11th MARCH 2016 – THE RACE!

I warmed up for an hour – yep it takes me ages to warm up properly! Went to the toilet many many times, try putting a very tight speed suit back on when you are sweaty – budget way longer than it normally takes for a ‘quick pee’!

Suddenly it was 10:45, I had my bike checked in the jig again, helmet was checked and then I was at the top of the start ramp, feeling incredibly nervous but ready to put it all in to action. Within 4 minutes I had completed the out and back to the Causeway and was in the technical section of the course. This was a good distraction for my brain – “take this line, tight round here etc… “ was great instead of the constant omg my legs are screaming and my lungs are burning, please when will this stop!
Well I knew it would take around 23 minutes, and that is only 3 minutes longer than a functional threshold test, and I suffered through enough of those and survived.

The wind was light but just enough to make the leg out towards UWA a bit slower, but I had anticipated it to be windier and had rode this section in way windier conditions, so it wasn’t too bad.

After the left turn in to Hackett Drive I knew I was over half way and it was time to really unleash and see what these little legs were capable of. Approaching the turnaround round about I was really red-lining by then and I could see the barricades up ahead but couldn’t really compute how they’d set it up. I was expecting (as were most people) for the turn around point to be round the round about (and as such I had practiced that roundabout quite a few times in the past week). Suddenly I was approaching the barricades at warp speed, when I realized that I actually had a much tighter U-turn in the road rather than zooming round the roundabout.

I made the turn ok, but felt like I lost a fair bit of speed by having to break so hard. In analysing my data afterward this is the point where my HR spiked to 182 bpm (a record for me on the bike)! Now it was time to embrace the pain, and get to the finish line with absolutely nothing left in the tank. I can happily say that I did that, the last 3 minutes average power was in excess of my threshold, and somehow I found 400 watts as I crossed the line. I finished in a time of 22mins 24seconds and came 3rd in my age group and qualified for the world champs. Totally elated and so chuffed that I gave it 110% and it worked!

So there we go, personal experiment complete, and I have learnt a lot along the way. The main thing is that you should never pigeon hole yourself, you never know what you are capable of until you give it a go!

Two weeks of r’n’r now, a bit of surfing, running & social riding before I look forward to the next 6 months where head coach Fenz from FTP Training can eek out even more wattage from these little legs!