progress?
February 20, 2010 § 3 Comments
I have a hard time wrapping my head around time trial results.
We have raced the Berkeley Hills Team Time Trial four times — in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Each year there have been differences, in our equipment, in our fitness, in the weather. Overall, though, you’d think that your time and your placing would be inversely related, yes? As time decreases, placing increases. Well…
February 20, 2005 – 56:24.8 – 11th place of 18
[This is the year I got a front flat in the last 20m or so of Papa Bear, and rode the last descent on my rim and white knuckled.]
March 9, 2008 – 49:51.8 – 11th place of 24
[One of us having a dedicated time-trial bike resulted in a nearly six-minute improvement in our time and…exactly the same placing?!?]
March 7, 2009 – 49:53.8 – 9th place of 28
[With both of us on road bikes (our areo equipment was one helmet (mine), one set of aerobars (his) and a pair of shoe covers), our time decreased by two seconds but we bettered our result by two spots.]
February 20, 2010 – 50:05 – 6th place of ? (19 teams pregistered)
[Still recovering from food poisoning on Monday & Tuesday, we added 16 seconds to our time from last year but jumped pretty far in the standings.]
This is why I like crits – they’re so straightforward!
Elis is a four-letter word 
I just posted about how that race is useless for gauging fitness/progress. In order to do that, it would have to be the same time every year. You'd have to race with the same partner and same equipment every year, and you'd have to be in the exact same place in your fitness progression. Too many variables! Plus, there's the wind…Anyway, good to see you guys. Hope you feel better this week!
time trials are only a race within yourself at that one momenti mean, it's great to get a PR but there are so many weather variables from year to year that time comparison is almost meaninglesshow did you feel–did you feel that you were able to put your full power into the cranks for every single second of the race, keeping the pain at that 'just barely tolerable' range for every single second of the race, and just manage to cross the line an instant before you totally implode?oh yeah, and in sync with your partner?that's how i measure progress in a ttthat and how well the new shoe covers performand it's way simpler than a crit–none of those other annoying racers getting in your wayi love it–i am anxiously wondering when i can do my next tt just writing this–there is clearly something wrong with me
While I won't argue that there is something wrong with you TT-lovers, many say the same thing about critophiles like me. ;)Thanks for the different perspective on it. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the absolutes that I often miss the more important points.