As the State Time Trial goes, I can say I did it and that's about it. I went in a little over confident and a lot under-prepared for the challenges of an hour long FTP session in the aero position on a TT bike. To say I was humbled would be an understatement.
First 20minutes were great, next 5 I started feeling weird strain in my hips and legs. The remaining 35minutes were a combination of soreness, strain, hell, and total discomfort. My legs and body simply weren't ready for what pushing the TT bike needed from them. Combine that with the heat radiating off the freshly paved blacktop and I was done.
After the turnaround (20k out and 20k back) I could not get the power meter to get up over 300watts for more than brief periods of time. The whole way back I struggled to just keep moving toward the finish line at a 20+mph speed. I sat up at least a dozen times to try and get relief or to find a position I could even remotely generate a little power from. I told my legs to shut up and work and they didn't even respond with a sarcastic comment or anything they just simply wouldn't work.
I wanted and knew I was capable of doing 55minutes. I ended up with 59min even. A horrible, horrible outing. That TT bike is very unforgiving on longer distances if you haven't taken much time to ride it. Lesson learned...
Things went from bad to worse when I crossed the finish line. As I stopped pedaling the pain in my upper legs and hips started to present themselves. I rode over to my car and some how managed to dismount the bike. Not sure how I was able to grab a jug of water and stagger over to the grass but somehow I did. Michelle had to help me up and get me changed. My hipflexors, glutes, and surrounding muscles were all completely locked up. I've never experienced that before. I eventually sat in the car for a bit as Michelle waited for the results. We eventually just left, I didn't care about my results as I knew they weren't going to be great. I had been worked over and all I wanted was to get on the couch.
I was pretty much stuck on the couch the rest of the weekend. The muscles in my legs and hips are still trashed today.
I will likely never do a TT race over 25k again. If I do I'll be sure to spend at least 100 hours on the TT bike prior to the race.
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