Wind

A bit windy at our squad ride session this morning, the easterly was certainly out in full force.

As we get closer to Summer we are starting to see our standard Summer wind patterns kick in, that means strong easterly winds in the morning and strong westerly winds in the afternoon. The reason that is relevant is that many of the races around here take place in the mornings during Summer. That means wind often plays a factor during our events, so it is important for people to be ready for it and have a strategy in mind if the wind does pick up. The session this morning was a good chance for people to practise their strategies those strategies.

Obviously as the wind pick up so does the importance of getting aero. Aero is always important, after all you might as well get as much speed as possible, but as the headwinds get stronger the importance of being aerodynamic also increases. Nothing like trying to ride into a headwind pushing a sail. Today on the ride we spoke about getting low, tucking in and basically trying to make yourself as small as possible. That old adage that 80% of your drag comes from your body was in full force today. Obviously you don't want to scrunch up so much that you limit yourself physiologically or reduce your stability, but still, presenting as small a target for the wind as possible does help so we gave that a go today.

While aero is important, probably the thing we discussed the most today is pacing when it gets windy. When you are riding in windy conditions riding one way is super easy and riding the other way is super hard. If you are focusing too much on speed the temptation will be to push the headwind section too much and take the tailwind section too easy. This spiking power output will zap your legs for the run.

Given the above, it is important to have a metric that is independent of speed for when the wind gets strong. It might be heart rate, or ideally it might be power, but whatever it is, it is important to have a measure that helps you keep your power output steady whether you are riding into a headwind or with a tailwind.

This sounds easy on paper, but it is another thing altogether to keep yourself calm and in control when people are shooting past you at the beginning of the bike leg, burning all their matches in one go. Holding yourself steady so that you can ride smart in both the tail wind and the head wind can be a real test of self discipline. However, it is a test that will pay dividends when it comes to the run leg.

Not an easy skill, but one that is definitely worth practising for those spending the season racing in our windy local conditions, such as we regularly get in Busselton.