Joined up thinking

That's the buzzword du jour. And the funny thing is, if you look up 'du jour' on Google, the second entry (Merriam Webster) gives a definition as "popular, fashionable, or prominent at a particular time <the buzzword du jour>"

That's almost uncanny, and it demonstrates the power of joined up thinking.

My thinking of late has been joined up by time trials. Tonight was the last Chippenham evening 10 for me, 'cos I want to do the Bristol one next week. Conditions were poor because of the stiff north wind, which meant you got a cross/headwind for the first 5km, a head/crosswind for the second 6km, and a tailwind for the last 5km.

I thought I was on a good ride when I caught my minute man after 5 minutes, then my four minute man after 10 minutes, and even passed my six minute man after 20 minutes. But I only ended up with 23'56 - my slowest on that course to date. I lost a few seconds by unclipping my foot around a corner, but that's all the virtual time I could reclaim today.

Ben was the quickest as usual in 22'18, then Mitch Piddock in 23'54. Ben did a 22'03 last week (in the wet), his best time. We're going to do a three man TTT in the middle of October, which should be fun.

Splits

5km: 7'20 (better than I thought)
10km: 15'15 (this bit was demoralising)
13km: 19'30 (picking up some time)
16.2km: 23'56 (not picking up enough time)

Actually it wasn't that bad. I just looked at the course map and the finish is about 1.5km north of the start, so when you have a north wind blowing you are slightly disadvantaged. I'll have to do it on a day when there's a big southerly, especially as the final bit is quite sheltered.

I suppose the good thing is that it has temporarily stopped raining. The weekend was poor, and I did one of my most miserable rides ever over the Mendips. I'd planned on doing 5 hours but when I got to the top of Burrington Combe, it was blowing a gale and the rain was horizontal. Couldn't see a bloody thing so I went the quickest way home that I could.