>Be positive

>Thursday night’s ride was a little disappointing but I think I kept a sense of perspective.

Today, however, I may have let the negativity bug get to me for a while. I’m over it now.

The event was the Sussex Cyclists’ Association 25m TT Championships on the G25/93 at Steyning. I’d not ridden the course before, but it’s a fair test with some gentle drags to get over. There was quite a breeze blowing but there didn’t seem to be any full-on headwind stretches.

The bike went okay (though that right hand tri-bar still moves). I, however, went less well. I finished with a time of 1:07:43¹. The event was won by Peter Tadros (In Gear Quickvit Trainsharp) in a time of 52:16.

Reflecting on it, there is still plenty more work to do and hence ground to make up. I’m effectively six weeks back into any sort of training and I’m still building base fitness. The race performances seem to be going backwards, but it’s much too early to establish any patterns. I’d thought of adding some interval work into the programme, but I probably don’t have the base fitness to make it tell yet. I’ll ride a couple of club 10m TTs this week to get in more time on the time trial bike.

Note the average cadence of 73rpm. I need to increase that.

Race stats: Time: 1:7:43 (22.15mph). First 12.5 miles: 34:16, last 5 miles: 33:20. Top speed: 33.8mph. Slowest mile (13): 3:04 (19.57mph), fastest mile (16): 2:15 (26.67mph). Average HR: 159bpm, maximum HR: 166bpm. Average cadence: 73rpm. 57th of 72 finishers. Winner: Peter tadros (In Gear Quickvit Trainsharp) 52:16

No joy on the job search front.

¹ 1:07:43 is the 82nd fastest ’25’ I have ridden (out of 120). It’s the 19th fastest I’ve ridden in May (out of 25). Not that I’m obsessive…