Sunday, May 22, 2011

Back to two wheels



After putting wheel covers on the trike I found the trike to be significantly faster but with the extreme laidback position it was too squirrelly in windy conditions. I wasn't willing to take the huge step backwards by racing without the wheel covers so I put the trike back to its original position. I considered racing like that with a tailfairing but there was just too must air resistance with all of the width. I don't like the feeling of racing through sludge or hurricanes.

On top of that I allowed myself to have a little bit too much fun chasing DFers on the American River Trail. Three times doing that over the course of three weeks was enough to shut my sorry ass down. It's been a rough spring. Anyway, after licking my wounds and otherwise wallowing in funk I've finally recovered.

I cobbled together a racing bike to do some of the local TTs. I'm using the original carbon frame I built back in 2003. It was dual-700 but I'm going dual-20 because I sold my 700c racing wheels and the small wheeled bike is just so much more road friendly. This is surely not my most aero setup but the body position on it feels very good all-around. Hopefully I can make up the difference with power.

I'm trying a couple of experiments with my training program and my pedal stroke. My training will be the same but with lower frequency and a single intensity level instead of rotating between 50 and 70%. As far as my pedal stroke goes, I'll wait and see how that pans out before saying anything else.