Flies and Bikes Blog

This time trial is an annual event for me - and in fact Richard (the organiser) this year emailed to remind me of it!  As has so often been the case this year, it was a pretty windy day, with all the signs indicating the race would be a flyer on the outward leg, but a real grovel back to the finish.

And so it proved.  However, to backtrack slightly.  It became immediately obvious that there were real problems with my HRM bike computer.  For a start it was registering about twice my actual speed.  This was (and remains) something of a mystery.  I've checked in case it was some kind of prank played by a clubmate - but no.  I can only assume it's the transmitter on the fork blade playing up.  And to cap the dismay, the heart rate display kept leaping up to unfeasible levels, such as 228bpm.  I was using a chest transmitter unit that was really rather old, and I suspect that the battery life was pretty much expired.

For the race, I decided to remove the chest strap, and assume the registered speed was about twice the real speed.  After a brief chat with other riders (and noting that tomorrow's Norlond '30' was to be held on the A1 south of Tempsford, following last weekend's fatal accident), I set off to warm up a bit before the race.

I lined up and started my HRM's timer as my minute man departed.  After a brief bit of banter with the timekeeper in connection with my beard (which does seem to cause quite a considerable amount of interest), I was off.  Sure enough, the outward leg was a flier, interrupted only by traffic obstruction at the Billington roundabout.  But once past the obstruction, I was back up to a decent speed pretty much all the way to the turn.

The short descent from the turn got my speed up again, but all too briefly, as the stiff headwind began to take its toll.  My speed was definitely reduced, particularly on the drags.  Still, I caught at least one rider on the return leg.  I got past the Billington roundabout cleanly, and finished in 23:05 - at least according to my HRM timer.  I was hugely pleased with that time on such a hard day.

Unfortunately I ended up with 23:25 - either my HRM had a further aberration, or there was time-keeping glitch (and I wasn't about to kick up a fuss - remember, the timekeeper is always right!).  That was enough for 13th place, I think, and a result I was pretty happy with.  I've also decided to change my training strategy to allow me by altering my daily routine to allow more time for proper training.  See the Team Grumpy blog for more!

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