120km Time trial. To the coast and back

Saturday morning. This was going to be my second longest ride ever; Wednesday rides are the only opportunity I would have to beat it. I decided to go with a course I knew as I had only ever go over 100k twice.

I got up at 4, was at the pool (where I take off from) at 4.15, left by 4.21. With my trusty ipod that I got for Christmas, 4 gu shots and two full water bottles I was ready to go. I also had $20 emergency dollars and my phone of course.

Now I understand riding with an ipod increases the danger, but it makes time go by so much quicker. Also I only have one ear piece in, in the ear away from traffic and have it quite enough so that I can always hear on coming traffic.

I'm glad I started early, it meant I could finish at a reasonable time and not waste the whole day. The first half of the course was fairly uneventful, 58km at the turn around point average of 31.1kph. At this pace I was looking at getting back into Brisbane at around 8:30 or a little later allowing for a drop off due to fatigue.

The coast was quite and I would love to have been able to continue along the waterline but I needed to head back. I messaged dean to inform him of my progress. I think its important if you are doing a solo long ride with no support crew to at least be in contact with someone with progress reports. If anything goes wrong they may be your only chance of help.

I felt fairly good as I clipped in after a short stop at McDonalds to fill my water bottles up again. I had a gel shot to keep the energy levels up, my second for the morning. I was surprised with how I felt. Although it was only 60km since I left I didn’t expect to have fresh legs.

Somewhere around 65km in I feel into a rhythm, a very fast rhythm. I become acutely aware of my pace hovering around 42kph along flats and realised I was really gunning it in comparison to the way day. Interestingly enough there was no tail wind, I was just pushing a lot harder.

It seemed to be a lot easier. 60km to go, what’s the worst that could happen? I die another 3hours to go instead of 2. I started to pass countless groups riding along the road losing sight of them in minutes. at the 90km mark I did a quick calculation. 2.46.17, only 2mins slower than my PB 90km race time. Set pretty much on a large portion of this course! I was ecstatic and continued to drive.

Right until the end I never let up. My legs had started to burn around the 100km mark, but I figured I only had around 30-45mins to go, if I could put up with the burn it would be interesting to see if my legs would hold out.

In the end they did. I ended the ride 119.48kms in 3hours and 37mins. Average speed of 33.0kph. My pb 90KM pace is 32.9kph! I had just held it for 30kms longer and I really wasn’t pushing from the start.

To top if off after doing a breakdown my last 90km was 2.39 - 5min pb and my last 60 (from the turn around) i held 36kph! Such an amazing ride, over the moon with my progress. The whole ride I kept it in big chain ring with quite ease, my legs are getting a lot stronger and powerful!