No Ride, Apr. 20 -- Family instead

It was Thursday night tonight, but I didn't ride. It was more important to do the family thing. We went to my youngest daughter's school program. Then I watched a movie with my son.

Good stuff.

So, insteady of the typical Thursday night ride, I am catching up on logging my recent rides.

Also, here is recap of the first quarter:

January: 7:45:00 total time
February: 5:15:00 total time
March: 14:55:42 total time, 144.0 miles

Total time includes time on the trainer and time on the road. The miles are only on the road. I may try to calculate virtual miles for my time on the trainer, if I ever have enough spare time.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, goals, stats

Training, Apr. 18 -- Ben Hur

I got back on the trainer after taking several days off. I knew that I would not have time to ride over the Easter weekend. I actually might have been able to ride on Easter Sunday, but I was tired, and had a muscle in my left calf that was bothering me. I decided it was better to take the day off.

So, I rode on the trainer, and watched the first part of the movie Ben Hur. I have never seen the movie before. I started to watch it once before, but got interrupted and never finished it. I made it through the scene of the galley battle. The next day, I discussed that I was watching it for the first time. My friend couldn't believe that I had never seen it. He is several years older than me, so it is closer to his generation. I hadn't even been born when the movie first came out. In fairness, I think it came out shortly before he was born as well.

So any way, I rode for an hour, and then spent a little time lubing the bike chain on my road bike. I rode:

1:00:01
131 avg. HR
148 max. HR.

a good recovery ride.

Tags: training, cycling, bicycle, Ben Hur

Riding, Apr, 14 -- Lake Weir x2 -- stinking dump trucks

On Good Friday the office closed at lunch time. After lunch, I headed home and took a long ride, as the family was on a field trip that day.

I needed to get some serious distance, so I decided to go south, and then ride twice around Lake Weir. I had checked out an alternate route to get to Lake Weir, and decided to try it, so that my ride would not be an out and back kind of a route. Somehow, a loop just feels better.

The ride out and the first lap around Lake Weir went really smoothly. Around Sunset Harbor at the southwest corner of Lake Weir, I even got a thumbs up from a woman in an SUV. Having ridden at a reasonable pace yesterday, I felt good and was riding well up the hills.

There were some issues with motorists along the east and north edges of the lake. On the east side, one or two cars honked or rolled down a window to yell. Along the north edge, there is no shoulder and there was more traffic going towards town that I would have expected for that time of day. A couple of dump trucks and a truck carrying cement block came a little closer that I was comfortable with.

The second lap went smoothly. I got another thumbs up at Sunset Harbor, this time from a guy. That must be the most cyclist-friendly area of the county.

Along the eastern edge of the lake, I had a couple more rude cars. I came back up through Silver Springs Shores and bypassed the north side of the lake and the traffic.

The ride back was smooth. I used a little bit of the Baseline Trail to make sure that I hit my goal of 60 miles.

The family was home by the time I got there, and we enjoyed dinner together. A good way to spend the afternoon/evening.

Here are the map and profile:





And here are the stats:

Computer:
4:14:51
60.63 miles
14.2 mph avg.
30.8 mph max.

HRM:
4:33:26
144 avg. HR
169 max. HR
3:30:03 in target range
0:17:00 above target range
1:06:08 below target range

So, on a ride where at least the distance matches the typical day at BRAG, I was able to maintain a reasonable pace while riding solo. At the same time, I was able to do it at exertion levels that are maintainable. I don't know how the hills compare to what I will face in Georgia, but this route was not flat. I picked it because it has some rolling hills.

It makes me optimistic that I will be able to hold my own at BRAG. Now, I just need to keep developing endurance so that I will be able to ride like this for 7 straight days.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Ocala, GPS, Silver Springs Shores, BRAG

Riding, April 13 -- Thursday Night, Riding Smarter

This past Thursday night I was back out at the group ride. This time I was intent on riding smarter. Last week I went out trying to keep up with the A group, only to get dropped and pay the price for it on my long bike ride over the weekend. This time, I teamed up with the B group from the start. The ride was much easier, and more fun. I spent a good part of the time helping out riders who got dropped on a hill, or who were tired to catch up, or to pace back to the finish.

Here are the stats:
Computer:
1:48:04
15.5 mph avg.
30.5 mph max.
27.96 miles

HRM:
2:02:23
141 Avg. HR
179 Max. HR

Obviously the HRM includes some of the time at the begining before the ride began, and some of the time at the halfway point waiting for the rest of the group to catch us. It doesn't include all of the stopped time, because I got tired of the thing beeping at me and stopped it, rather than just turning off the alarm. Maybe next time I will turn off the alarm.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Thursday night

Training, April 10 -- Jim Kallam, Jr.

I was on the trainer for the second day in the row.

Having done recovery the night before, I wanted to work on intervals. The legs did not want to cooperate. There was still fatigue and lactic acid left in my legs from Thursday night and from Saturday going to Gainesville.

While riding I was listening to a sermon by Jim Kallam, Jr. It was from the book of 1 John. I have listened to several of his sermons and enjoy his teaching. He is the pastor at the Church @ Charlotte, in Charlotte, NC. You can find his sermons online here. He is currently teaching through the book of Hosea. I will have to check it out after I finish listening to his series on 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.

Here are the relevant stats from the ride:
Total time: 45:02.0
Avg. HR: 153
Max. HR: 173

The breakdown:
Warmup: 10:00.7, 130 Avg. HR
Interval: 13:00.7, 166 Avg. HR
recovery: 2:00.7, 153 Avg. HR (my HR got back into the 130s)
Interval: 14:09.9, 164 Avg. HR
recovery: 5:49.9, 136 Avg. HR

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Church @ Charlotte, Jim Kallam Jr, 1 John, sermon, Christianity

Training, April 9

I was on the trainer the other day. This was the day after the windy ride to Gainesville, and my legs were still fatigued. I simply did a recovery ride.

HRM Stats:
40:01.1
121 Avg. HR
137 Max. HR

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, goals, recovery

Riding, April 8 -- Ocala to Gainesville

Today was a day to pay the piper for going too hard on Thursday night.

The kids were in Gainesville, and we were going up to pick them up. Once again, I was riding up, with my wife meeting me at her mom's house with a change of clothes.

I changed up the route some. On the south end, I used a few more back roads. As I approached Gainesville, I made a detour to the east to add some miles. When I left home, I was hoping to put in 60 miles today. Once I got riding, there was no way that it was going to happen. The entire ride has headwinds and crosswinds. The winds were so bad that my wife pulled over when she caught me, just over halfway to Gainesville. She could feel the wind pulling at the car and wanted to make sure that I was doing okay.

With the winds and the extra work, I had already drained three water bottles. A couple weeks earlier, I had comfortably rode the whole ride on only two bottles. I stopped in Micanopy and bought enough Gatorade to refill all the bottles. After the long wait to check out, I was feeling fresh again, so decided to head off to the east to add the extra miles at the end. It didn't take long for the exhertion of the day and Thursday to catch up to me. I was prety wiped out by the time I reached the house.

Here is the map and profile:





None of the hills are truly huge on this route, but they are some of the better hills in this area. The uphill through Gainesville makes for a nice long uphill slog when your logs are approaching failure.

Here are the stats:
Computer:
4:09:05
56.49 miles
13.5 mph Avg.
27.2 mph Max.

GPS:
4:10:00 moving
19:08 stopped
56.1 miles
13.4 moving average
27.2 max spd.
12.5 overall avg.

HRM:
4:28:57
147 avg. HR
185 max. HR
In Zone: 3:05:25 (Aerobic to Sublactate threshold)
Above Zone: 42:10
Below Zone: 1:18:21

It was a good ride, but I was wiped out at the end. It felt really good to get off the bike and into the shower.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Gainesville, Ocala, hills, BRAG, GPS

Riding, April 6 -- Thursday night at the races

Now that it is Daylight Savings Time again, the regular Thursday night bike rides have resumed at the Baseline Trailhead. I did not get to ride much last year as I was recovering from shoulder surgery that I had in May, and never really got into the synch of riding regularly. I went out and rode.

I made the mistake of trying to hang with the A group. Apparently, a couple of them had conspired before hand to make everyone suffer, and they did this quite well. We turned a corner and started up a gradual hill when they really hit the accelerator. I had been gapped and was working as hard as I could. I looked at the computer and I was running about 27.5, except that I wasn't making up any ground. I saw a group behind me and decided that I needed to sit up. The group of 3 others caught me shortly and I latched on with them. It was a good decision.

As a group, we were running in the low 20s. I was able to maintain this pace without too much trouble. Except for the fact that my HRM was beeping that I was above my aerobic threshold level and running faster than I had intended.

On the way back, I switched to a slower group once we caught them and rode back with a friend. It was a much better pace, but the damage had been done, my heart rate was still higher than I wanted.

Here are the stats:
1:19:22
23.85 miles
18.0 avg
30.1 max (sprinting on a fairly level grade)
168 Avg. HR

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Thursday night

Riding, April 1 -- Indianapolis

From the start let me make it perfectly clear that I am glad that I live in Florida. I am in Indianapolis this weekend to attend the Final Four.

It is cold here! It has been really nice in Florida lately, great weather for riding. We got here Thursday. It was nice then. But, I am borrowing my brother's road bike, and it wasn't set up for me. I spent Thursday afternoon adjusting it, and doing a little light maintenance to get ready to ride. It rained all Thursday night, and most of Friday. It stopped raining shortly before we went into town to participate in the festivities. Now it is cold.

I decided to ride despite the cold weather. I brought what little winter cycling stuff I own with me, so I bundled up and headed out. The goal was to ride 50 miles, but I didn't make it. Between the cold weather, and the early hills, I was too tired, too cold, and too ready to quit. I wound up cutting the ride short, and doing 40 miles.

Here are the stats:
Dist. 40.1 miles
Time: 3:23
Avg. Speed: 11.8 (SLOW!)
Max. Speed: 32.3

The map of the ride:


The profile:


Notice that there are some healthy hills in the first part of the ride. I enjoyed the hills, but they sapped my legs of energy. On top of that, it was cold and windy. I was glad to get into a warm shower after the ride.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Indianapolis, hills, Final Four