Thoughts on the "Pre-Season"

This past weekend, I participated in the Tundra Time Trial, a race I've done every year since its inception in 2003. The race used to be something of a "fitness check" that happened about a month before any of the serious racing started in Georgia (usually at the old Brooks Omnium). As the Georgia road race calendar has expanded and cyclocross has become a well attended cycling activity, Tundra now represents the first "real" event of the road racing season here in Georgia.

This year's event had over 350 participants and we were all treated to a marvelous day of weather. While not quite the "Tropical" Time Trial, there was no tundra to be seen. The team had five members racing and I went off at a fairly early 9:04 am. It was a good effort and I ended up beating my time from last year by around a minute and 25 seconds, winning the Masters 45+ category and finishing in the top 10 overall. The only downside is that there were good racers of my age (who were racing in different categories) who beat me by over a minute, a deficit I'll have to be able to erase by the June 23rd state time trial championship.

The results of the race for me validate that it's been a good off-season and pre-season. Shifting my training schedule last year has brought me to this point with more fitness and better form and technique than I usually show. A big part of that has been the preseason racing that I've done; what have been called training races. I've done three of the four Middle Georgia Winter Time Trial Series down in Warner Robins with wins in the men's open class in all three and I raced the first Georgia Cup Winter TT race up in Adairsville coming in second overall.

The most important aspect of these winter races was to get some sense of what kind of power I was able to produce on the time trial bike for both shorter (~10 minute) efforts and longer, more sustained (~45 minute) efforts. To do this I had to run with less aerodynamic wheels but I got a much better sense of what kind of effort I could sustain in a real race situation. That knowledge really showed in my effort at Tundra where I was riding on perceived exertion alone. I knew exactly how to gauge my output and was able to sustain a 26 mph pace for the entire race and had a negative split (which means I came back along the course in the second half of the ride faster than I went out on the first half).

With any luck, I'll be able to go down to Warner Robins for the fourth and final Mid-GA TT Series race and wrap up the series title and the sweep on March 6th. Between now and then is a weekend of racing in Savannah with another time trial and some flat, circuit style racing. It's not something I'm very good at but there's almost nothing like racing to teach your legs how to race and I'd rather enjoy the beauty of Georgia's first city than the cold of Greenville.

Thanks for reading and keep the rubber side down.

Chad