Saturday, April 23, 2011

DAVIDSON 1, BICYCLE 0

It was not just a draw, it was a definite victory...

It was SO right that we didn't ride outside, by the way! It was not thunderstorms, but it was a very heavy settled rain continuing all the way through the early afternoon.

I rode down to Chelsea Piers (already on the clock), then I did back-to-back spin classes 10-12. Lauren joined me for the second one and we then stayed on in the cycling studio (having received permission - apparently they will let one use it outside of class time if the bikes on the cardio floor are occupied) and did one of the endurance workouts in a binder for indoor cycling.

6 x 2 mins. zone 2, 1 min. rest (100+ cadence)
3 mins. set rest
6 x 3 mins. zone 2, 1 min. rest (100+ cadence)

I was relieved to see that this got me almost up to 3:30 - I was shooting for 4:30. It was somewhat unpleasant putting back on the soaking wet cycling gloves and getting back outside, but in fact the rain was lightening up by now and the west side path was beautifully and utterly deserted! So it was a very nice little ride, just very wet and muddy; I rode up to the little red lighthouse and then back down to 96th St. and up through my little bit of the park home.

There was quite a bit of time in zone 1, but the avg HR falls just within zone 2, and the zone 1 time was mostly right at the border - it is honestly the best I can do, I will just have to hope that it is good enough. The first spin class was partly to blame: I do not like it, almost all the hard effort bits are "running on the pedals" which I can't really do anyway (it is an effort to get even into low 80s for cadence while standing - I can actually go faster in a harder gear - so if the instruction is to go in an easy gear and run with cadence in mid-90s or 100 I just have to give a blank stare) and which is also nothing like anything I would do on an actual bicycle in the real world! Combine that with inaccurate banalities ("This room is a judgment-free zone"; "You can leave it all here"), and you can imagine that I am pretty grumpy for that session and toiling stubbornly and unproductively in the seated position...

4:21:38, avg HR 130, max HR 147
zone 1: 1:49:59
zone 2: 2:27:43
zone 3: 4:02

3 comments:

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

I never understood the running at high cadence either. Some instructors are so lame!

Brent Buckner said...

It was a useful workout!

Lauren Klein said...

Sounds like you're already feeling pretty good, but in the event that you need any more reason, I'll have you know that my last two rides to Piermont were 4:18 and 4:22 of ride time, respectively. Almost exactly the same!