Most people will be thinking mint, orange or original chocolate flavour? My sporty pals will know what I’m about to write about! Yesterday, I attached aerodynamic bars (to give them the long name) to my racer bike handlebars and tried the aero cycling position for the first time. And I loved it!

I had briefly flirted with a set of aero bars about 10 years ago but they were fitted to a heavy hybrid bike and they felt very wobbly and unwieldy. I returned them after one short try. Now I have been riding a racer bike for more than seven years and I am used to the handlebars being a bit fidgety so when I added the aero bars it really didn’t feel too wobbly at all.

I had feared that I would wobble all over the road using the aeros and while the first few miles felt a bit like the handlebars were flicking from side to side this didn’t last long. I quickly learned how to stabilise the handlebars and within another couple of miles I was aero-ing away to my heart’s content. I can’t believe I have not used aero bars in races before and I’m sure it feels faster and more powerful.

For those that don’t know, the idea of aero bars is that your create a lower and more streamlined/aerodynamic position on the bike, which should help you to go faster because it reduces the wind resistance while cycling. Having aero bars to hold can also improve performance through the whole body because of the increased power position. It’s not always the most comfortable position, although friends say that you can get the bike set up so that it’s very, very comfortable indeed. Time will tell for me.

My training yesterday was a fast bike time trial followed by a 10-minute run (as fast as I could go) followed by a very cold dip in Loch Ard near Aberfoyle. Despite feeling frustratingly lacking in power and lung capacity in recent training weeks, yesterday felt great again.

Hayfever and asthma in training

My mum reminded me that I had an asthma inhaler in my teenage years. About three years ago I needed to use an inhaler during the summer months of training. But I never made a connection with hayfever and asthma. This year, around three weeks ago, I began to feel very tight in the chest when running and cycling. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs and I found my legs feeling weak and wobbly.

I did some on-line research and discovered that some people can have asthma symptoms only during the hayfever season. This ties in with my experience this year.

Pollen came late after a cold winter and spring but when it came it arrived with a full force. I could feel my eyes and nose itching and I then began to feel tight in my chest when training. I have been taking anti-histamines daily and now use my blue inhaler before exercise. It’s helping things although it doesn’t always do the trick.

For a while I’d worried that I was going backwards in training and not forwards. It’s a relief to know that other conditions have caused this training hiccup.

It’s just over two weeks until my first World Champs Age Group Triathlon qualifier. I don’t know whether to laugh hysterically or cry!