking at watts and focused on keeping my heart rate up as close to LTHR as I could, which turned out to be harder than clipping in.

My average heart rate for the entire run was 169 bpm. My max is closer to 181, or at least it was last year. I was able to keep my HR at 175 bpm during the last 40K TT I did which was about a month ago, so seeing the PowerTap consistently reporting 167 was irritating. Working harder just made me tired.

I passed 5 or 6 riders and managed not to get passed myself, so it was all good. Final time was 0:51:48 which was good for 4th place, +1.55 from first place rider Chris McMillan of Hefler Performance Coaching. Average speed was around 25.8 mph over 22.4 miles. Normalized power for the duration was 284 watts - also a bit low.

So that's the baseline PLT #1. Two more chances to break the 50 minute mark. This is a great course and I highly recommend the next two TTs to anyone even remotely interested in time trials, currently scheduled for 7/26 and 8/2. I'm sure Mark and crew at Fitness Together in Norfolk can help you deliver a killer time. Maybe he can get me below 50 minutes...

If you can't wait until then, head to Stony Creek (south of Richmond) this Sunday for the Fiorucci VA State Senior Time Trial Championships. Bring all our aero as it's reported to be very windy.