TOB

Modest, but a distinct success compared to yesterday. No anxiety other than when trying to press lap button on Polar watch and finding myself dangerously weaving!

It's an absolutely beautiful day here, which of course means the park is annoyingly crowded - I did one full loop to warm up, but it's the south end of the park that's the worst, so I decided to do some hill repeats instead. It was a good plan, it is a lot quieter up there (and the little boys riding their bikes at the north end of the park crack me up, I wish I had that kind of confidence and recklessness on a bicycle!).

I need to start tracking HR much more closely on the bike - I don't have much of a feel for how it runs, though I'm starting to get a sense of comfortable max effort.

1 mile each way to-from park
Full loop (6.1mi.): 25:22 (avg HR 131, max HR 159)
Hill repeats on north loop (5 x 1.4mi.): 29:31 (avg HR 136, max HR 158)

15 miles total

One task for the next week or two is to do the tests Gale Bernhardt recommends for LT threshold and HR zones on bike and run, plus swim T-pace testing. They're a bit of a nuisance, but straightforward enough - I think I'll try and do the bike one sometime this coming week on one of the spin bikes with watts at Chelsea Piers. You basically start at 50 watts and increase by 20 watts every minute until you can't go any longer. You track RPE and HR, then chart the data (lactate threshold is in this case close to the "ventilatory threshold" - and as GB says, "athletes are seldom able to go more than three to five minutes beyond their lactate threshold on this test," so the numbers really should be fairly clear)....

(The run test can be done on a treadmill or as an all-out 5K - I might have to try and get Lauren and/or Liz to do this with me - 2 loops round the reservoir would do, it is more fun than running laps around a track!)

I'm having a REAL (i.e. long and in New Jersey) bike ride with Lauren tomorrow, which is one reason I didn't ride longer today (and I still have to go downtown and pick up the 'new' bike from Sid's) - she'll lead me up and over the Bridge (of Evilness) so that I can see the good route from here, and then we'll ride up the same way (Piedmont-Nyack-Rockland State Park) we did some weeks ago. THIS IS GOOD.

April is bike-riding month chez Davidson - it is my absolute top priority other than finishing the little book on style and starting the new book on the ABCs of the novel. I've got a couple little trips (Philadelphia on Sunday for Easter, Boston for a long weekend later this month to meet up with Brent and cheer on his friend J. who is running the Boston Marathon)