Lowes Motor Speedway TT 7/9

Wednesday night was the Lowes Motor Speedway TT. MOB Racing was represented by Rick Lee in the 10 mile TT and Myself (Zach) in the 40K.

There were early bad thunderstorms and the organizers postponed the race for about 45 minutes until the lightning moved over. When both of us started however it was still a steady rain and there was plenty of water on the track. At least we will race on a wet track unlike those girlie NASCAR guys ;)!

Rick and I were able to warm up a bit together inside one of the NASCAR garages in about 75 degrees and 95% humidity, (not fun). It was nice however to get to know Rick for the first time. I was able to give Rick some strategy suggestions on how to race a TT since this was his first TT experience. He previously had some really bad advice to try and race for a "certain time" instead of focusing on pacing and staying near or slightly above his threshold heart-rate and perceived exertion. We talked about the importance of pacing and NOT GOING OUT TO HARD!

I didnt get to talk to Rick afterwards but he seemed to have a great race putting up a 23:25.63 at an average speed of 25.61 MPH., 4th place Cat4. Not bad for a newer Cat 4, second year on the bike and his first TT! Nice job Rick!

My sole intention for the 40K was to get in a good solid field test, representative of my power on the road bike. So I left the TT bike at home and raced on my stock LOOK 595 Ultra. No aero gear or clip-ons, just me and the bike. I started out easy by TT standards for the first lap riding at about 95% of threshold wattage, HR stayed low and I felt good. I was a little uncomfortable in the rain however and that caused my greatest weakens in the TT to start to rear its ugly head, FOCUS. I was able to keep my head on straight however and when the sky's cleared it helped a bunch. The race was pretty uneventful and I maintained a steady pace right at my threshold power for the whole 40K, kicking it up of course in the last mile or so to about 150% and then sprinting for the line.

The whole race however I was giggling to myself as I was literally lapping guys on the 1.5 mile loop that were on $12,000 super tricked out Pro Tour ready TT bikes. I was thinking "dude sell some of that crap and buy a power meter and hire someone to train you, you'll be way faster". Guys, a power meter and the knowledge to train properly using power IS THE BEST MONEY YOU WILL EVER SPEND ON YOUR RACING. Don't buy all of the fancy aero gear until you NEED it to go faster (unless you can afford to have both). These guys that were getting lapped were not old and/or over weight, they were young seemingly fit guys!

Anyway, soap boxing aside. The race went ok for me all things considered. I was 2nd 1:10 off of the winner (also on one of those tricked out TT bikes). Time was 56:45.35 at an average speed of 25.67. Not bad on a road bike I suppose. I'm guessing that on my TT bike with the disc and 404 front, I would be about 5 minutes faster, give or take. It became hard near the end to stay as low as possible and I had to stand a few times to give my butt a break which is like hitting a brick wall at that speed. It was a perfect field test, normalized power and average power were perfectly the same, 347 watts. Variability Index was 1.00 which indicates perfect pacing. The textbook way to ride a TT.

Looking forward to the Piedmont Omnium this weekend starting tonight with the Lexington Crit.