Push it real good...

As I mentioned, I wanted to try to duplicate my ride yesterday, but with my camera (and tripod), this time.  Things did not get off to a good start, as I rolled over after turning off my alarm.  I only slept another fifteen minutes or so, but that was enough to make things a little more difficult.

I rushed through my normal preparations, thankfully remembering to grab the camera (which normally resides in my camelbak, but was next to my computer this morning).  I got out the door at a couple minutes before five, which was five minutes or so behind yesterday's ride.

Because of that, I tried to ride as close as I could to my 125bpm max, and I was surprised at how well I was able to do that.  I did go over a few times and maxed out at 134.  The ten minutes that I spent, over, was more than I thought, although the average for those ten minutes was only 127bpm.  So I think that isn't too bad.

The bad part was that the sunrise was not terribly interesting, this morning.  We didn't have the break in cloud cover that caused yesterday to be so lovely.  Ah well.

The one pain point on the ride was that it was colder than yesterday (and had more wind, I think; that part's harder to be sure of).  There was supposed to be a one- or two-degree difference, and some of the ride hit that number.  But yesterday it warmed up for quite a while in the middle; a six-degree difference.  So while the difference wasn't as big as I expected, it was constant cold today after irregular cold yesterday (I wore equivalent clothes, both days).  For most of my body, it didn't make any difference, but there was a world of difference for my fingers.  Yesterday, slight chill.  Today, getting close to numb.  Ouch.

Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same as today.  I'm hoping to hook up with the same group as last Saturday; if that falls through, I'll probably head up MacArthur Blvd into Potomac (MD), pushing as hard as I can.  In fact, there's a long, flat stretch in there; if I'm by myself, I'll probably try to do another FTP test.  But hopefully the group ride will happen; that's certainly more fun.