Bike - Time Trial - P2 overall - 13:46 - Strava Data Link via Gamin FR910XT
The cycling event was hosted at the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis on Saturday 20 October 2014. It was a 6.2 mile time trial with many of the roads being familiar from the Tri-Indy course. For the team scoring, the best 5 times including one female athlete counted and we had exactly that, 4 men (Glen Alden, Spencer Dell, Josh Knight, Tim Proctor) and 1 woman (Melissa Morelli).
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| Glen Alden; Melissa Morelli; Josh Knight; Spencer Dell; Tim Proctor |
The team had been selected by captain, Andy Messer who wasn't able to compete this year, based on a qualification event in Columbus a few weeks prior. The Cummins team has won the Time Trial event in numerous years passed, so the pressure was on but we were confident of having some of the fastest riders in the field.
Given such a short distance, it's actually hard to judge the effort required - quite a lot more than "threshold" but too much and it's easy to blow-up before the finish. Warming up thoroughly and effectively would also be key to come out of the start able to push hard immediately. Glen and I rode a few laps of the Marion College Cyclocross course which is a permanent feature in the grounds of the velodrome at this time of year, it was good to ride instead of just sitting on a trainer, but the course demanded a lot of short sharp bursts which aren't what's needed on a time trial effort - so after getting the blood flowing, it was back to the pop-up and on the trainer for a methodical warm up.
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| Warming up before the race |
My problem for this race was knowing what the target race effort ought to be - 10 miles is about the shortest race I've ever competed in regularly and clearly I would need to be going harder than that with an expected time of under 14 mins. I think I went a bit too hard on the trainer and didn't allow enough time between finishing my warm up and going to the start because as soon as I set off I could feel the fatigue in my legs - it was going to be a long & painful 14 minutes of racing!
Every time I felt myself settling into a rhythm, I stood up & sprinted for a short burst to up the speed and effort. I stood up & sprinted out of each corner, I tried to stay one gear higher than I felt comfortable, forcing the cadence to keep the speed high. I passed the 1 mile to go sign and my vision was slightly blurred, always a sign that things are on the edge, the thought of one more mile was a bit of a blow psychologically, but I knew there was a downhill run in to the finish, I found some additional effort to find the velodrome in sight below me. I managed a small bit of recovery on the hill and then was able to sprint after the turn into the parking lot for the finish line.
Spencer rolled in just a few seconds after me with Glen close behind. Josh and Melissa had opted for earlier start times so we didn't know how any of us had done until we regrouped back at the pop-up. Personal timing only told us it was really close between Spencer, Josh and me so after getting changed, we headed over to the official timing stand for the results.
The team had a great result - we took 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall (Tim, Josh (by only 0.2 secs), Spencer); Glen got 12th overall and Melissa was 9th placed woman. Despite not getting the overall victory, the points we secured gave Cummins a comfortable win in the Time Trial and the overall lead in the Championship going into the running & other events the next weekend...
Run - 10k - P4 overall - 34:54 (PR) - Strava Data via Garmin FR910XT
One week after the bike events, the Corporate Challenge moved to the iconic setting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 10k and 5k run, 5k walk and other events such as tug of war, basketball shoot out etc.
I was running in the first event, the 10k race, which started at 8am. This meant an early start from Columbus to get there in time for a warm up run, collect my shirt and bib and be ready for the start - however, the organizers had underestimated the number of participants, or perhaps their enthusiasm to arrive early, so as I turned onto Georgetown a couple of miles from the designated parking lot, I hit a traffic line that was nearly stationary and panic started to mount!
I changed into my new racing flats whilst sitting in the traffic and resolved that my warm up would be the run from the car to the Cummins tent to pick up my shirt & bib number! So much for the calculated & methodical warm up routine, sometimes you just have to go with what you've got!
Having looked at the results from last years event, I knew it was a fast field at the front, and I felt a bit self conscious lining up on the front row alongside some obviously serious runners - so it was a surprise to find myself in a completely uncontested 3rd place as the race got underway. The two leaders went through the first mile in close to 5 mins dead, my first mile was 5:26 which I knew was too hot to sustain for the full duration of the race. I was convinced there were other people who should be running similar times to me so I resolved to slow down a bit, catch my breath and then use the motivation of running with others to force the pace in the later stages of the race. This seemed to work pretty well. Just as we came to mile 2 (5:46), I was caught - I thought there would be a bunch but it turned out to be just 2 other competitors so I latched on to them at what felt like a manageable pace with plenty of space between us back to 6th place it seemed that this was the race for 3rd, 4th and 5th.
From mile 2 to mile 4 we were running on the main speedway track - it's a huge and imposing venue that seems to take forever to run around! During the drag along the back straightaway, our group of 3 was reduced to 2. I started to worry about holding on to the 3rd place battle but as we turned off the main race track to the infield course I was able to find a bit more drive out of each of the corners and close up the gap, eventually taking 3rd place just before the 5 mile mark. The final mile was a miserable winding labyrinth through the garage complex before we emerged at the 6 mile marker with only one turn remaining to the finish. After pushing hard in the 5th mile and maintaining a surge after each of the many, many corners, I just didn't have a sprint left for the line so my partner for most of the race was able to ease away from me in the final minute and cross the line 4 secs ahead of me.
My time of 34:54 was about 30 secs faster than I had hoped for and given the winding, technical course, I was really pleased to set a new PR.
Everyone in the Cummins team (5 places scored including at least 1 female) improved their times from last year and we were able to contribute to yet another overall Cummins victory in the Corporate Challenge.
My race splits worked out like this:
Mile 1 - 5:26 (too fast!)
Mile 2 - 5:46 (waiting for someone to catch me)
Mile 3 - 5:41 (running as 3rd, 4th, 5th)
Mile 4 - 5:34 (stretching it out, dropping 5th place)
Mile 5 - 5:35
Mile 6 - 5:35 (the twisty nature means the time doesn't do justice to the effort involved!)
0.2 Mile - 5:26 (push for the finish line!)
Overall - 5:37/mile
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