First Pursuit of 2007!

Man, i'm so happy to be back on the track (for the most part, we've already been rained-out several days..bleh..) Last week i did my first Pursuit of the year, and here's my Pursuit Report!

First, i've got new aero bars, a combo of the Profile T2+ aero clip-ons, and the T2 Wing base bar. I've used the clip-ons on the road in TT's, and was very happy with them, the T2 Wing is pretty solid (and aero), and i'm happy with that.

Here's a shot of me shooting by:



I've decided to start 'high' this year - last month i discovered that as i got lower, i started losing significant power, so i'm starting on the 'safe' side and will get myself down in time. (You can see how my back is sort of pointing 'up' to my head - ideally that is flat for aerodynamics.) Otherwise i'm pretty happy with my position (other than my saddle being a bit forward, but hell - if i slide it back, you can see my knee would be behind my pedal when the crank is horizontal..i think i have short femurs or something.)

For this Pursuit, i decided i'd aim for 5:50, which meant holding ~41kph. It was a cold night, and i certainly wasn't going to get a PB.

So, i hammered out, got my self up to ~46kph, and got comfy in the bars..essentially 'floated' a couple laps, and then started applying a bit of pressure.. Around lap 6 i was starting to feel it in my legs a bit, but nothing severe. I was holding 41kph and feeling pretty darn good. By about lap 9 it was starting to become a strain, but nothing i couldn't sustain. Come lap 11 i started to gas it, and drained myself for final lap. (4km total, 333m track.)

Mission accomplished! It was practically the 'easiest' Pursuit i'd ever done...usually i'm gasping by lap 5...i'm really starting to find the balance between over-doing it and what i can hold - thanks entirely to the PowerTap.

Here's my splits: 31.1, 27.9, 28.9, 29, 29.3, 29.4, 29.9, 29.7, 29.6, 29.2, 28.8, 28.8 = 5'51"67, 41.03kph average speed.

Pretty steady, eh? I think that's the smoothest pursuit i've ever done! Also, it's worth mentioning that this time last year, i got a 6:04, and *killed* myself, and even in May i was barely getting under 6mins. Yay me! Not sure if i've listed my goals for this year, but i'm hoping to get close to 5'15 in the 4km Pursuit this year. =)

Didn't ride much last week otherwise - and that was a mistake! The weather was awful, so it wasn't very motivating. On Wed, rode out with Tanya to the Caleb Pike race to watch the race - David Mercer came close to winning the bunch sprint in the B's, and it was all red in the A's.

Next ride was on Saturday, with the Oak Bay group. Worst ride ever for me! For the first half, i had a full bladder for some reason, and was feeling awfully uncomfortable. Stopped at our stop in Sidney, and relieved myself. It was quite a bit faster than usual heading out as well.

After Sidney, the pace picked up even more, and i had developed a stitch in my side, which just wouldn't go away...again, very fast. Looking at my PowerTap output, we averaged over 35kph for nearly an hour..eeep! I felt alright except for that stupid stitch...

Sunday was glorious. Tanya's last ride here (she's riding across Canada, starting today! Follow along in her blog!) so i decided to go big - we did the Malahat and Shawnigan Lake, weeee!

Everyone kept saying 'let's make it an easy ride', and i was cool with that, but for some reason no one really rode like that! (That being Ryan, Joe, Kim and Doug.) We got ourselves to the highway (out along Goldstream to Millstream, much nicer route), and for myself, i wanted to some LT threshold riding, aiming to hold 300 watts up the climb. Starting at the Mt Finlayson / Goldstream parking lot, i managed to hold ~290w for 19 minutes to the S. Shawnigan turnoff. I was pretty happy with that when i got home and looked at the file. =)

I figured everyone else was going to take it easy, but soon after Ryan appeared, as well as Joe & Kim, and the rest of the gang - so much for 'easy'!! haha.. We then rode around Shawnigan and up the far side of the Malahat (i think i'll avoid this in the future...the road is nice and all, and it's a nice climb, but i really can do without the traffic!)

My PowerTap turned off at a stop, so i missed some time, but i'd guess it was about 120km in about 4.5hrs. Beautiful day, and very nice ride - i'm gonna do this regularly. =)

Reminded me of the good times with Kevin - miss ya buddy!! I found his profile page on the H&R Team page. =)

Tonite is the first night for the Sidney Time Trials - times won't be fast since it's so cool, and i have no idea what to expect..i'm going to go and try and hold 280w and see what that gets me!

Here's some neat info, thanks to Fredrik, on how gear affects wind resistance:

On a 40km TT:
- aero position: 6 minutes
- no water bottle: 26 seconds
- TT helmet: 25 seconds
- skinsuit: more than 1 minute
- aero fork: 40 seconds
- aero frame: 2 minutes
- aero wheels: 1 minute
- shaved legs: 5 seconds
- shoe covers: 13 seconds
(taken from the Swedish cycling magazine Kadens.)

Now, a little chat about my bike:

From 07-04-15 - Bu...

As you can see, it's fully built! I've gotten my seatpost (Thompson, aluminium, for the center off-set), tires (Conti 4000's, in sexy orange) and front wheel (Mavic Ksyrium Elite) all from Oak Bay Bikes of course!. It's riding like a dream..i'm very happy with it. Got my clip-on fenders on in the pic, bleh..

And, finally, the Bunny Jeebus arrives from a soggy Easter ride:

From 07-04-15 - Bu...

Keep on riding!!