Quick Time Trial before dark

Stats

Living so close to Manchester in a commuter kinda zone makes Time Trialling a difficult task, made exponentially worse at home time, slow traffic, traffic lights and being not particularly flat plus loads of other things I can't be bothered to think of.

At 4pm I had the opportunity to either go to gym for a couple of hours or a quick bike ride before it got dark. Since I have never had a proper ride on my TT bike and the roads were generally dry I chose the latter. After getting changed in super fast time I was hoping my bike speed was just as fast and headed out as soon as. \i couldn't be bother to change the Continental Supersonic 19mm tyres ( no puncture protection and weigh only 120 odd gramms) and prayed to the puncture fairies for leniency.

I started with a bit too much enthusiasm, left my heart rate monitor at home and had to ease off after 2 mins as I was trying too hard. Very soon after starting I was stopping and sprinting constantly, not the perfect tt route, i'll confess but good practise ( or is it with a c?) Garmin was in back pocket as I hadn't had time to fix a mount and totally forgot I had no magnet on wheel so my other bike computer wasn't working either. Route was made up as I went along and even doubled back on myself at one point!

Positioning was quite good and surprisingly comfortable but I think the length of bone between shoulder and elbow is very short as my arms were nicely stretched low in an aero position but my elbows were nowhere near the pads. I felt I could tuck my shoulders in close and achieve good breathing as I wasn't too restricted.

Comments from passing motorists, kids at bus shelters, runners and fellow cyclists kept me highly amused and entertained and gave me the cycling high I tend to miss out on riding solo all the time.

Happy with my averages? Maybe.... 21.3mph for 22miles. I'd say it was an easy 23mph, possibly higher, with all the stoppages. 800ft climbing, felt worse than that not sure what a typical TT course has but I have certainly got the bug and can't wait for the season to begin and actually do some TT's. Went no where near flat out, apart from the first few minutes and legs very good, hopefully, for a ride tomorrow.