I’ve recently acquired some clip-on aerobars for my road bike, and am looking for some advice on the best way to adapt to using them.
I want to use them for my first Sprint Tri in December, and also to improve my time on 200+km brevets. However, the Sprint Tri is only a C event, while my A event is a mountainous Fondo in January (where I won’t be using them). Obviously I want to learn to use the bars to safely to control the bike, and while I am looking to minimize the gap between power in the aero position and upright, increasing my upright power between now and January is a higher priority.
At this stage my plan is to (starting with 1, and progressing over a number of weeks to 6):
- Do recovery intervals on the trainer in the aero position, while the effort intervals are upright.
- Do outside recovery rides aero.
- Using the aerobars for outside Z2 endurance rides.
- Do outside recovery intervals in aero, effort intervals upright.
- Once per week, do a full workout on the trainer aero, with the other effort sessions upright.
- Once per week, do a full workout outside aero, with the other effort sessions upright.
Please feel free to critique my plan, or offer alternative advice/suggestions.
Also, I am wondering how to deal with the issue of multiple “thresholds” - indoor v outdoor, aero v upright. Just testing all these different conditions would mean I spend more time testing than I spend doing structured training. Can I assume the same percentage drop in aero v upright as I move from indoors to outdoors. (I have just acquired an ANT+ dongle, so at least I can start using powermatch to eliminate the difference between my PM and the trainer).