Alabama state time trial champion

From worst to first! Anybody who knows my racing knows that I usually finish towards the bottom end of the group in time trials. Today I turned that around — well, sorta … I placed third today in the 1/2/3 category but since I was the only Cat 1 from Alabama in the race, I guess that makes me the Cat 1 Alabama State Time Trial Champion. I was super happy with my time 59’05 considering I had my training front wheel and a 10-15 year old Spinergy wheel on the back of my road bike for the race.

I had two goals for the race: 1) Break 1 hour for a 40k TT 2) Determine my threshold power by recording my average power for the race. I accomplished both goals, and here are the stats:

A few highlights from the race and from the power data:

1. The course was a pretty flat out/back course. Here you can see the turn-around. Note the power spike which indicates the power it takes to get started again after slowing down for the turn-around.
2. Here you can see a dramatic drop in the average speed which is indicative of the tailwind that we had on the way out. Many people blew up on the way back in, but I just tried to keep a constant power to match what I did on the way out. Even then, I was getting tired and my average power dropped a bit on the way back in (312 watts on the way out, 301 watts on the way back in)
3. I started out with a relatively low heart rate but it rose steadily all the way to the end, which is interesting since my average power output was dropping by the end. Any thoughts on that?

Statistics:
Duration: 59:07
Work: 1082 kJ
TSS: 98.4 (intensity factor 1)
Avg Power: 307
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: 8.95%
Pa:HR: 14.17%
Distance: 24.88 mi
Elev. Gain: 157 ft
Elev. Loss: 151 ft

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 776 305 watts
Heart Rate: 119 191 180 bpm
Cadence: 41 106 89 rpm
Speed: 0 29.5 25.0 mph
Altitude: 489 535 511 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1028 291 lb-in

My teammates did well in the race. Wes Douglas smoked it with a time of 57’50” easily winning the Cat 3 championship and having the 2nd fastest overall time for the day. I was next and Lennie Moon was just 3 seconds behind me for fourth. Darryl Seelhorst was riding really well (on pace for sub 57′) until bad luck caught up to him again with a flat rear tire only 4 miles from the end. Kevin White got 2nd place in the Masters division rolling one of the top times of the day as well. Philip Thompson (Eddy Merckx style with no aero equipment) and Faris Malki both had good rides, too.