Aguascalientes

I haven't been totally honest with you guys. Since late 2015 when I began working with my new coach Derek Dalzell, we've had one thing in mind... one "long term" goal that we knew would take years to come to reality, with no guarantees that it would even then. And so, nose to the grindstone, we've waited and worked toward it. Now, it's time to put it out there and bring it to words in "public" for the first time. July 2018, I'm going to attempt to best Jason Sprouse's US National hour record of 45.641km

Some folks might find that a pretty modest distance for a Men's master's record. I did, and that's exactly what spurred me on towards it. If you were to look at the AG records, the 35-39 record is certainly the "softest" one still out there. That's not in any way taking a dig at the record... it's stood for 10 years and was done at T-town (outdoors at not the fastest track in the world) something I'm fairly sure I couldn't do. Nonetheless, I think with the right amount of "smart planning" and hard work, a nobody has been triathlete with only minimal track experience like myself might have a shot at putting a couple of meters (at least 10 please!) onto the record and getting my name jotted down on USAC's record page. That said... I've gone 41k in my hour last year at Rock Hill... that means I need to add around 19 laps to that. 19 laps is a LOT of laps.

So you say... you are crazy... how do you plan to get that many more laps plugged into the same time frame. Well... I've definitely worried thought of that.

First, from the data we collected at the track at Rock Hill, there are some things to be considered. The primary one is that we were ONLY aiming to best the current track record (40.5km) which meant both gearing and target lap times were set to be slightly up on that pace... NOT my threshold (or, looking at the power data, anywhere close) which means, on paper, I should have been able to go much farther. Now, paper vs. reality is two things... and I didn't feel great at the end of that hour... but it was my "first" time. I plan to do another tune up hour (again at Rock Hill) quite soon, and we'll see if I can't add a fair amount to that.

Another thing I plan to use to tip the scales in my favor is location. Aguascalientes Velodromo Bicentenario is the fastest track in the world, as it is a fast wooden (indoor) track with the near optimal amount of elevation. Many very smart individuals estimate that going to that track "gifts" you a "free" kilometer or so in distance. Being indoors it also means I'll be able to run a front disc, which should help with the aerodynamics. The downside to going to altitude is that it can have a negative effect on your ability to produce power... but I'm hoping to adapt well (and lets be honest, I don't have much power to lose)

Alex Simmons (who has an excellent, much more technical blog you should certainly check out) has done a lot of hard work figuring out what kind of W/CdA is necessary to go a certain distance at certain elevations. Using his charts, it seems like, roughly, I should be able to do 47km. Again, Paper vs. Reality, but from all I've seen this paper lines up pretty accurately.  That gives me a little wiggle room if things don't go perfectly.

There will be more updates in the future as things develop and I know more. I've also been keeping a blog entry over the last year or so that has chronicled the journey... once this is all done and finished I'll edit it and release it in a couple of posts. It should be fun to look back at what I've learned over the years!

So, until next time, thanks so much for reading! Time to turn left!

- Christopher Morelock