getting there...and beyond

As I said, I did 23.4mph on my 34-mile Galt loop last Friday. The next day I did 22.2mph and the day after that I did 23.3mph. As usual I took Monday as my one day a week off. Today I did 25.9mph. That's 2.1mph faster than my best on the Fogcom and that's on a bike with a seat angle of 40 degrees.

Well, I guess it's official, I'm in my best recumbent shape ever. The beauty of it is that I didn't feel any aerobic distress. The weak link seems to be how hard I can press on the pedals. That's a good thing because I'm relatively weak. In no time at all, based on the weights I'm using now, I plan on my glutes and hamstrings being 50% stronger. Some of that power should carry over on the bike. I couldn't say that for the laidback position.

One thing I notice about my current setup is that it seems almost impervious to wind. Tailwinds don't seem to help much and headwinds don't hurt. It's been on the breezy side around here lately and I have been getting a lot of experience with winds from different directions.

I think I've got my body perfectly positioned in front of my tailfairing with just the right amount of exposure on all sides. I don't think I had it optimized originally when I was laidback. I think there was too much exposure on top.

Even though my tailfairing is on the bulbous side I've achieved better aerodynamics by extending my hands forward and straightening my arms instead of having them pressed tightly to my torso. With these position changes I've turned what I had planned on being more of a utility bike into a viable racer. I'm tickled pink.

I'm going to taper my intensity in the hopes of being able to race on August 3rd. If that doesn't happen the taper will be the start of a buildup for the September Piru event.