10/12/15 7:11 PM

Just don't do it solo anymore, I back off when alone. Lazy?

Rode with a fast group this Thursday last and had a blast. Fastest 35 miles I can remember doing.

Today on my 18 mile local to the house hilly loop, I usually meander up the steep sections. I came around a corner to get to the second approx mile long hill, having meandered up the first. Up the road about 150' is a fit gal running with her Labrador. She turns and sees me and goes to the side to let me go past. I say "at least I am not the only one that goes up shit on purpose". She says "yeah. but it is good for you". I say have a great day, yada and head forward.

Road is straight for the entire hill and I see her in the little lens mirror behind running again for the mile. I never went up that hill so well and consistent speed. Thank heavens she and the dog did not pass and drop me. My ego could never have taken that! ;)

I guess my ego is in check when I am alone or something. I used to just go hard all the time.

10/12/15 8:44 PM

I think that it takes an event, or planning for one, to want to push your limits of fitness.

I had been taking it easy all summer, doing maybe one fast ride per week, and not pushing hard on my (albeit quite hilly) solo training rides at all.

Finally I got out and did every ride that came up last week, pushing hard about every other day.
So Yesterday morning I decided I would do my first CX race since February, arriving at the venue with little time to spare.
Maybe it was for the better, due to my lack of fitness, but I came up to the starting line rather late, so had to deal with the moving dust cloud.
So I settled back to where the dust density was tolerable instead of tying for the front, and finished just aft of mid-pack, but without crashing on my narrowest-ever CX tires that I had just installed that morning. I even grabbed a refreshing cup of beer (on the second try, lol) heading into the final laps! I saw later that I was about 20-seconds per lap down on the leaders anyway, and of course my off-bike lack of practice had made me feel sluggish on the slick run-ups. I even put my chain in my spokes, fortunately for only an instant.

So I have two weeks before the next race, hopefully providing needed motivation, some needed training duration, and some bike tuning.

Without the urge to compete, I would just be out riding, in no particular hurry unless sprinting for a traffic signal.

10/12/15 9:16 PM

"unless sprinting for a traffic signal."

yeah, that and dogs turns on the switch even towards end of harder and longer ride.

I should mention I did not have my HRM on today. But I can not imagine my respiratory rate working faster or harder.

10/13/15 10:14 PM

I reckon spending most of your time on the bike meandering around is good. I put in the occasional hard effort, but most of my riding is at a pace that feels like no more than a medium level of effort. As I and most of my cycling friends are now in our 60s - some in their 70s - I've noticed that quite a number of them now have heart problems from a lifetime of hard training and racing. There are at least half a dozen of them who suffer from arrythmia, atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, etc, and several of them are now riding around with implanted pacemakers or defibrillators.

I'm probably lucky in that though I've been riding continuously for the past 45 years or so, I've only raced for about a dozen of those years, in short segments of a few years at a time. For the rest of the time I've just been a touring/commuting cyclist.

There have been a few articles I've noticed lately on this topic of whether lifelong intense exercise can cause problems. e.g.

http://velonews.competitor.com/cycling-extremes

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2010/10/exercise-is-good-for-the-heart%E2%80%A6-but-is-there-a-limit/

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/when-exercise-is-too-much-of-a-good-thing/?_r=0

10/13/15 11:07 PM

Interesting reads [so far, still reading] Maybe my not keeping the switch on is a good thing for down the road. ;)

10/14/15 10:01 AM

Well you can't keep it ON all the time although it is important to turn it ON every so often.

In work I refer to it as Vacation Mode. Those couple of days before you leave on vacation when you are working uber efficiently, knocking things off your To Do list and going a hundred miles an hour. I sometimes think what I could accomplish if I worked at that pace every day then realize that if I did I would be dead from the stress. After two or three days of Vacation Mode I really do need a vacation.

Remember if you turn it on and it stays on more than four hours call a medical professional. I call my wife, the nurse.

10/14/15 10:40 AM

"Remember if you turn it on and it stays on more than four hours call a medical professional."


Sounds like Cialis commercial. ;) Especially the calling the wife part. ;)

10/20/15 10:21 PM

NM