Free speed? You must be joking!

So after my outing at the Charlotteville 50 last week, things have been on a bit more of an upward turn. It was a pretty consistent week's training and I ended up riding over 180 miles, plus a swim and a couple of runs. Saturday morning saw me out for another 70 miles on the road bike on my own and while it was a slog at times into the wind, I felt pretty comfortable and got a pleasant increase in speed over quite a few Strava segments, despite it just being a steady aerobic ride. I did have a minor spill while riding one-handed and eating a soreen loaf. A temporary set of traffic lights had been set up for the Horse Show in Windsor and I just wasn't concentrating as I almost ploughed into a group of pensioners. Doh! Hit the back brake with my one hand and went straight down on the greasy surface with fresh rain. Thankfully, I was only pootling at 5mph and nothing damaged or dented except my ego. I had a lot of bemused stares from the elderly as I picked myself up, but the lady who was controlling the crossing was lovely and seemed quite sure that I wouldn't make it back and I should take care.

So, free speed. The bike speed that can be obtained without the need to train for it. However, free speed is a misnomer. Free speed is bloody expensive. My Catlike TT helmet was looking very tired and it was very large on my head. More importantly it had a very long tail and quite a few pictures taken of me racing time trials showed that the tail was often sticking up into the air as I got tired and lost a good aerodynamic position. I decided to get a short tailed aero helmet instead so I have bought myself a Kask Bambino, as worn by Team Sky. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. It may not be as aerodynamic entirely as the Catlike, but with my head potentially wobbling about a lot more than it should I am hoping that the net effect will be a reduction in the amount of watts I need to push my carcass through the air.

And then there's a skin suit. First of all, my existing one is red and I look like an enormous overweight chilli pepper. It is highly unflattering. More important than that is the fact that it has a lot of wrinkles and wrinkles equals drag. I also have to pin my number onto the back and a pinned number also equals drag. So I've invested in a Nopinz skinsuit, which seems to be the current standard for such lycra items. On their website they claim that their Supersuit will give a 10 watt reduction in power needed at 45km/hr, so in theory over a 10 mile TT, that's a 'free' 16 seconds. So, for these two items I have pretty much spent the same amount of money as my first road bike. On Saturday I am riding the SCCU 10. Last year I rode a 22:47, which is my second best time. In theory if the conditions are on my side I should knock that out the park. If not,

Another tumble

On Thursday morning I spun over to Simon's house to get in a couple of steady hours on the bike but I just wasn't feeling the bike love and I guess the dire weather I was cycling into was giving me the heebeegeebees. I just knew it was going to go wrong; and it did. As we went through Leatherhead one way system I completely got a tight right hand turn wrong, taking the wrong line and going slightly too fast on the damp road. I clipped the curb and found myself on my back dumped on the pavement taking a hearty whack on the bonce and a nice line of gravel rash all down my left hand side. I felt pretty shaky but Simon went and got his car and gave me a lift home where I was able to lick my wounds. Thankfully no lasting damage done and the Van Nic was ok except for a few scrapes on the qr skewers.

We tried again on Sunday and got in a solid 3 hours with a climb of Whitedown and Boxhill at the end in much better conditions and no major reaction from the crash. I'm definitely not feeling as powerful on the bike as in recent months. It all just seems like quite hard work again when only 6 weeks ago or so it all felt so good and easy.

Some really good news is that I got three runs in last week. My Achilles is still letting me know it's there but I feel pretty good when running. Not fast but plodding comfortably, which I will take for the time being.