I did two hard workouts yesterday.  In the morning I rode alone and chased riders through a good 1:45 of hard riding.  And then after work another hour of hard efforts.  I am working on my aero position so the rides are shorter for now.  I have a set of Profile Design Sonic CSX bars on Felicia, my Felt F2 with Di2, but I’m not totally sold on them.  I used them last year on Sasha for the Furnace Creek 508.

As you can see from the pictures the armrests are very low profile.  The Profile Design CSX armrests sit almost directly on top of the road handlebar — a very good thing.  On the other hand, you may notice that the shape of the armrest curves upward quite a bit.  I would prefer the curve not to be so drastic.  It is what it is so now over the next two months I need to continue to work on my position and become more aero.  More aero means energy savings at the same speed OR more speed at the same effort.  For example, it could be possible to go 20 mph at 190 watts instead of 200 watts OR I could go 21 mph at 200 watts.  Those numbers are just thrown out there I can provide better data in the future.

Of course if you want to be a professional cyclist and the US National time trial champion you will make extreme efforts to be aerodynamic like DAVID ZABRISKE   Now there is no way he could hold that position for 508 miles but for one hour that man can average over 30 mph! Incredible!!!!

My second workout of the day was another hard hour of intervals with an added bonus.  I was going to ride after work alone.  But just as I was finishing counting the drawer and doing my evening reports I got a call from Yeshua, one of my staff members, and he wants to ride– BONUS!  He is huffing and puffing and I can hear the tell-tale sounds of someone riding on his bike– the wind distorting his voice and his rhythmic speech syncopated with his cadence. The conversation went like this:

Yeshua: “Are you riding?”

Me: “Yes, I’m just finishing my last report.”

Yeshua: “Are you doing your Hour of Power workout tonight?”

Me: “Yes”

Yeshua: “I’m at Back Bay I will be there in 10 minutes”

Me: “Great let’s do this!”

Of course in the back my mind I’m thinking “oh shit I’m going to suffer.”  But suffering is part of getting faster right?

We hadn’t planned to ride together.  It was just a spontaneous tryst and we hammered each other for a good solid hour.  I like riding with Yeshua because he typifies the perfect riding partner. The workout was intervals of 1 km.  It was a great race simulation exercise because I had my headphones on and I didn’t know when he was going to begin his next interval.  I had to pay attention and react to his attack – 10 times.  Once the attack happened then we would ride it as hard as possible for the duration of the 1 km.  The wind was strong coming off the water, as it always is at that time of day.  It was really hard workout with intervals, as they should be, and the only way I could finish each of the intervals was to stay on Yeshua’s wheel!  Even with him shielding me from the wind I was gapped a couple of times.

I like the return leg, southbound with the nice tailwind.  I am fortunate to live where I live and enjoy the sunset every night.  As I get closer to the end of the ride the sun has set and it’s now nightfall.  Lights are required after 8ish.  Personally I love riding at night.  More on that on another post.

And that’s all folks…Thank you for reading my blog.  Please pass it on to your best friend.