The name says it all, doesn't it? Jack Frost just feels cold, and a time trial, 12.7 miles and close to 30 minutes of all out exertion equals pain. It always feels too early in the season to be doing a time trail as my legs are really only used to slow winter base workouts, and the weather is usually gloomy, wet, and cold.

I say "usually" though I have never done this race myself. I am quite familiar with the section of River Road in Vancouver, Washington (just over the Columbia River from Portland) as it is the home to the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon, and I have ridden out to cheer on some teammates at this event before, but this was the first time I entered.

Luckily the weather cooperated in a big way. The temperature was not frigidly cold, the roads were dry, and the cloudy sky not only gave off magnificent views of Mt. St. Helens (sans smoke) and Mt. Hood, but they did not drastically threaten to open up on us. I drove out with Erica, who was worried that her legs would be screaming at her after a hard 70 mile ride previously, and was planning on seeing three teammates, Mike, Steve, and Charlie.

We got to Vancouver Lake by about 9:30am. Erica's start time was around 11:45, and mine was around 12:50, so we had plenty of time to tinker with our bikes, warm up, and poke around the parking lot looking at everyone's rigs. There were some pretty sweet bikes on display, and a mass of aero helmets and disc wheels. I was able to get an excellent aerodynamic helmet from Rudy Project Styon Supercomp at the end of the year last year, but I kept it in the garage for this race. I felt like I needed a good effort and result to make myself worthy of the helmet, but I saw plenty of others fully decked out.

I got a nice warm-up with Erica, just an easy cruise with a few high cadence sessions and some 30 second power bursts, then saw her to the start and cheered her off. Mike and I then continued to warm up, and I got a scare with a rather dramatic flat tire. Fortunately it was still warm-up, but it always makes one a little nervous since flats seem to happen in multiples. Luckily that was not to happen today.

Before I knew it I was back at the car drinking my coffee 40 minutes before my start time, took a gel about 20 mintues before the start, and continued topping off with sports drink. Since the race was less than 30 minutes long I did not bring any nutrition with me on the ride. No matter how much time you arrive before a race, I always feel that nervous stress of an approaching start time, and this was no exception. While lining up (all racers had been sent off in 30 second intervals since 9:45 that morning and it was already around 12:50) I tried not to look around at too many others. I knew that a time trial is just an individual effort of one cyclist against the clock with no drafting or cycling tactics allowed, so I wanted to look more into myself than others. I paid enough attention to the BIG guy in front of me from a team out in Bend, Oregon who was my 30 second man.

My goal was to go out slowly enough to keep a consistent effort and save enough to turn up the juice at the halfway point for the return. Others who had gone before me said there was a slight headwind on the way back, so I needed to save a little for that. Before I knew it I had the 10 second count down, was clipped into my bike and being held upright by one of the officials. At zero I launched in the little ring and stood on the pedals for about 10 strokes, then sat, dropped it into the big ring and took a position I hoped to hold for the next 30 minutes. About a ¼ mile after the start there was a 90 degree right turn with a little gravel down so I took my right hand off the bull horns (the aerodynamic bars in front of me with my shifting levers) for stability, but came right back into it. The road was smooth and I was holding 27 mph with relatively little effort. Just past ¼ of the way into the race I came up on my 30 second man and passed him, so I figured I was going well. It was a little harder to hold 27 mph than I had hoped over the very slight undulations of the course and I was worried that, as per usual, I had put out too much energy in the first part of the race. The turn around point was not exactly at the middle so I could not get a split time, but I could feel the wind facing me on the way back.

Of course the return was more painful and it was harder to hold my speed above 24 mph. I could feel the effects of not training much at intensity as I was struggling and breathing hard. I could see my 1:00 man in the distance so I keyed on that and pretty much ignored the scenic rural surroundings. Finally I took the final left turn and was greeted by a very welcome "200 Meters" sign. I had enough gas left to increase the pace to the line and it was over. The unofficial time on my computer was 28:31. It was respectable. It was probably about 3:00 off the overall winning pro time, but it served to be good enough for 3rd Place in Category 3, and it was nice to have another effort under my belt.

It was even nicer to have a post race spin for about an hour and a half with Erica and a little junk food in the name of glycogen replacement. Yeah, I'll get back to that race weight story in future episodes.