And not so boring

I got out this morning a little earlier than yesterday.  I knew I was a little overdressed when I left, but I was expecting the temperature to drop, perhaps by as much as six or eight degrees.  It did end up dropping by five, but I can't say as I noticed it.  I was probably bathing in sweat by the time it did.

Still, I decided that I was going to push it today, and I did that, right from the start.  I turned left onto George Mason Dr, as usual, though taking the turn a little faster than normal.  I then stood up and tried to crank, but I did a good job in that I didn't burn myself out in the first twenty seconds (as I sometimes do).  I was trying to improve my time on a segment that I'd worked hard on, last year, but on which this was only my second attempt of the year.

And improve I did.  I took seven seconds off my record (and I had seven more tries within three seconds of that), putting me in a solid second for the segment.  I'm in no danger of getting KOM, there, as the current one beat me (yes, my new time) by another nine seconds, but I was still very happy.  And I might be able to knock another second or two off, actually, because I wasn't completely wasted at the end (which I was in my previous PR run), and apparently tailed off a little in the last second or two (I thought I was finished).

Anyway, I crossed Rt 29, had a mechanical problem that forced me off the bike for, probably, half a minute (which didn't show up, somehow.  I'm curious why.  I'm also curious why it felt like the chain was stuck for a minute).  Then I started cranking down George Mason, eventually setting a PR for Yorktown to W&OD.  That was largely accidental, as I was only seriously cranking at the very end, but it was cool to see.  In fact, I finished fourth overall on the segment, and probably would have been bucking for first (definitely, I would have been solidly in second, as I was only three seconds out of second) without that chain problem.

A little disappointing to be so close, yet so far, but I'm glad that I did well in the segment of that at the end, where I was really trying (to say nothing of how happy I was to have killed that first segment).

By this point, though, I had noticed that I wasn't seeing anything from my heart rate meter, and I was pretty pissed about that, as the current battery only had 15-20 hours on it.  That's just terrible.  It never came back, either, so I'm forced to conclude that it must have been the battery.  Nothing to be done about it, though.

But my heart rate was definitely way up there; I think I did a better job of keeping it up there than I had in a long time.  For sure, I finished the twenty-three miles at 18.65 mph (per Cyclemeter.  I just noticed that Strava has 0.35 miles less in over two minutes longer time, with an average speed of only 17.9mph.  Curious), which is considerably better than I've done in a while.  And that's with almost 900' of elevation, which isn't bad.

One thing I didn't do, which I'd talked about, was ingest some carbs before the ride to try to improve my top-end power.  Well, my top-end power was still quite good.  In fact, I was only a few watts off my all-time best, and maintained that power for a couple seconds (right before the end of the ride, at that).  So definitely nothing lost due to the diet, there.  I still want to improve significantly, there, but that's encouraging.

As far as the diet's concerned, I've weighed myself at 149 and change for three of the last four days (after breakfast, but nearly naked).  The fourth day, I was 151.2, but that was taken after lunch.  So maybe 150# is stable.  We'll see.

I have started doing my Quick4 workout at night again, and I've noticed that that helps with my breathing.  I definitely should not have stopped doing that.

And I got a weight bench, mostly to do squats and leg curls, but haven't set it up yet.  I need to get that set up.  The squats, I think, I'll do daily, and probably do the leg curls every other day.  At least, that's the plan.

Tomorrow will definitely be a coasting day; I'll probably aim for 13-14 miles at an easy pace.  Saturday will probably be a hard day again, as I'll try to join up with that group ride again.  I still don't think I'm in any danger of kicking their asses (especially not over any length more than a minute or so), but I'm hoping I can at least hang with them.  Last time I went, they were dragging me along; it'd be really sweet if that weren't the case next time.

The one thing I really need to do (preferably before tomorrow) is adjust my rear derailleur.  I'm not sure how (other than that the LOW setting is definitely too high), but it's got some issues at the moment.

One good thing is that I took my crank and cassette off, a couple days ago, and gave them a sickeningly-complete cleaning.  That might have caused the rear derailleur issue (it felt like the cassette might not have gone as far onto the hub when reassembling), but it seems to've fixed the front derailleur issue I was seeing before that.  Baby steps, and all that.

Update: I did confirm that the heart rate meter problem was totally battery-related.  Annoying, but better than a defective meter.

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.

Riding right as rain

After about a week of my legs feeling pretty dead, they felt pretty good this morning.  So I decided on my first up-tempo ride in a week.  And while my speed wasn't great, my power numbers were up, much closer to where I want them to be (plus, I have yet to have problems with my replacement power meter.  *fingers crossed*).

My one surprise was that I didn't set any PRs on Strava.  I was feeling good, so I thought it likely (and was certainly hopeful).

The closest I came was tying my PR on one segment down near Shirlington.  In a way, it was surprising I was close, as I wasn't standing up for any of that.  In another, it wasn't, as I was going faster than a car on the road below me.

The point of all that is that the gentler rides I've been doing for the past six or seven days finally paid off.  And my heart rate was well up (avg 160, which is 9-10 bpm faster than I'd managed over the last couple weeks).  Rock on!

I'll definitely be coddling myself tomorrow.  Saturday, it'll depend.  I'd like to do the group ride where I always get my butt kicked, but we'll have to see if the timing works out.  If it does, I'll go as hard as I can.  If not, I'll do an easy (if long) ride, and maybe push it a bit more on Sunday.

Either way, the plan is for easy rides Monday and Tuesday, then another hard one on Wednesday.  Let's hope I feel up to that.

One interesting thing about the ride this morning is that I put down my camelbak, finally.  I got a little under-seat bag for my tools, and was going to use a water bottle (but forgot).

I have mixed feelings about it.  My left shoulder definitely appreciated not having the pack up there (it never even occurred to me that that could be a factor in that chronic problem), and I certainly felt more aerodynamic.  But it's certainly tougher to get a drink from a water bottle, so that might be enough to push me back that way.  For sure, I'll keep using the camelbak on very long rides (where, so far, I've used the camelbak for water, and a water bottle for gatorade, to good effect).

I should also point out that I recently ran across this video on training polarization.  The idea is, instead of pushing as hard as you can, as often as you can, you mostly go at jogging pace, or thereabouts (I wish he'd discussed it in different terms than lactate concentration.  I'm sure it's less ambiguous, but it's not terribly helpful if you don't have a way to measure that).  And then, a couple times a week (10-25% of your overall training), you go as hard as you can.

The goal, I think, is to be well-rested when you want to go hard, so you can go really hard.  That way, you get your heart rate more elevated, and get more benefit out of your hard workouts.

For me, that was a real eye-opener.  And that's why I was willing to do five or six easy workouts in a row and keep resting my legs.  I'm certainly going to be thinking about this for a while (I wonder about a couple factors related to the studies mentioned), but I won't be trying to hit zone four every day now, for sure.

Trying to do that had led me into what is described, at the end of the video, as the black hole.  Where your "easy" rides aren't easy enough, and your "tough" ones aren't tough enough.  I'm hoping it'll help me get over a hump.  Plus, I need to start doing intervals; that one's mostly a question of figuring out the mechanics.

Running on empty

I started out on my normal bike ride this morning.  I was thinking that I needed to stop early (I usually do, on Tuesdays), so I was going to do laps in the hills nearby.  But half a mile or so out, I went over something.  I heard and felt it, so I was immediately suspicious.

If I'd been more experienced, I probably would have turned around during this suspicious time, but I just kept going, hoping I was wrong.  I wasn't; I was out of air very quickly.

Having no experience, I worried that I had some sort of flat where fixing the flat would immediately result in the fixed tube getting punctured again, so I started walking home.  I got to a nice and bright streetlight, though, and decided to stop and try to fix the tire there.

Well, I got one tire lever in, though it looked a little strange.  When I tried to get the second, though, I broke the lever (and this lever set only had two).  So, I walked the rest of the way home, and went to fix the tire.

Once I had plenty of light, and such, I saw that the problem was that the first lever had managed to get under both sides of the tire, which likely meant that the second did as well.  So breaking the lever made a lot of sense.

It probably took me a lot longer than it would for someone with more experience, but I had no trouble fixing the tube at home.  I thought I wouldn't be able to ride at all today until I remembered that my normal reason for leaving early on Tuesday didn't apply today.

So I had a little bit of time, and tore out on a high-intensity, short ride around the neighborhood (including one lap around the hills where I'd originally intended to do three or four laps).

The one bonus was getting a somewhat better handle on my FTP, since the reading was coming off a shorter, higher-intensity ride than my usual.  And that's what you're supposed to do when measuring FTP.  I learned that I'm a little closer to where I want to be, but still a ways off (around 3.6 W/kg, and I want to be more like 4-4.5.  And yes, I know that that's a wide range).

Keeping up

Haven't had a lot of time for writing lately; been biking early and going to bed early.  Only downside is that I haven't been doing the Quick4 workout, but definitely having fun with riding.

It's kind of funny, going on cycling boards, as most people talk about hundreds or thousands of miles; I wonder how they manage (unless they're young and single).  I've only managed 112 miles this month, but that feels like a lot to me.  And my longest ride in that time was just over twelve miles; mostly a lot of 6-10 mile rides.

I didn't much feel like getting up to ride this morning, but did it.  Glad I did; I averaged 16.5mph over my 8.5-mile loop, which is about .75mph better than my previous best (even over shorter rides).  I thought it was interesting that the top-end time wasn't much different than previous rides over that "course", but the bottom end didn't go nearly as low.

And I've been using my cadence to set pacing; probably power would be better (starting to wonder if a power meter is, indeed, worth the (very high) cost).  One thing I noticed this morning is that it makes a really big difference to maintain a cadence, rather than letting it drop and then getting back up.

One other small note; I've learned that doing exercise before breakfast (and not skipping breakfast) maximizes the weight-loss benefits.  And that's what I've been doing.

I'm not below where I've been before, from exercising (I once worked my way down about five pounds lighter than where I am now, but it took an immense amount of work, especially as I didn't do anything about attacking it from the input end), but I'm lighter than I've been in several years.  I'm hoping to lose close to another ten pounds.  We'll see how that goes.

Update: Forgot to mention.  My bike had a seatpost with a spring in it to soften bumps a little bit.  With it, I couldn't put both my reflector and my light on there, so I replaced that with a plain post.  Man, is it a pain to install a saddle on a post.  Especially my old saddle, which didn't have a lot of space between the bars and the seat.  I got it on, but it was a pain.

But I also replaced the saddle, just yesterday, with an "anatomic relief saddle".  I'm not sure I didn't want a saddle a centimeter or so wider, but definitely thumbs up on the anatomic relief part.  I'll decide in the next week or so about the width, I think.

Back to biking

I can't say as I've biked nearly as much as I would like, but I have done a bit more biking over the last couple weeks.  Cyclemeter is very cool, and I like the additional (and more precise) data coming from the heart rate and speed/cadence meters.  I wish power meters weren't so freakin' expensive, though; I read an article this morning on why they're so expensive, and I believe all the reasons, but it's still as much as a decent bike.  I'd love to have the data, but it isn't worth nearly that much to me.

I still haven't done anything over four miles, though, and most bikers would barely consider that a warm-up (it's mostly been due to time constraints that I haven't done more).

I should get a much longer ride in tomorrow, and will probably start looking at bikes soon.  I'd like to get an actual road bike; I think that'll help quite a bit.  But it probably won't be for a month or two.  I've done a lot of research, and am ready to start test-riding.  I probably won't buy anything until the end of the season, however; I'll spend a pretty penny on it, but I'd like the additional value.

Plus, I think I want to get a display for the bike that will continuously show speed and cadence; I might go with the Wahoo RFLKT+.  I was trying to avoid something like that, but I don't like the phone display turning off.  And I don't think I'd like the battery effects of having that screen stay on.

We'll see, maybe I'll try the phone display, and see how much it chews the battery.  I'm pretty sure it's a lot, though.

More tiring than expected...

Teaching my daughter to ride has gotten me back into biking a bit (or at least got me interested; it is a bit early to say that I am or am not "into it", I guess).

My front derailleur cable was recently almost pulled out of the shifter when it fell off of most of the hangar it was on, and was caught completely by that cable.  Luckily, that was the extent of the damage.  And thank goodness it was caught, because it was hanging above my car, so the car would have been damaged as well.

Anyway, after getting a bicycle repair book, which was actually an impulse purchase when getting my daughter a new helmet, I managed to mostly fix it.  It's a three-crank device, and now goes from inner to middle to outer, but only back down from outer to inner.  One of these days I'll get the two adjustment screws right for that, but it's workable, so I'm leaving it for now.  It's easy to work around.

Having that fixed, I decided to take my first (semi)serious ride today, and figured I'd just loop around several of the local roads.  I must admit that I hadn't appreciated just how hilly the roads are; I got an app which tracks, among other things, altitude, and the altitude graph is a lot rougher than I'd've guessed.

I ended up going 3.57 miles over 15:36, which is roughly half what I'd planned, although at a higher average speed (that's 13.7mph; I'd've guessed I'd be closer to half that).  I didn't expect to be pretty near wiped out at that point, but I was.  And I'd've definitely guessed that that was more than 150 calories.

Be that as it may, I'm glad I finally got out, and I'm looking forward to getting a heart-rate monitor and speed/pedaling monitor for more accurate data (I looked into getting something like a Garmin bike computer, but I think these, along with Cyclemeter (or maybe Wahoo's own app) will do a better job, cheaper.  And hopefully give me fewer batteries to keep track of.

Most importantly, hopefully I can keep with this.  The Quick4 is a pretty decent exercise (and short enough that I've been able to keep up with it almost six days a week over the last several months), but does about nothing for aerobic fitness.

Exercising

Just for grins, downloaded an app called Quick 7, which has a short, intense workout with a number of different exercises.  And as an in-app (free) purchase, you can get Quick 4, an even shorter, tabata-based (I haven't looked up what that means) workout that takes four minutes.

I've been thinking I need to get out of my chair more often during the day (incontestably true), and thought it might make a nice break to do that workout every hour or so to enforce getting up.  A five-minute break doesn't seem bad.

Well, this morning I tried it once, just to see.  And granted, I wasn't holding back during the exercises.  But man, I was really tired at the end.  Not "I know I just pulled something"-tired, but oof, was I feeling it.  Maybe I'll do it once more today, but as an hourly break?  That ain't happening anytime soon, if ever.

I'm almost afraid to try the Quick 7, now.  But we'll see.