Sunday TOB

(And really I should have gone straight back out to run a few miles, but the thought of COFFEE and INTERNET was too strong for me!)

I meant to get out very early for Central Park loops, but as usual could not quite drag myself out of bed at the appointed time. It was 8ish by the time I was actually starting my first loop, and it was getting noticeably more crowded as I rode - too many cyclists!

(It is the most beautiful day again, 70 degrees and hardly any humidity - freakishly nice July weather this month, it is slightly uncanny but I am crossing my fingers it might still be like this next weekend!)

I was going to do 4 loops "descending," but it was getting crowded enough by the third loop that I thought I'd just do the fourth at comfortable effort with no worries about safety!

I haven't been riding with HR monitor or paying attention to pace at all - I do have a Cateye computer on my bike, but I never quite figured out how it works, and the sensors always need to be fiddled with before I can get any data anyway, so I kind of have been ignoring it. I believe it is wise to isolate a few goals at a time, and my goal for this last few months has really just been to build mental comfort and basic fitness on the bike.

It will be appropriate round about now, though, to start getting some pace and HR data - I will track info for the Olympic-distance triathlon this coming weekend and the half-iron in October and get some sense of appropriate training and racing zones.

Total ride (didn't count the mile each way over and back, just the loop, which is 6.1 miles): 1:27:23 (avg HR 136, max HR 158). The heartrates seem low to me compared to running ones - I feel that I could bike at considerably harder effort than that, only it is not safe! Also, of course, the downhills are easy. HR not appreciably different on individual loops, so will not itemize.

I did well descending the first three:

23:40
22:13
20:22

The fourth loop felt quite easy at 21:05, and I could definitely descend another step if I were riding at a less crowded time (the weekday hours when the park is closed to traffic are far superior). So I guess my speed is around 18mph on the fastest loop - that is what I will try and hit on the race next weekend, as I feel that I actually should be able to ride significantly faster than that without undue stress on the body!

(I am guessing I would be fine with average HR on the bike, at that race distance, of 150, so it might be that I pace by keeping an eye on HR and not letting it stray into the mid-150s - it is also true that the course is quite crowded and I may need to ride more slowly at certain points for safety.)

25 miles bike (26, really, but 25 is "rounder"!)