Steve and I went to Suffolk, VA today to do the Dismal Dash 40k ITT. It was my first race with a power meter so I was looking forward to seeing if it would help or hinder me. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
Steve went off first (on his brand new TT bike which will not have it's official unveiling until the Presque Isle TT in April). He was set to start over 1 hour ahead of me so I didn't even have to start getting ready until he took off. He was lucky to ride earlier because the conditions got worse as the day went on. He made it to the finish just as I was lining up for my start.
I started as usual trying not to go out too hard at the beginning to avoid blowing up before the finish. The Power Meter(PM) really helped here so that I limited my power output during the first few minutes of the event. There was a head wind on the way out to the turn around so my goal was to hammer the first half of the course and then try to limp home for the return trip with the wind at my back. With the help of my PM I did just that but I ended up hammering the first half just a little too hard which caused me to limp just a little too much on the return trip. I ended up having a full on asthma attack at the 35 minute mark, just after the turn around. After the asthma attack was subsiding just a bit the inside of my thighs started to get that twinge. You know the one I'm talking about, the one right on the verge of cramping. I was able to spin lightly for a few minutes and it eventually passed. I ended up wheezing the whole way through the finish line until I could get my inhaler.
Steve ended up finishing 5th in his first race as a Cat4 only two days after his upgrade and even more impressive is that he was riding a bike that he has only had since early this week.
I ended up finishing 5th overall and 2nd Cat2. Not too bad for the first race of the season. I can tell I definitely need to get some linger TT rides in outside now that we have some nice weather. I could really feel it on the return trip (the asthma and cramping problems didn't help too much either). I'm really looking forward to dissecting my performance looking at the power file later tonight.
