Sandy Hook Time Trial-Perspective from an Iron Man Triathlete at his first TT

Jan S. is a Lake Placid Iron Man who recently started working with BJL Coaching for his 2015 Time Trial Campaign.

Hi Team,

As some of you know, I have all but hung up my wet suit and sneakers this year to refocus on my love for cycling.  This past weekend I participated in my first of 8 planned Time trial events for this season mostly following the NJ Time Trial Cup Series.  the series has 12 events, but I will not drive 2 hours for a 20 minute effort ;)

So first thing first, thank you for all of your support in emails that were sent out this weekend.  it helped the Machine stay focused.

I treated this as i would any other race, got up at 5am to have my meal, then I sipped on infinit and nuun for the next couple of hours.  Fran and I left a little after 6am to head to sandy hook.  took our time since my start time was not until 9:57:00am.  the wind was screaming all morning and I was a little nervous due to the fact that I have about 10 minutes of road riding on a new more aggressive fit on my bike.   

We get to sandy hook and set up my trainer, on an effort that short, you really need to make sure you are warmed up and ready to go all out from the start.  at 9:10, I started my 40 minute warm up that had high speed cadence mixed in with heavy load, low cadence efforts to make sure the legs were primed.  (the wind was gusting upwards of 40mph with no barriers).

As I am finishing, earlier riders are talking about how windy the course was and how a few people were blown off the road.

So now with 5 minutes to start, I make my way over to the start, which was interesting, they hold you on your bike and you clip in, and when the bell rings, you start, I saw a guy in from of me almost fall over because he was in a really heavy gear.  so the bell rings and I am off, spun up to 20mph right away, but realized my power numbers were way to high and I would burn out if I kept this up with the headwind.  so I backed it down and kept pushing, then I looked down and I forgot to start my computer and watch...  so I fussed with that for a moment while trying to keep the bike steady in the wind. 

Crap!!  I just got passed, So I yelled out "Great Job!"  but cyclists like triathletes can be assholes and he did not even acknowledge it.  oh well, then Crap, I get passed again!!  (WTF)  but I said "Great job!" and this guy nodded, so the world is not going to hell.  

I continue to crank down on the pedals feeling like I am barely moving in the wind, then I see a sign indicating the turnaround is just ahead. (thank god!!!)

I flawlessly get my bike headed in the opposite direction and start cranking, knowing that the wind might finally be in my favor, which it was.  Although I get passed by 1 more cyclist, I was more concerned with staying upright with the gusty crosswinds mixed in with the tail wind.  Every time I looked at my Garmin, it was displaying 27-30 mph.  

The way back was awesome, it was everything I had hoped it would be.  Legs/ lungs burning all out effort (well almost, you do have 4 miles to maintain speed).  as I see the parking lot in the distance and round the last curve in the road, I see the finish line and decide it is time to empty the tank and reserves and hammer the finish.  I crossed the finish line at just over 33 mph at a time of 19:13:51.  in CAT4/5, I placed 12th out of 20 and 5th out of 8 in CAT5

Thank you again for all of your support.  I highly recommend this race, it is individual in nature, and coming from Triathlon, I am not keen on drafting in Crits and other road racing.  Check out the schedule of races, it would be awesome to see some NRGY folks racing in these.