MistahSinclair - Less Fatter, Mo’ Faster!

…so I decided to get on the bike in the afternoon and do 50 miles!

I had a sore big toe this morning so decided to give spin class a miss, even though I got myself up at 4:40 to be ready in time. Once my toe was feeling a bit better - after a pot of coffee! - then a good ride was on!

Maintaining a good average is tricky with all these stops signs, red lights and cars you find on the road. I did keep about 22mph for 6 or 7 miles though which was encouraging…before a stop sign rudely interupted and threw off my groove!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 12/30/2008
• Time: 12:00:00
• Total Time: 3:03:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 146
• Max Heart rate: 173
• Calories: 2864
• Distance: 52 miles
• Average Speed: 17.05 mph
• Max Speed: 26 mph

Ok, so it’s been a long time since I posted anything…many moons to be honest (April maybe?).

In the meantime the company I was with filed chapter 11 (yes, again) driving another long distance move.  This one feels like a good one though (the last didn’t).

Anyway, cutting a long story short, I’ve moved from the north east to the deep south - Louisiana to be exact.

Even though I’ve not posted anything in a long time I’ve still be keeping myself busy in the gym.  During the past 6 - 8 months I’ve average an hour a day for 4 days a week in the gym…not too bad, but not much direction to it all.

Since the move the average has gone up to about 5 days a week and I’ve been able to get some time in on the bike.

During my time in CT I got about 50 miles in on the bike, all over the course of about 3 weeks.  Since making the move a couple of months ago I’ve put in about 120 including the longest ride of my life…then the next weekend I went further.

Until this move my previous longest ride was 37 miles back in the days when I was at university in Scotland.   About 3 weeks ago I pushed it out to 42 miles on a seriously windy day where I shouldn’t have even been on the bike.

The following weekend I put in 61 miles on a much nicer day.  The wind was still up, so my average was only about 18mph, but that was a good long ride.  Since then I’ve not been out at all.  I had the flu for a week followed by Christmas related activities.

So, what’s going on now?  Well it’s new year and time for a new goal!

The goal is a Duathlon which is happening in early March.  2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run.  I know it’s not a lofty goal, but I need to start somewhere.

Ok, that’s the end of the update for now…more to follow.

Laters

Thunderbolts and lightning very very frightening…

Me…

Went riding when the aforementioned weather kicked in!!

There had been a bit of a sprinkle of rain and a rumble of thunder while I was getting the bike ready. It looked like the weather had gone by a bit east of where we are…alas I was wrong.

I got about 3 miles out when it started to rain a bit. By 3.5 it was down to 100ft visibility…the last 0.5 mile was trying to find sound shelter, preferably a properly grounded shelter.

First ‘real’ ride on the bike this year ended being cut well short.

Fun fun fun.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 06/08/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:12:00.00
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Speed: 20 mph
• Max Speed: 28 mph

..or…I rides the Noble Steed.

I took the bike out for a quick spin with the kids. Our 5 year old (birthday just happened) got a new bike and needed to ride a bit.

That’s the first time out in months. In fiddling with my computer I managed to erase my odometer…bit of a bummer, but it’s old information and I should be establishing miles for this calendar year!!

I also managed to lose my bike water bottle at the gym this week. I need to get a new one, then take the bike out regularly!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/11/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:15:00.00
• Distance: 3 miles
• Average Speed: 12 mph
• Max Speed: 18 mph

Colder than the witch’s proverbial mammary gland though!

With a break in the weather, or maybe just a general improvement, I took the opportunity to get out on the bike.  I rode the same route that I did last week but managed to do it a little over a minute quicker.

I’m not sure why today was any quicker than last time.  Very similar conditions…maybe a little less wind.

It’s difficult to get out on the bike these days.  There’s less daylight, worse weather and I’m trying to get myself geared up to move!

It looks like we’ll be making the big move (3,000 miles) in early January…driving from WA to CT.

Road trip across the northern states in the middle of winter with 2 kids, 3 cats, a dog, a rat and the parrot.  Sounds like more fun than actually will be!

…more to follow on this later…

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 12/06/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:02:23.00
• Calories: 795
• Distance: 17.8 miles
• Average Speed: 17.12 mph
• Max Speed: 35 mph
• Ascent: 1,500 ft

I got out for a ride on a beautiful day today…sunny in the winter doesn’t mean warm though.  38F was what my computer was telling me en route and it felt it!

Toe warmers and 3/4 length shorts seemed like they would be good today.  Sadly I don’t own either so I got to be cold.

The average speed wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I’m sure it was caused by the cold.  On a warm day that would have been close to 18mph average I think…there were a couple of hills that I just couldn’t get going on.  It wasn’t until late in the ride that the hills seemed to be getting easy (hills I expected to be brutal were actually ok).

I might try to get out for a ride tomorrow to tip my total for the week over 50 miles.  That would be the first time in a few weeks that I got to that goal, but I’m not there yet…

If I can get a 45 mile ride in it’ll take my odometer through 600 miles!  Ok, so that’s not going to happen…the longest ride I’ve EVER done was 37 miles and that was years ago.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/29/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:03:30.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 176
• Distance: 17.8 miles
• Average Speed: 16.82 mph
• Max Speed: 38 mph
• Ascent: 1,500 ft

Got the new tires in the mail yesterday…Hutchinson Team Series (Team Discovery colors - silver and blue stripes ).

I also bought a pump the other day with a pressure gauge on it going up as high as I need for good road tires - 120psi.  That was certainly interesting.  I think I has been running with tires around 100psi before now, but beefed them up to 120 which really makes them brick hard.

Although the ride today was far from the fastest I’ve gone over similar distances the tires felt fast!  They look like they have a better profile when inflated than the IRC Redstorms I had been riding on….more oval in section, he Redstorms were pretty flat in section.

My speed isn’t helped by my increasing bike weight and drag.  New things I’m now carrying to combat gear failure…now a pump, tires levers, inner tube, repair patches…good grief.

It was also pretty darned cold today.  Right around 40F and little bit of rain.

Anyway, it was good to be back on 2 wheels again.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/27/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:21:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 179
• Distance: 21.75 miles
• Average Speed: 16.11 mph
• Max Speed: 37 mph
• Ascent: 1,950 ft

Tire of course!

I managed to break free today and get out on the bike, only to hit a big chunk of gravel and puncture a tire 8 miles out (into a 22 mile route).

Today I had a cell phone with me though, so no need for a long walk home!

Further inspection of the tire shows that it is trashed, not just the inner tube.  I had been looking into get some heavier duty tires for the winter months so this gives me a reason to get them! 

I have a little under-the-saddle bag that I haven’t been using.  I think I’m going to clean it up and fill it with tire levers, inner tube, etc and carry a pump.  It’s not very satisfying ending a ride with a drive home.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/21/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:28:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 165
• Distance: 8 miles
• Average Speed: 17.14 mph
• Max Speed: 33 mph

I went for a spin around my 8.6 mile loop today but took the 12 year daughter with me…this being the first ride she’s done involving hills and of more than a couple of miles.

She did very well…I was surprised.  She walked up a few of the hills, but managed to spin (and I mean spin) up one of the steeper ones.

I fully expected her to want to turn around at a convenient point a little under half way but she didn’t.  She did complain about sore legs, cold hands, cold ears, etc, but kept on going.

Coming up the final hill to the house we started to walk a little before hal way (it’s about a mile at 7%) and my wife happened to be coming back at about the 3/4 point…she picked up the girl and drove her the last 1/4 mile.

I sprinted up it (hence the 156 HR) and finished off the ride with some energy expenditure.

Fun all round I think…and she wants to do the ride again sometime!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/18/2007
• Time: 13:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 90
• Max Heart rate: 156
• Distance: 8.6 miles
• Average Speed: 8.6 mph
• Max Speed: 26 mph
• Ascent: 863 ft

…so I spent an hour on the indoor bike.  The wind and rain was not appealling and I also had some things to do around the house that pushed on until it was about dark.

Actually, I spent about the same time it would have taken me to do 20 miles on the regular bike, so all was not lost.

What I have been looking at recently is heart rate zones and working within them.  This won’t be anything new to most of you, and it wasn’t something new to me either…I just haven’t paid much attention to it.  My philosphy has been - go as hard as I can for as long as I can!

I’m reading my shiny new book and finding out a lot more about heart rate zones and different training methods that I hadn’t considered.  So, before embarking on the program outlined in the book, I used today as a bit of a test.

I have a heart rate monitor on my bike computer which I have been using to an extent, with mixed results.  I’ve found the readings it gives to be a little far fetched at times and fluctuating the rest of the time!  I do have a second heart rate monitor, this time a Timex Ironman which I haven’t used for a while due to the elastic in the chest strap being pretty much shot, that I decided to try out again today.

One trip (actually my wife went) to the fabric store to pick up a bit of elastic, then a short spell on the sewing machine and I had a new strap and was ready to rock.

The readings on this one are pretty accurate.  I spent a bit of time watching the monitor and taking my own heart rate the old fashioned way to confirm everything looked good then set out on the indoor bike for an hour in “Zone 2″ - 123-132 bpm.

It was very interesting watching how my heart rate went through the course of the workout.  It took me about 4 mins to warm up into the zone, then holding it was not much of a problem.  It was more of a challenge to hold the rate down to 132 than it was to maintain the low end.  My heart rate pretty much swung between 126 and 132 for the first 45 mins…after that I would swing a lot further.  I’d find my attention wandering and my heart rate would be 134-135 so I would conciously slow down which would take it down to 122-123…then I’d hold it in the zone for a few mins then do a similar wander. 

That’s all attention span and conditioning.  I’m sure it will get easier to hold steady for longer periods as I keep going.

Something else this exercise highlighted was that it is going to be very hard to maintain such a narrow band while riding on the road.  It is almost impossible for me to ride anywhere nearby without encountering some fairly severe hills.  I realize the aim is to keep the average in this range, but big hills usually lead to big fluctuations.  My current gear ratios (I have a 53-39 up front with an 11-25 cassette) seriously limit how much I can spin up a hill.  This could be very challenging.

Another thing of note on todays exercise was how different riding a recumbent (that’s what our indoor bike is) is to riding upright.  After an hour in the saddle today I went to stand up and my buttocks said “uhm, no thanks, not today”.  That wore off pretty quickly but did show that a very different set of muscles were being used.

How’s that for a bunch of wibble??

Workout:

• Type: General Cardio
• Date: 11/17/2007
• Time: 16:30:00
• Total Time: 1:09:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 128
• Max Heart rate: 135
• Calories: 606