First TT of the Season: The Jack Frost 20KM

The Plan
Going into my races I like to have a plan. The Jack Frost plan was simple, to not take the TT to seriously. While it’s nice to win races there just wasn't time in the training schedule to do anything special for the Jack Frost TT. So Friday was a 3 hr training ride, then Saturday UO/OSU team ride was as long as it was intense, and then Sunday was going to be the first TT of the season, tapering is for wimps. In some ways I figured all the pre-TT riding, and total lack of any thought of a taper was good it would better reflect the nth day of a stage race or nth pull of a team ultra.

The Prep
My training Saturday, day before the TT, was to do the OSU/UO team ride. The team ride was super fun, but also super intense. I made a extra effort to eat all day long to attempt to keep the glycogen topped off. Then before driving to my parents place in the evening for dinner I had a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, then dinner a few hours later and final TT prep. I was really worried I'd spent too much time anaerobic so after dinner I spent much of the remaining evening lying on the rug with the Compex buzzing away on the legs.

Race Day
Normally I don't like to eat much before a TT. The general plan is to eat a full dinner the night before then eat a minimal breakfast consisting of mostly liquids the morning of the TT. Well, this plan works great until your dad wakes up before you do and makes a special breakfast especially for you. Can't exactly say no that can you. So with thoughts in my head that, well, I'm not exactly going for a win, I ate two poached egg's, one English Muffin, a yogurt, and drank a glass of OJ before hitting the road to drive north with four hours to go. Driving north I stopped off part way for a coffee too.

Arriving at the Race
The Jack Frost race course was just over the boarder in Vancouver, WA. Pulling into the staging grounds I was blown away. There were so, so, many people. I like to park as close to the start as it makes it relatively easy to make last minute adjustments, driving in the closest spot I could find was way, way back in the back of the lot buy the guy with the banjo. Still no worries, today’s plan is to just get the feet wet TTing on the new bike. Once out, it was time to get ready. On went the sport kilt, pants off, warming gel on, shorts on, Heart Rate Monitor, TT Top, Rudy Project Aero helmet, socks, knee warmers, shoes, shoe covers, helmet, glasses, a friendly competitor to pin my number on, bike off the top, and on the road ready to go..

Riding out I stopped by the starting gate to double check my start time,1hr 30 minutes till party time. Out on the road behind the starting gate, I did a few quick starting/cruising efforts. Everything felt good, the tire pressure seemed right. Then it was back in to find a friendly trainer to sit on. Riding back in, I kept running into people I knew, Jay, Dave, Fish, etc.. It was quite cool and I ended up doing my final warm-up on a friend’s trainer right next to the official "Head Hunters" van, talking RAO shop. The time flew by and soon I had to go. With 10 minutes left I rolled up to the starting line for some stretching.

Into the Starting Gate
With my first carrot out, I rolled into the starting gate, one of the starters held my bike. I clipped in. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! For the first 100 feet, I was out of the aero bars, and just hammered and then slid down into the aero bars and just started to initiate cruising speed.

Party Time
My starting game plan was simple. Heart rate lags power, especially at the start so without a power meter the best way to gauge efforts is with estimated speedometer speeds. Well that’s all good if your bike computers functioning, but mine had decided to quit on me some where between my warm up and the starting gate. Maybe the receiver had moved. Either way, now was definitely not the time to try and fix it. With out the computer I was left to rely solely on my polar heart rate monitor for any feedback. My heart rate settled into ~177 BMP, a little on the low end. The first corner came went, and I was soon catching my first carrot. Then the next, and the next, eventually I lost count of how many I passed.

The Results
The finish sorta snuck up on me. Crossing the finish line I felt good, I didn't know how fast, I'd gone, but I felt like I'd ridden it well, and the new Co-Motion TT bike had been nothing short of phenomenal. No bottom bracket flex period. Rolling back to the car, I stopped to talk with the Sharks from RAO and then it was time to return home..

Well, I must admit I was anxious to see the results from the TT. The bike had felt great, I'd felt good, and I thought I had to be in the top 10. Well it turns out I logged a personal TT PR. Doing 20KM in 27 min 41.12sec and just snagging first place in the cat 4/5's by a little over half a second, beating all the cat 3's, and placing 16^th over all.

I have to admit, that I have to contribute much of my "new" performance to the TT bike Co-Motion built for me, it raised my average speed 2 MPH! I guess the guy who said "It's Not About the Bike", never TTed on a Co-Motion..

Keeping it Real
Ok so I did great, nuff said. But other people also logged phenomenal times to, Jeff Teder, AKA the 4 man RAO shark captain road to commanding 3rd in the 4/5's. Lito & Bill Nicolai from Head Hunter fame both posted impressive times too. Its a few years out, but can you say Father & Son RAO redux!! Anyway, in all seriousness Terri & George you might need to set up the camera for this years RAO cause I think it might be just that tight..

View the full Results

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