On a more humorous note, the ride I did on the Expresso exercise bike at the IMA today was called 'Camel Country'. All I can think of when I hear that is the cigarettes.
This is the same course I rode Friday and since I thought I went pretty easy Friday I figured I would do it again and easily set a new PR. Nothing like a PR (even a lame, staged one like this) to boost one's spirits I always say. Well I was wrong; it wasn't easy at all.
One cool feature of the Expresso bike is if your have done a course in the past, your best effort is represented by a ghost rider (a partially transparent cyclist) that you can see on the road and just like the pacer (a yellow cyclist), you can even see how far ahead or behind you are in comparison if the ghost is out of sight.
Right from the gun my ghost is going just a bit harder than I anticipated I would need to go or than was comfortable. But I hang in there in hopes that my legs will warm up and things will get easier.
Unfortunately for me, this is exactly what must have happened to me Friday so as I warmed up today, my ghost just kept accelerating. For at least three miles we were neck and neck. Finally, on an incline I got a gap. On myself. This is starting to sound ridiculous.
For the most part I have been holding back on the exercise bike as my doctor told me not to go too hard on my ankle even while cycling to maximize healing. Today I definitely pushed the limits of 'holding back' and went almost as hard as I could or at least as my depleted fitness will allow.
My gap grew but it was soooo sloooow. At first I just had one second, then two, then four and finally it was in the double digits. I found that by really pushing the descents I could grow it just a little as I usually seem to let up on descents.
ASIDE - is there a takeaway here? Probably not...
With about two miles to go I am really huffing and puffing and I glanced around the gym and there is NOBODY else that is going anywhere near as hard as I am on ANY of the cardio equipment. No doubt I stood out like some nut job.
I stopped pedaling once to catch my breath but just for about three seconds and then I got right back at it and finished this ride at 100+ rpm. One of my goals these days has been to keep my cadence around 90 and today is the highest I have ever averaged and I think my highest max as well. Nice.
After this ride I had to cool down for real! As it was I still got out of the shower sweating and didn't properly calm down until after my walk back to the office. Sheesh, it wasn't even a warm day either.
You know what? It was kind of fun to race myself. And to go hard! I didn't experience any discomfort or soreness after so I'm hoping I didn't adversely affect my ankle. Not only did I get a PR by 54 seconds I also moved myself into 2nd place overall for this course. 1st is about 30 seconds ahead of me and that seems doable if I keep this cycling thing up much longer. Good times.
After past rides I have have felt that the heart rate numbers were not quite right and after today I am convinced they are off. No way did my heart rate get up to 184 today... Oh well, hopefully it is consistently off so that I can compare apples to apples when I ride the same course.
| Sleep | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Body Weight | 12:00 PM - 181 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Workout Food | gym - water | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Time of Day | weights - 5:00 AM bike - 12:00 PM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Workout Type | strength tempo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Equipment | Expresso exercise bicycle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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