First race - back in the saddle and other things

Easter weekend  used to find me in various parts of the country for the Easter 3 days Orienteering Carnival, then when I moved away from that sport I could be found at Maryborough, Vic  for the VVCC "South Pacific Championships".  This year with various crocks and cripples around the house, I didn't feel I could afford to enter for the entire weekend's worth of racing and so opted for just the TT on Saturday arvo.

Alex was back to being able to get on the trainer

 and also work: doing the paving around the house..AKA re-paying his Mum, so I left him doing this while I drove off to my first race for...well for ever.....

he can't quite trust his his knee to hold for long periods at all parts of the range of movement hence the poor posture...but his work is really top class (Mum speak!)

The TT was only ~15km and the drive was long, but you have to start somewhere and I needed a base line to see where I was in terms of fitness.

The bike had to have a new set of bars since the previous set  were not UCI legal

and late last year I bought the updated Fizik chrono saddle, which at 24cm long is the shortest the UCI allows.

  This length will allow me to be less illegal wrt another of the UCI's ruling about position on the bike...something shorties like me cannot attain and so have to jump through hoops prior to each race getting measured and so getting position approval.

All these changes meant that the race was not only a test of my fitness but also a test to see if the new set up was ok....comfort, strength, aerodynamics etc etc etc

The course is downhill out and not downhill back!  If windy it can be a brute.  I sorted a few minor problems during the warm up..odd rattles, poor gear changing..the usual and at 14:02 I was away...last cab off the rank.  I hadn't a chance of catching my minute man but hoped to pass my 2 minute man.  I immediately found a problem I'd not expected....blasting out of the gate  and on a downhill stretch I noticed I was only going at 28kph  and since I was a threshold if not a bit above I began to despair...just how far down the fitness scale had I plummeted??...then I twigged...my Garmin 705 had for some unknown reason defaulted to mph.  For the next few km's I tried to work out what speed 23-28mph was in kph, then gave up and went by perceived exertion.

so there we have it...11 mins out..downhill is soooo much fun and 14 back.  A good race, coughed my lungs out after, position fine, fitness down, fatness up but....with 16 weeks to go I'm on track for great racing in Austria during August