CompuTrainer Time Trial

A free Time Trial CompuTrainer clinic at Absolute Endurance for Toronto Triathlon Club athletes.

You bring your own bike, they hook it up to the trainer, and you get a readout of a virtual route you will ride on, with the trainer adjusting resistance as you go up and down hills.  The screen shows the other participants moving along the route, so you can "race" each other.  Fun!  You can always see the distance you need to cover to catch the person in front of you.

Route: 20.75km, some short flats, but overwhelmingly up-hill, including a monster incline in the last 2K or so.

Average? Watts: 129
Average Speed: ~23.5 kph

The first few kms were brutal on me; everyone seemed to speed off, so not knowing my strength, I tried to keep up.  I thought I'd need to quit after the first 10mins or so.  After a while, I got much better at changing speeds, doing so early into the uphills to maintain a high cadence.

By the time we got to the big final uphill, I noticed that the leader, who was powering massive wattage on her trainer, had to get out of her seat to get though it.  I was about 1,000 ft behind the next person in front of me, but I got so comfortable with maintaining cadence, that I decided to go after her on the downhills.  Eventually, I caught up to her and passed her, and managed to keep sprinting up that crazy hill. 

I thought I'd have an aneurysm, but I made it.  There was a puddle under my bike, but it was worth it!  I was 5th out of 7 people on my computer.

This was an eye-opener for me.  The leader had an average wattage of nearly 200.  I had one of the nicer bikes there, but it doesn't help when you don't know how to ride it.  It will be a long learning experience to figure out the proper shifting.  I might go back to AE for some of their instructor-led CompuTrainer classes.

--Distance: 20.75K
--Duration: 52:53