Cycling shorts are just not attractive. You have the sausage effect of the spandex, but you add the padding in the seat region and the result is rather unflattering profile. However, I discovered that leg warmers are the best thing ever. These are not the 1980's-era knit leg warmers you see in movies like Flashdance; these are black spandex with a very soft interior that hug your legs up to the thighs - sort of thigh-high cycling stockings but all black. You tuck the tops under your cycling shorts, and it's a great way to keep your legs warm in the cool morning without committing to long pants. You can take them off and stow them in a pockets once your legs or the temperature warm up. Anyway, I got them last year and never wore them, but I'm a total convert.
I also lost my tri-sunglasses at some point this summer, and I don't like to cycle without sunglasses, so I had to wear my regular old fashion sunglasses. I was worried they would fog up or be really uncomfortable, but they worked pretty well as long as I was moving, but fogged up really badly every time I stopped. I need to pick up another pair of the tri-glasses, but might have to wait until next month for that splurge. I love not having a job (<--sarcasm).
Anyway, there were about ten of us this morning, and we all rolled out at the same time. I immediately got passed, of course, but kept up with the lead "pack" pretty well. I was initially only committed to the 12-mile route, but at the turn-off for the 18-mile route I decided I felt pretty good and I'd feel better about myself if I went the longer distance.
I turned off with two other people, and I rode in the back of our "pack" as I'm not really fast enough to lead. I was pedaling hard, and my GPS/heart rate monitor showed it. My heart rate got up to 179 and I was huffing and puffing on the uphills! We rode a gorgeous windy road through Woodside/Portola Valley, passing some gorgeous houses and about a million other riders. The sun was out, it was warm but not hot, my outfit was perfect for the temperature (I ditched the jacket and leg warmers before the ride), and I felt pretty good.
The downhills were ridiculously fun - I mounted my GPS/heart rate monitor on my handlebars so I could peek at it as I was riding, and I started a game with myself to see how fast I could get going on the downhills. This involved me squeezing the top tube with my knees, tucking in my elbows, and crouching down as far as I could go to make myself aerodynamic on the big downhills - ridiculous fun, except for the one time a tree dropped something and it whacked me in the face. That's not fun when you're speeding along at about 30mph! The max speed I saw was 30.7mph, but when I uploaded the workout I saw that I'd in fact hit 35.4 mph - next time you're driving check out how fast that is. It was ridiculous fun, and at one point I found myself braking behind a car that was driving in front of me!
We finished the ride in about 1 hour and 17 minutes. My average speen was ~13.5 mph, which is pretty good considering that on the uphills I would drop to about 6-8 mph. My GPS tells me I burned about 1000 calories, but I just can't believe that's right (although I hope it is, as it would cancel out the big burrito I just had for lunch!). My average heart rate was 161 and my max heart rate was 179, and it tells me I ascended ~1500 feet. Here's a shot of my speed (blue) versus elevation (gray):
I think this shot is interesting - it's speed (blue) versus heart rate (red). You can really see how my HR elevates when I'm stuggling up those hills and my speed is really low!
Fun toy. Makes riding/running much more interesting. I'll have to go back and do that loop again and use the feature that allows you to race yourself. I do love a little competition!
My afternoon now consists of laundry and watching football, and maybe a nap. I haven't decided yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment