I wrote a set of resolutions for 2019 here: https://fixedtting.home.blog/2019/01/02/cycling-resolutions-for-2019/

I’m afraid to say that I missed loads of them. 😦
Process goals first:

1. Consistency – do the scheduled Trainer Road workouts, and if I can’t fit one in, then do something
   1. Reasonably successful, with injury issues resulting in some cut short rather than skipped.
2. Do some core work on a regular basis
   1. Nope.
3. Stretch regularly
   1. Nope.
4. Work on the ability to produce power in the TT position
   1. Started OK, but didn’t continue past spring
5. Work on the ability to sustain the TT position for an entire hour
   1. Nope.
6. Ride at least 10 10s
   1. Fail – I rode 6. Partially this was driven by injury and circumstance – I missed a couple of club TTs due to personal stuff, and I missed most of the summer with minor injury
7. Ride at least 1 25
   1. Nope. Never got into the sort of shape that I thought I could sustain a 1 hour effort.
8. Ride a hillclimb (on the fix)
   1. No, in the end I rode a CX race on the day of the club hillclimb, and it was a good decision (CX is more fun!)
9. Ride a cyclo-cross race (not on fixed)
   1. Hell yes! I rode 4 summer series CX races, and enjoyed it so much I got myself a CX bike! I then rode 3 winter series races before injury brought a premature end to the season. 😦
10. Ride a century
    1. Nope. I spent much of the summer chasing fitness and didn’t really have inclination to do such a long day.

As you can see, I achieved 2 of my process goals. Maybe I have had more luck with outcome ones?

1. Hit the target times for a 10 (current PB – 27:28 on gears):
   1. Standard target: sub 26 minutes
      1. Success! 25:42 (albeit on a fast course). Write-up still missing – will do it soon, honestly!
   2. Stretch: sub 24 minutes
      1. This was seriously ambitious. I think it probably needs a lot more aero, a lot more power, or a little of both, all combined with a seriously rapid course.
2. For the 25:
   1. Standard target: sub 1hr 5 minutes
   2. Stretch: sub 1 hour
3. Hit 4 W/kg
   1. Fail – didn’t get my FTP above 251, or my weight below 76kg.

1 out of 3 is better than the process ones. In retrospect, the targets, while achievable, needed me to be 100% healthy to do it, and not have too many other interruptions. I carried an abdominal/hip issue into the season and never really got rid of it, resulting in too much missed/incomplete training, too few races, and poorer performances in the races I went to. I still have that issue, meaning it’s going to impact on 2020 as well, but I’m going to learn my lesson and get it properly resolved rather than 90% better and then going back to competing.

One thing that is noticeable about the injury is that it’s worse when I close my hip angle significantly. This is particularly the case on the TT bike, so I’m not sure how TTs are going to feature in 2020. I still want to go fast and I love riding my fixed TT bike, but I’m not getting back on it until I’m convinced my injury has gone.

In my last post I said I was going to try to use the Chung method to see if I could improve my aerodynamics. I intended to go out to a smooth, flatish bit of road and see if by angling my aero bars up I could reduce my drag (and therefore increase my speed for a given power). Unfortunately, my experiment has too many variables to have any certainty about the results, but I think I have learned some useful things (about my position and about the process) anyway.

Primarily, I have learned that none of these positions are very aerodynamic! In fact, given the CdA number that these give me (CdA is the coefficient of drag multiplied by the area – it is essentially the constant part of the equation to which you apply your speed to get the power required), I am extremely unaerodynamic. I think we already knew that, given the strava numbers for time and power I mentioned previously – here’s more proof.

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Because I was helping I had to stand around for 30 minutes before my start – as a result I didn’t get a warm-up in at all. That’s not ideal, but it meant I could both help out and ride, so I would be happy to do it again, I would just want to get there and changed and ready a bit sooner! I didn’t really ride to power, I just tried to measure my effort and work hard. It’s actually quite hard to see the power on my headunit when on the aero bars – it’s a lot easier to see the speed, so when I looked down that was often what I adjusted my effort on. While pretty flat, the road surface and elevation were a bit more varied than riding on the circuit, so it’s less evenly paced than the last one.

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Another Tuesday, another BMCC 10 at Weston on the Green. It was a beautiful sunny evening – 18 degrees and with a gentle breeze that dropped as the evening went on. There were over 50 riders, which is impressive for a club 10, but it is a very well run one, and the off-road nature helps. I wasn’t early enough at sign-on, so I ended up with number 48. At least it gave me plenty of time to warm up.

Having forgotten my shoes (!) last week, I was sure I wasn’t going to forget anything this week – I triple checked before I set off. When I got there I realised I had forgotten my HRM! Ooops. I guess I need to pack my bag with everything I need the night before.

Onto the race itself – I felt really good on the first lap and span happily down the back straight with a nice high cadence. Then I got into the headwind, and the long rise towards the finish, and my cadence dipped as my power rose a little. You can see this pattern repeated (minus the happily!) on the remaining 3 laps, thought I didn’t focus on getting my cadence up on the 2nd lap so I think I left behind a bit of speed there. It felt like I worked through the 2nd and 3rd laps and gave everything on the 4th, so I was happy enough before I saw the numbers.

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Yesterday I took part in a 9-up team time trial (on my road bike – no TT bikes allowed). It was a mens vets team, with some regular racers and fast TTers, and a few guys who are a bit slower (I was one of the slower ones). It was only 10 miles, but it was super hard from the start and didn’t drop off at all. The course was the same one I did my 28:01 on last week.

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I did the 10 miler run by BMCC at Weston on the Green. This is a 2.5 mile circuit on a partially used airfield, so it’s relatively flat and completely traffic free. If you are anywhere near Bicester or Oxford, it’s worth a go – for a non club member it’s £6, everyone’s really friendly, and the tea and cakes afterwards are fab!

The wind wasn’t too strong, and it was blowing up what passes for a hill on this course, so I kept the gearing at 54×16. It was quite cold, but the rain had cleared, and the sun came out on me at one point. The nice thing about riding on an airfield is that while you don’t get any shelter from the wind, there are a number of windsocks around so you know exactly which way the wind is blowing!

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My last post was talking about the first TT of the season. Almost a month on, and I’ve still not actually done one! A variety of things have got in the way – a minor hip/abdominal niggle being the main one. However, that is under control, and hopefully I’ll ride my first TT this week – I might even get 2 in (Tuesday is BMCC at Weston on the Green, and Thursday is the Condor club one on the Oakley course). I’m definitely down for the Condor one – we’ll see about Tuesday.

I have done a couple of TT tests on the Stadhampton course, and made an important discovery. My previous ride out to the Stadhampton course, and on my first TT test, I was confused as to why my cadence was so low for a given speed. I did the math and tried a few gear calculators, but it didn’t make sense. I swallowed my pride and decided to put a 17 tooth cog on the back, so I removed the wheel, and then I realised!

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As I wrote before, I have been sorting out my position with Mark Harvey at Take 3 Tri. The process had a break in the middle because to get into a really forward aero position I needed to change the seatpost. Below you can see videos taken before we made any changes, after changes with the layback seatpost, and then the final position.

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