Wednesday past saw round 3 of the TVR time trial series. I wasn't expecting much physically as I've been training pretty hard this last few weeks for the National Champs in a few weeks time. I did a spin before work of around 40 miles. As is customary I was down pretty late to Warrenpoint, its a fair wee spin down and with traffic out of Belfast it is always a bit of a rat race.
No drama with getting the name signed on by the good people at TVR. I got a quick warm-up of around 10mins in. I don't often get any warm-up done, I should try and change that, I kind of like hooking in my dance music and getting in the zone thinking about what I plan to do.
What is going through my mind when I am about to set off for a time trial? To be honest there are absolutely no nerves at all, lots of people talk about nerves but I never get them I usually have a pretty tight schedule of what I need to do and there just isn't time for over thinking and I am just doing. There is a routine I go through. I have a small half filled bottle of water with orange and pineapple juice, I drink that as I am warming up. I have the helmet sitting in the back of the jeep with a gel in it and I have that gel just before I put my helmet on. I stretch out my IT band a bit more (it gives me a little trouble if I forget). That is pretty much it really.I have a playlist on my phone I like to listen to that just before setting off if I have time.
On the line I am quite relaxed and like to have a bit of banter with whoever is in-front of behind me. Getting on the bike I still for some reason don't balance it that well always takes a good launch man to hold me steady! When I get the 10 second count a switch in my mind gets flicked and I get really focused, its always the same start these days I set off hard and get the bike up to speed and then settle down and start tapping out a rhythm on the pedals, my breathing is deep pulling in as much air as possible.
I think about where I need to push a little harder and where I need to knock it back a little. Time trailing isn't just about going from A -> B as fast as possible there are so many little details that you learn, you need to know your course and where the smooth bits of the road are, where the little rises and dips are. All the time I am trying to keep as narrow and aero as possible. I am keeping a close eye on my heart rate to see if I am pushing hard enough or too hard. Your legs will always tell you that your pushing too hard if your doing it right its just about getting the fine line between too hard and much too hard right and getting to know your heart rate is a great indication of that.
Time trial is a funny thing I love the analogy by Obree. Imagine a competition of who can hold their hand in the fire the longest, if person A and person B both put their hand in the fire at the same time they will hold their hand in the fire as long as they need to it will be the person with the most desire that will win. If the test was done blind i.e person A and person B cannot see how long the other person has held their hand in you can be sure the times will be much shorter for both.
We set off on our own we have no idea what the fastest time is to better on any given night. What anyone else does is not important your only competition is yourself and to try to get as much out of your body as possible.
The equipment factor does come into it. A top TT rig can cost you the same sort of money as car. I use a Planet X Exocet 2, it would fit in around mid range in terms of aero/cost. I run a FFWD disc wheel with a Planet X 80mm front deep section. On Wednesday night those close to my time wouldn't have been far off double maybe triple the value of equipment. For example non UCI legal Cervelo p5 Six which will sting you around £6k but in relative terms its not all that much faster and the guy on the bike is still certainly the most important bit of the puzzle given the rider accounts for 90% of the aerodynamic drag. The other consideration is the faster you can go the more apparent the aerodynamic advantages can become, so over a 50 TT or 100 TT where the absolute speeds are a little lower there is very little between mid range and top of the range.
My time clocked in at 19.53. A new Warrenpoint to Newry and back course record. Conditions were good and certainly made it possible to shave a few seconds off the fastest time. Some will point out that perhaps if Damien Shaw would have had a disc wheel he may have given my time a run for its money or if Martin Irvine had of been in attendance he could perhaps of set a faster time. Both those statements might well be true and its pretty cool people even muttered my name with those for a comparison.
As for the Nationals I am looking forward to it. Its really the only time of the year I get a chance to go up against the full time guys and the very top testers from all over Ireland. I go to it with no expectations of a result but you can be absolutely sure I will be giving it 110%.
No drama with getting the name signed on by the good people at TVR. I got a quick warm-up of around 10mins in. I don't often get any warm-up done, I should try and change that, I kind of like hooking in my dance music and getting in the zone thinking about what I plan to do.
What is going through my mind when I am about to set off for a time trial? To be honest there are absolutely no nerves at all, lots of people talk about nerves but I never get them I usually have a pretty tight schedule of what I need to do and there just isn't time for over thinking and I am just doing. There is a routine I go through. I have a small half filled bottle of water with orange and pineapple juice, I drink that as I am warming up. I have the helmet sitting in the back of the jeep with a gel in it and I have that gel just before I put my helmet on. I stretch out my IT band a bit more (it gives me a little trouble if I forget). That is pretty much it really.I have a playlist on my phone I like to listen to that just before setting off if I have time.
On the line I am quite relaxed and like to have a bit of banter with whoever is in-front of behind me. Getting on the bike I still for some reason don't balance it that well always takes a good launch man to hold me steady! When I get the 10 second count a switch in my mind gets flicked and I get really focused, its always the same start these days I set off hard and get the bike up to speed and then settle down and start tapping out a rhythm on the pedals, my breathing is deep pulling in as much air as possible.
I think about where I need to push a little harder and where I need to knock it back a little. Time trailing isn't just about going from A -> B as fast as possible there are so many little details that you learn, you need to know your course and where the smooth bits of the road are, where the little rises and dips are. All the time I am trying to keep as narrow and aero as possible. I am keeping a close eye on my heart rate to see if I am pushing hard enough or too hard. Your legs will always tell you that your pushing too hard if your doing it right its just about getting the fine line between too hard and much too hard right and getting to know your heart rate is a great indication of that.
Time trial is a funny thing I love the analogy by Obree. Imagine a competition of who can hold their hand in the fire the longest, if person A and person B both put their hand in the fire at the same time they will hold their hand in the fire as long as they need to it will be the person with the most desire that will win. If the test was done blind i.e person A and person B cannot see how long the other person has held their hand in you can be sure the times will be much shorter for both.
We set off on our own we have no idea what the fastest time is to better on any given night. What anyone else does is not important your only competition is yourself and to try to get as much out of your body as possible.
The equipment factor does come into it. A top TT rig can cost you the same sort of money as car. I use a Planet X Exocet 2, it would fit in around mid range in terms of aero/cost. I run a FFWD disc wheel with a Planet X 80mm front deep section. On Wednesday night those close to my time wouldn't have been far off double maybe triple the value of equipment. For example non UCI legal Cervelo p5 Six which will sting you around £6k but in relative terms its not all that much faster and the guy on the bike is still certainly the most important bit of the puzzle given the rider accounts for 90% of the aerodynamic drag. The other consideration is the faster you can go the more apparent the aerodynamic advantages can become, so over a 50 TT or 100 TT where the absolute speeds are a little lower there is very little between mid range and top of the range.
My time clocked in at 19.53. A new Warrenpoint to Newry and back course record. Conditions were good and certainly made it possible to shave a few seconds off the fastest time. Some will point out that perhaps if Damien Shaw would have had a disc wheel he may have given my time a run for its money or if Martin Irvine had of been in attendance he could perhaps of set a faster time. Both those statements might well be true and its pretty cool people even muttered my name with those for a comparison.
As for the Nationals I am looking forward to it. Its really the only time of the year I get a chance to go up against the full time guys and the very top testers from all over Ireland. I go to it with no expectations of a result but you can be absolutely sure I will be giving it 110%.
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