What a beautiful day it was today and so I made my way up to the club TT course, just outside of Richmond Hill on Bayview.  This 8 km course has four corners, gentle rolling grades, some good road surfaces and almost always wind from the North.  Today, the wind blew from the North West, a little off from head-on for the first leg, from the back on the second, cross on the third and smack right in the face for the last little bit.   Here is the run down:

0-1.67 km

Up hill with traffic and this part of the course has the worst road surface.  Today I stuck to the paved but dirty shoulder and pushed up Bayview towards 17th.  With the gusts coming occaisionally head on, I struggled a bit to keep it above thirty without trashing my legs and shocking my lungs too much.  I figured I would just get myself going, get through the wind and then make up for a little lost time on the next leg.  Average speed somewhere around 31km/hr.

1.67-3.66 km

First right turn, the road smoothed out and I snapped the bike through a few gears, averaging probably about 41km/hr, taking advantage of the tail wind and the smooth roads.  This section is pretty much flat and I felt my body warming up to the task, as I reached my maximum on this section of the course (45.7 km/hr).  I watched the traffic as I completed the last 100 meters and took the corner at 40.

3.66-5.64 km

The wind was from the side and slightly behind so I had some advantage here, but the road surface deteriorated and sucked a little speed out of the bike.  The wind was loud in my ears so I knew I was fighting the elements a little bit but I felt good with my pacing and was looking forward to the last stretch and pushing full against that head wind.

5.64-7.62 km

Where on the previous stretch, 240 watts would get me about 42 km, that same effort would only net me 35.  I felt my body struggling a bit with the effort but I was still in control.  My mind wandered a little bit as I looked for the pagodas atop of the Hindu Temple, the sign that I had only a couple hundred meters left.

7.62-8.0 km

Rounding the last corner to the home stretch, I fought the wind and crappy  road surface to the end and came across in 13 minutes 15 seconds, averaging 288 watts and 35.9 km/h.

Areas for improvement for me:

I had a little extra drag as I was wearing a vest with my pockets full.  Next time I will be a little less conservative in terms of effort on the favourable sections of the course but not so much so that I have nothing left for the head-wind.  Continued strength training and the introduction of morning intervals (now that the weather is favourable) will also result in some benefits.  Must also get on top of that crick in my back!

Download the course data here: Club TT Course – GPX and Training Centre formats

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Fit/Performance, Training Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.