Archive for August, 2006
Wednesday night ride
Wednesday night rides are great because of the group and the routes. Well, it becomes great once you’ve done it a couple years and climb towards the top of the group. It was tough the first year I joined this group. Got easier last year. And is just right this year.
This week we started from the Burnt Hills school, one of two regular starts (the other being Corpus Christie on Ushers Road). I think I noticed 17 people had signed in for the ride. Beautiful weather, big fluffy clouds and some stretches of glassy new pavement awaited us.
After the usual warmup, a bunch of us broke off on our faster pace and settled into a good rhythm. It was Bob, Craig, John, Michael, and I. Bob was extremely strong and lead us the entire way–I commented to him on this and he said he’s been riding during lunch 2 to 3 times a week at work with 2 or 3 other guys. Ah ha. That would explain it.
Craig was having back troubles, said even at his job walking up and down stairs was difficult. John has tapered his riding considerably since last year and is feeling the effects in groups like this. I was having a pretty good day. I hit all the climbs pretty well and even when I felt like taking it easy on some big roller, still got out of the saddle and muscled up the rise. There seemed like a lot of climbing on the ride and the GPS data says there was just over 1400′ of it.
The heart rate data startled me at the end… 163 average and 194 max. Very high numbers when I normally hit 150-155 in a ride like this. However the good thing was that my perceived effort was less than the 163 would indicate. Hooray for stamina!
It feels like I might have reached another plateau. Last year at some point my average heart rate dropped precipitously from the high 160s to the low 150s for the same perceived effort. That provided an enormous amount of capacity for me. No longer was I working at near max on the flats to stay with the lead group, but now I had something in reserve for those inevitable rises and hills. This new plateau seems to be a newfound climbing skill. While I still wouldn’t profess to be any great shakes at climbing… relatively speaking, I’m a lot better than I was even just a year ago. Point in case: 11 times up Bacon Hill a month and a half ago did little to hamper my pace on the 24 hour ride. Also, a double-climb of Lake Desolation with a difference in time of less than 30 seconds also points to a new comfort in climbing.
What am I going to do with this revelation? Shoot for an hour faster time on the ADK 540! Originally I was going for John’s time which was 40 minutes faster than mine of 9 hours and 5 minutes, but he reminded me I had a lot of wasted time mucking about with two flat tires. So eight hours is the goal for one lap of the ADK540. This time I’m brining the Profile Aqua Pack and not running out of liquid!
Here is the map for the ride.
Softball season is over
Well, we had our last game last night, the first round of play-offs. We lost. Pitifully. Oh well, we all had a lot of fun this season and are looking forward to it next year. Maybe we’ll try something new in the meantime.
I leave you with a snap of me hoofing it to first. Before I get any smart remarks, yes, I know I look like Mr. Roboto… but check out the dust I’m leaving!
