3 kilometer pursuit, masters 40-44

Events got pushed back about three hours due to events running over from the prior day so plenty of time to get ready. Used the Hed 60 with Michelin Pro Race 2 in the front ahd the CH aero disc rear with a Vittoria Open Corsa Evo with the 50x15. ATL was 95, CTL was 116, TSB was 16 so supposedly I should have really good legs according to the Training Manager, also worked a lot of high L5/VO2max lower duration intervals during my taper so specific workouts to address just this event for the prior week.

An odd number of entrants so I get to race by myself on the track, a rare luxury, and concentrate on a good start, not blowing up after too hard a start, and maintaining an even tempo after two laps. The standing start is surprisingly hard on the legs and feels excruciatingly slow but I get on top of the gear by the backstretch like in the kilo and am somewhat surprised and hesitate for a bit to get in the aerobars but decide to stop worrying and get aero. When I look down to check my power after one lap it's at 480, and I'm wondering if my SRM is out of whack or what. It turns out I just looked at it during my peak of lap two but at the time I wasn't sure if I should hold back more on the throttle or just go with it and decide to push it hard on the headwind part and pedal slightly less on the tailwind part of the track. After four laps I am feeling horrible, but after doing a couple hundred VO2max four to five minute repeats on Moody and Mt Eden this year , know that I can push through this, and just picture my progress on one of those climbs and keeping up the pace no matter what. Brian Peterson is kindly giving me splits which at first I was not paying attention to then realized I was keeping pretty consistent laps and something else to keep my mind off the pain. With two to go I feel like I have a second wind but hold onto it until a half lap to go when I am able to accelerate into the finish. Now I am thinking - I should have done that earlier because I had a little bit left at the end. The four hour coughing fit afterwards cured me of that notion. The muscle soreness in the hamstrings and glutes is unusual - this typically only happens to me when braking a lot using the legs.

Set a new personal record of 4:03 and change (versus first time last year at 4:24) and new two minute and four minute power max averages, and the first minute was only about 5% less than my kilo start yesterday. The average for the four minutes is higher than I can generally do for two minute L6 repeats which had me doubting the data so I calibrated the SRM again to check and I know I zeroed it several times before the event.

All I have to say is wow, the training manager does work.

T: 4:01 (two seconds different from recorded time, SRM doesn't start recording until after first revolution of the cranks )
H: 186
C: 107
S: 44.1
P: 376