Finishing up the TT tuning tonight. It was basically an hour and a half out on the TT bike making sure muscle memory of keeping the arms pulled together in the right spot and feeling the saddle at that sweet spot - if there is such a thing on a TT bike. I paced recovery up through sub-threshold through turns and some stops/starts. We all spend so much time focusing on intervals and all that stuff, but I’m going to start incorporating more ride fit/bike handling/cornering/position on those recovery days where I’m not really worried about intensity. Today was a good day to do it because I didn’t want a super easy spin so a few 5-6 minutes at upper tempo wasn’t going to ruin my “recovery/not break a sweat” type ride.
I needed to bring the aero-bars angle up just slightly, and I pushed them out a little bit further - slightly beyond the “min insert” length. I found myself with my hands higher than the shifters and slightly forward. I moved the pads a little bit further forward as it almost felt like my arms were going to slip over the front of them. All in all, I felt excellent on the bike. I found the sweet spot really on the bike where I was holding a steady 43-45 kph at a steady spin. Hopefully I find that some sweet spot Saturday morning.
I won’t get the steerer tube chopped on time for the TT on Saturdy, but I’m not too worried about that. It’s a flag pole right there in the dirty air behind the powertap CPU, my hands and elbows. The saddle position is NOWHERE near UCI legal. Nose drops down right at the bottom bracket. It would be something else to go back 5 CM, but until I’m worrying about nationals, I’m not worrying about saddle position.
Tomorrow night is a good leg opener at Wakefield and I finish with a Friday pre-race day workout. Feel good. Legs feel good.
This is really getting old. This weather is almost as bad as winter!
Got on the road and commuted to work this morning, in the rain. Looked at the weather radar and thought - well, at least I’ll get a hammer session in at Wakefield tonight. About 2 pm at work, checked the weather radar and saw the storms developing. Left work at 4:15pm and thought - maybe it’ll blow through. Got in through Annandale and the storm as rolling - time to lay into it. I started riding hard, hoping to make it home before it really came down. No such luck. Got to Braddock Road and the skies opened up. Got into Kings Park and the hail opened up. I took shelter in some stranger’s carport for a bit while I nursed the lump growing on my head from the hail that made it through the helmet vents.
And with that, I pushed home in the sheets of rain and called it a day. Crap, crap, crap. My legs are feeling it too. I’ll push a little intensity tomorow and hope or a solid ride Thursday.
Saturday is Church Creek. Goal is 55 minutes. I may not make it. We’ll see. I felt good and solid in the position on the TT bike yesterday and am ready to see what I can do in a flat 40km TT.
Then….. SAN DIEGO! Sunday I fly to San Diego for the week leading into Tour of Washington Count. One thing I can be almost certain of. I won’t get rained out in San Diego!
Well.. this will take a bit of time, and I hope to migrate my old blog. But, after long fight, I have accepted that the Boastmachine blog support will just never appear again. That puts me on a new format and hopefully I’ll get to a point where I can use this proficiently.
