Leory TT (or is it LeRoy?)

The wind was out of the east northeast at about 10 mph tonight, so I had a nasty headwind on the outbound leg of my warmup, and a good tailwind on the return leg. I barely had to pedal to go 20 mph over the last couple of miles. Those conditions seem to be much easier to deal with than a headwind toward the finish. However, the wind was gradually declining as the evening went on.

I've got my starting routine down cold. I hold off through the first quarter mile while my heart catches up with my legs, then start applying pressure toward the line of trees at the edge of the field, and try to accelerate all the way to the right hand turn. With the headwind, I only managed 21.5 mph average over the first two miles.

For my past several outings, I've been trying to squeeze a little more time out of the hill climb section of the course. I've tried to keep the power output consistent all the way to the top of the climb, but it drops significantly on the second leg of the climb, which is actually flat. My average power up through the first half of the climb was 359 Watts. On the second half of the climb, it dropped to about 330. My average speed from the turn to the turnaround was 18.8 mph.

I was looking forward to the second half of the course and the tailwind. Once I saw the two miles to go mark on the road, I started pushing as hard as I could stand to, and kept increasing the power output all the way through the finish. I averaged 25.4 mph and 417 Watts for 4:44.

My total time was 20:22, 15 seconds faster than last week. My average power was 369 Watts (3.69 W/kg), a little better than last week. This week, I also wore my HRM. My average heart rate was 172, with a max of 186. It looks like my LT heart rate is more like 175 bpm than 170. I felt pretty comfortable except when I got around 180 bpm.

Thanks Jim!