Easy rider

The last several days have gone pretty smoothly, on the bike.  Saturday was cold again, although not horribly so.  I put the mittens on and got out there for just over two hours, covering 26.6 miles (which is considerably less than I'm capable of, but was pretty good for a recovery ride).

I was very happy, as I managed to average over 100W on the ride.  That's a bit less than I'm aiming for (I'm trying for 120-130W on recovery rides), but is an improvement on the 93-98 I've done on my last several.  Even better, average heart rate 112, and max of 126.  Those are both wonderful numbers, for my purposes.

Plus, I managed to get the photo above.  Not fun, getting the camera out and setting up the tripod in 27F weather, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Sunday actually did not go as well.  I turned on the RFLKT+ as usual, right before going out the door.  And just before getting on the bike, I hit the Start button on that.  Got the sound, as usual.  But the first time I looked for my power output, the screen was blank.  I tried turning it back on, and it did turn back on, but it couldn't find the phone again.  Battery too weak, I assume.

So I did the right without any feedback, which was a little annoying.  What was more annoying was getting home and finding that there was no data (beyond position and speed) saved.  No heart rate, cadence or power, even though both items connect directly to the phone via BTLE (bluetooth low energy).

So, while the ride didn't feel bad, I have no idea how good a job I did of sticking to my targets.

Monday, at least, went much better (after hanging the battery, of course).  I rode easily, got in almost fifteen miles (which is about my limit on weekdays), kept to a good speed (13.3 mph), good power (104W avg, 106W weighted), and kept my heart rate down (110/124, even better than Saturday, with only a couple seconds over 120).  All of which is just about ideal.

This morning was a little harder to say.  I wanted to do a hard ride, but it rained last night with the temperature, at ride time, right around freezing.  To handle the risk of ice, I rode the hybrid, so my only feedback was with heart rate.

I managed 10.4 mph and an average heart rate of 113, but it was a much choppier 113 than the 110 the day before.  And my heart rate was definitely spiked by some jackasses who felt the need to drive extremely close to me at high speeds (one of whom, in a fit of puerile pique, even floored it, squealing his tires, right as he got past me.  I wonder what he thought he'd proven, with that, but the light ahead didn't last quite long enough for me to ask).

Despite all that, it went much better than I'd expected.  And even though I never encountered any ice, I don't regret the decision of which bike to take.  Well, I sort of do, in retrospect, but I'd make the same decision again, knowing what I knew at the start.