Race 2 – 2011 Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial Series

Originally posted May 13, 2011

May 11^th, 2011 was the 2^nd race of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial Series held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.    I met Jasen at his house, loaded up his car with our time trial bikes and headed down to the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  My start time for the time trial was 7:45pm so I had plenty of time to warm up.  I put my Cervelo P3 together, pasted my number on my speedsuit and managed to get about 5 laps on the track before it was closed for the race. 

I was feeling pretty good.  I had been doing some interval training with a buddy on the road and had just finished up two 8 week trainer sessions with Sarah at Cool Breeze Cyclery.  I don’t have a lot of miles on my legs but was feeling strong for a short effort.

I felt like I had a good warm-up as I was able to ride for about an hour before my time trial started.  I rolled up to the line right at 7:45PM.  I knew that the wind had picked up so I decided not to go out too hard.  I didn’t dig too deep right from the start and tried to slowly ramp up my speed.  I felt like I was going well and was able to keep my head clear as I finished my first lap. Usually my mind is starting to play games with me pretty quickly, but tonight everything felt in control. 

I was going well and consistently passing riders in front of me.  I didn’t start suffering until the 4^th lap.   I was hurting bad coming down the front stretch and felt like I slowed considerably coming into turn one.  I tried to relax and get everything back under control.  While on the backstretch during lap 5, I was passed by a rider that made me look like I was going backwards.  It’s crazy to see how fast some of the guys are.  I tried to use him as motivation and keep him in sight, but that didn’t last long. 

I was able to get my breathing under control and started my last lap feeling good.  I was passing my friend Martin coming out of turn 2 when I was passed by another rider.  Same story, he made me look like I was going backwards.  He was a good rabbit and I chased him down the backstretch as hard as I could.  I pushed through turn 3 and 4.  When I entered the final stretch to the start/finish line, there was a rider about 75 yards in front of me and he became my target.  I caught him before the start/finish line totally exhausted.  One good thing about the interval training is that I recovered fairly quickly.

I finished 14^th overall with a time of 21:10 (28.33 mph) and was 4^th in the Cat 3 group.  I’m hoping to improve on my time at the next Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial on June 8^th, 2011.  My personal track record is 20:28 and I’d like to set a new personal record this season.