Early mornings

Yesterday, I needed to get up early to go into the office.  Well, not my office (I mostly telecommute), but another office for the company, about thirty miles away (as the crow flies; driving it was just over forty).  I knew about how long it would take to get up there without traffic, but I had no idea how much rush hour would affect things.

So I got up at 0400 so I could still get my bike riding in.  Even with that, it was tough to get ready in the morning (also, Competitive Cyclist finally put up a page with their credit details.  Basically, I was right except that it's in half-hour increments, not full hours.  Yay, although my ride yesterday was 88 minutes, so I just missed).  But I got out of the house about when I wanted to, and headed up.  It turned out that the traffic wasn't bad at all; I made it in a bit less than an hour.  I'd budgeted enough time that that gave me time for a half-hour nap (which I needed) once I arrived.

Getting back to the ride, I knew I had a little while, so I did roughly my normal morning ride, adding in about three miles by going through, up, and around Shirlington.  As I mentioned, it finished at 88 minutes, 18.3m, and 1061' elevation.  The weather was forty-ish and dry, which was nice.  And I did a pretty good job with my heart rate: 119bpm avg, 131 max, eight minutes over 125 (which is more than I thought, actually).  And yes, replacing the battery on my power meter and heart rate meter fixed both.

This morning was a little different.  I actually started about the same time, and decided to do my big loop (the 27-mile version).  The weather was a bit more mixed; it was warmer, but it was drizzling when I started (and it was hard to tell what the rain was going to do after I started).  So I wore my wet-weather attire, and got out there.

The rain got harder for a while (it was pelting me for a little bit, in there), but then slacked off to nothing for, probably, the last hour of the ride.  I ended up riding with the jacket mostly open for a bit, which was a first for me.

My biggest irritation with the ride was that water got into my shoes pretty early on, despite my booties.  I think it came in via the vents on the bottom; I taped the back ones, but not the front ones.  It never got to be a lot of water, but it was distracting for a bit.

But once the rain stopped; well, actually once it stopped being hard rain, the ride became quite pleasant.  And I timed it just about right, finishing in a hair over two hours.  Twenty-eight miles and 1200'.  Power was a bit lower than I'd like, but heart rate was almost identical to yesterday.  That is, same average and peak, but only six minutes over 125.

Don't think I can keep doing the 0400 rising (even though today it happened with my alarm still set at 0500), but it does make for a nice start to the day.

Tomorrow will need to be another hard ride, although I haven't picked out a course yet.  It's also supposed to rain, and I'm not looking forward to that.  We'll see how it goes, I guess; at least it won't be cold (50-ish).

Once, twice, three times a-riding...

Saturday's ride can be summed up in one word: cold.  Most of the ride was in 21-22F temperatures.

Despite that, I wanted to take advantage of having a little more time than usual to ride, so I started out with a slightly longer route than I've been doing, lately.  I went down to Shirlington, as usual, but went all the way into the shopping district, then up the big hill behind there, and around.  From there, I went my normal route up the W&OD towards Falls Church.

Twelve miles in, I looked down and realized that the reason my feet were getting a bit cold, already, was that I forgot to put my booties on before leaving.  Not sure what happened; I've never forgotten them before.

Still, I pushed on, and even decided to tack a few more miles than usual on by taking the trail all the way to Idylwood Dr.  That adds about three more miles to my normal route.  And I took Idylwood all the way up to Powhatan, which meant that I had to deal with both hills on Powhatan, rather than just the second, as I've been doing recently.

Despite the chilled feet, it was a pretty good ride, and one in which I had little to no trouble keeping my heart rate down.  I hit 129 briefly, and only spent 84 seconds above 125, so that's just about perfect (especially for a ride of 1:45).

And distance was pretty good, at 21.75 miles (1200' of elevation).  Speed was 12.3mph; not bad for an easy ride.

Yesterday, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as cold at just below 40F, but it rained a bit. Because of the rain, I had my rain jacket on, which has a very tight collar (if I zip it up all the way).  I did discover that having that collar zipped all the way definitely makes it hard to keep my heart rate down, although unzipping it a bit only helped a tiny bit (I still had trouble).

How bad was the heart rate trouble?  I hit 144 (and cleared 140 more than once).  I spent more than half an hour over 125.  Geeze, I didn't realize it was that bad until now, writing this up (though I knew it wasn't good, of course).  And I just saw that one of those times clearing 140 came when climbing a hill (ok, no surprise there) where there was a jogger on the sidewalk who was actually going faster than me.  I definitely wasn't trying to push.  Ouch.

I wish I knew why I had so much trouble with heart rate.  I know part of it, earlier on, was the collar.  And another early part was that I spent a little time in the drops.  I can't believe how much the latter affects heart rate; just seems weird, to me, somehow.  I'd expect some effect, of course, but nothing that pronounced.

Anyway, other than the heart rate, it was a pleasant ride.  That's a very nice temperature for ride; maybe a few degrees below ideal, but not far.

This morning was a little... weird.  I checked the temperature before leaving, and saw that it was supposed to be (currently, not forecast) 45F.  That's generally the temperature at which I start thinking about cold-weather preparations, so I almost didn't question it, and put on lighter gear than I'd planned to take.

Thank goodness I didn't tone down (other than that I didn't wear my skullcap, I'll come back to this), because it was cold.  It was mostly around 35F, getting all the way down to freezing over one stretch that's always a few degrees colder than the rest of my rides.

Despite that (or maybe because of it), I had no trouble keeping my heart rate down.  I didn't do quite as well as Saturday, but I kept my max to 132, and had only 92 seconds above 125.  That's not perfect, but it's pretty darned good.  I was quite happy with it.

And that was with an average speed of 13.1mph (yesterday was 12.6).

The only real difference was that my cadence was a little lower today, but with more power pushed (99W vs 85).  I'd really like to know how I pushed more power at a lower heart rate; the cadence is the only thing I can think of, although the difference was pretty tiny (54Hz vs 56).  I'm surprised the difference is so small, though, because I was constantly aware of it while riding.  I wouldn't've guessed I was anywhere near that sensitive.

And now I'm looking at Saturday, just for comparison.  Saturday was 86W and 59Hz.  No pattern there.

In any event, two days out of three were quite good, as far as reaching my goals.  Tomorrow will be a hard ride, but I'll have to think about where I'm going.  Maybe I'll try to get up fifteen minutes early, and do my big loop of Arlington (with bits of Falls Church and Alexandria).

Moving on

Yesterday, as I'd planned, I did a hard ride around one of the longer of my Arlington loops.  This one was about 23 miles, and, as I indicated I was thinking, I went with just the jersey and a baselayer, rather than a jacket.

Clothing-wise, that worked out very well.  It was very comfortable, and I was warm enough all the way.  I went with the Assos glove tandem (bonka glove and shell), which was also a great fit for the day.

Being so comfortable, I started out riding hard, trying to get at least into second on the long segment on George Mason Dr on which I got fourth on my last hard ride.  The first part of that, I was surprised to be eight full seconds behind my time the other day, but I was also feeling much better at the end.  I also lost some time at the other end, but made up for it in the middle.

It was the first time I'd really set out to ride hard on a segment anywhere near that long, and it was rough.  I was quite tired at the end.  And I was semi-successful; I ended up tied for second, meaning that I only beat my time from the other day by a few seconds.  And that's without the mechanical stop.  So a bit disappointing all the way around, even if it looks better.

Overall, I only had three PRs, but I had a slew of second- and third-best segments.  So I guess I'd chalk it up as being moderately successful, if a little less so than I'd hoped.  There's a five-minute-ish segment covering four hills right around Ft Myer and Courthouse that I was really hoping to kill.

I felt really good, and did set a PR on the first hill, but the rest of it was second- and third-best times, ending up twelve seconds behind my record.  Still, I kept on, and finished the route averaging 18.6mph over the hour and thirteen minutes.  Nothing to set the world on fire, but nothing to be upset about, either.

I kept my heart rate solidly in zone four, with a good six minutes in zone five.  Loving that last bit, especially.

My power-based zone distribution was not as good, although I think a significant part of that was not having as many hills (just under 900' total elevation) as my hillier hard-riding route.  I got eighteen minutes at or above threshold, which isn't bad.  Not as much as I hope for (I'd like to get closer to thirty), but again, not bad.

That left today as a recovery ride, with the caveat that snow was forecast to start just before I got on the bike.  I was lucky not to see the snow, as I'd decided to not ride the hybrid, and got on the road only a little bit late.

It was raining, however, which was not fun, at a hair above freezing.  Also, I wore my Assos jacket, thinking that it was more sealed than the North Face shell/fleece liner that I normally wear on cold recovery rides.  That didn't work out well; the FuguJack is not completely sealed, it appears.  I finished with damply wet arms.  Not enough there to be worrisome, but it definitely didn't feel good.

Also, I went with the same gloves as yesterday.  Today, it was not such a good decision; my hands were considerably chilly well before finishing.  In fact, I wanted to do fifteen miles, but cut back to only twelve because of that chilliness.  Given that the snow was just starting as I finished, anyway, it might have been a good thing regardless.  Still, I don't like having that sort of thing forced on me.

I also might have gotten legs a little wet, somehow.  I was wearing the PI AmFibs, so I'm not sure how that might have happened.  I hope they haven't already lost their waterproofing; I guess we'll see, next time I wear them.

One good thing is that I mostly kept my heart rate down.  I was a bit worried, over the long stretch where I couldn't see the meter, but I killed it through there.  In that stretch, I kept it entirely between 114 and 123, which is basically perfect.  Just after, though, I blew it on a hill where I got up to 140.  Very annoying.

But I did keep it going right the rest of the way, so I think things will be fine for the group ride I'm expecting to do tomorrow.

The one thing that bothers me, a bit, is that my power was off, at that heart rate.  That was only with an average right around 100, and I should be putting out more like 120W at that heart rate.  I'm hoping that's just because I'm (still) not feeling well (although much better than a couple days ago).

Boring ride?

Not much going on with my ride this morning.  I got up early, but somehow managed to not get out of the house any earlier, which was annoying.

I rode down to Shirlington (almost), but turned right instead of left at Four Mile Run.  I took the bike path from there all the way back up to Wilson Blvd, took that across to Roosevelt/Sycamore, then got back on the bike path to West St, turned a block early for Great Falls Rd, and found myself on Highland (which is basically just a big hill, up and down, running parallel to I-66).  That took me all the way to Haycock, which was fine (I was going to take Great Falls to Haycock anyway), and I cut across the back way from Haycock and Westmoreland, over to Powhatan.

From there, it was a straight shot home.  A total of almost fifteen miles, which is a little shorter than I really wanted to do.

However, it's a good thing I didn't try to do any more, because I got home a few minutes later than I'd wanted, anyway.

Part of that was not getting out of the house as early as planned.  The other part was that I was going slower; I couldn't see my RFLKT+ for much of the ride, so I couldn't use the power meter to pace myself.  And my power output was much lower than the 120W that I target (91W, actually, although that includes averaging in the two minutes or so of the meter dropping communication).  So despite doing a lot of riding in the drops, I was definitely going quite a bit slower than normal.  Having a bit more hills than usual also didn't help.

The one good thing was that there was supposed to be quite a bit of rain, and there turned out to only be a little bit.  It was enough that I'm glad I dressed for it, but most of the ride was still fairly dry.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler, but completely dry.  Not sure if I should consider that exchange to be a win.

Or not sprung

This morning's ride was supposed to be fairly warm (40-ish F), but turned out to be a little chillier (34-37F).  My first hint at that came before I'd even closed the door to the house, but I decided that it would be fine once I got moving (even though this was going to be an easy ride).

Well, my rain jacket (it was supposed to rain, if not right away, then soon) was not quite warm enough.  I managed, but a long-sleeve base layer would have done much better than the light jersey I was wearing.  And I should have worn the shell gloves over the gloves I wore.  They're supposed to be fine down to 20F, and they weren't.  The irony there is that I wore them yesterday, with the shells, when it was a few degrees colder, and that was fine (but also on a more vigorous ride).  I'll have to see how they do in that temp on an easy ride, with the shells.

Other than that... well, I only wore knee warmers on my legs, and those were fine.  I had the rain covers on my shoes, which turned out to be unnecessary (and possibly silly, since I eschewed my rain pants).

For the ride itself, though, I got out a little early and did most of the trail loop around Arlington (I cut off a couple miles by taking George Mason Dr all the way to Shirlington instead of detouring at I66).  It ended up at 19 miles, which worked out perfectly, timing-wise, so I'm glad I did (although the temperature did factor into the decision, as that section of trail tends to be several degrees colder than anywhere else around).

Somehow, the rain still hasn't arrived, but is still projected as imminent.  Tomorrow is currently forecast for mid- to high-forties, with rain.  Rain doesn't sound too bad, with that temperature.  I might well do the trail loop again, maybe with those extra miles.

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

So, after two days of recovery, I cut loose again this morning, with mixed results.

Speed-wise, it wasn't great, at 17.0 mph.  But my power numbers were very good.  The 500W 20s peak was very close to my record (actually, though, that was according to cyclemeter.  I found a 20s stretch on Strava that claimed an average of 574W), while the minute number was a bit further off (429W, vs a record of 458).  I would bet that both numbers are still my second best.

Anyway, the five-minute number was 326W, which was a record, as was the 293W ten-minute peak.  The 277W twenty-minute peak is also a record (and theoretically raises my FTP by a few, though I might not bother to program that in), while the 242W hour peak is a couple Watts off.

Of course, my power meter did cut out at least four times, for a total offline time of at least three minutes.  And I'm sure that would have at least affected my hour peak (possibly the 20-minutes as well, though that doesn't seem terribly likely).

But all this definitely begs the question of how my speed could be so much off my record.  Unfortunately, I don't have power data from that day, but I averaged a full mile per hour faster with a lower average heart rate (no cadence data either).  The temperature certainly had nothing to do with it; it was colder that day than today.  There was a lot of rain today, which might have factored in (especially as I had my rear fender on, to cut down on dirty water on my back).  I suppose, too, the rain clothes aren't as tight-fitting as the other stuff.  But I have a hard time believing those would make that much of a difference.

Overall, I wonder.  My speed was frequently way off; why?  Just not enough time in the drops?  Not enough time standing on the pedals?  Color me confused, for sure.

Anyway, biking is all about sustained power, and I feel good about having made improvements on that today.  Easy rides tomorrow (actually, with Christmas, I'm going to have trouble getting in any kind of ride tomorrow.  But I'll find a way; I don't want to break my streak) and Friday.  Saturday remains to be seen.

Update: I just noticed that there's a bit more than a hundred feet of elevation difference between the two runs as well, although I can't see any differences in where I went.  Dunno what to make of that, either.

Riding through damp

Things were definitely warmer, this morning, than they'd been.  Friday and Saturday, last week, I was needing to take very regular drinks to ensure the water in the tube of my camelbak didn't freeze.

In fact, in one stretch on Saturday, I took a little too long, and found it mostly frozen.  I was able to suck warmer water through, by sucking really hard, but it took so much that I was literally gasping for air for a minute or so afterward.  (And that was the ride that seriously pissed me off, because my phone ran out of batteries really quickly.  The meter kept running for about an hour into the ride, but the phone only had the first 3/4 mile recorded, somehow.  Missing out on the other thirty-three and a half miles, or so.)

Today would have been an absolutely glorious ride, because it got so much warmer (started at 61, and actually got warmer), except that I looked a gift-horse in the mouth, and wore my rain gear even though the rain had stopped by the time I got on the road.  That meant I got a lot warmer than necessary.

Also, because Saturday and Sunday were so tough (both around thirty-five miles, pushing hard), my legs were still tired, so I tried to make it an easier ride.  The downside, there, is that the ride went fifteen minutes or so longer than I wanted.

Despite all that, getting back home without cold fingers was a very nice change of pace

One thing I've been chuckling about a bit, lately, is how empty the trails and roads are, especially of other bikers (there's fewer joggers as well, but a larger percentage of the joggers are still coming out, I think).  Today, that was not the case; there were a bunch of people out, even with it having just finished raining.

I suspect tomorrow will be pretty similar; it's supposed to be around fifty, with no rain.  I'm looking forward to it.  After that, it's getting colder and is supposed to snow on Wednesday.  I'm definitely NOT looking forward to snow.  One bit of preparation I have not yet done is get tires for snow and ice (and I apparently can't get them for my road bike; I wasn't aware of that.  Riding the hybrid is fun, but the road bike is a blast, so that's disappointing).

One bit of weirdness, post-ride, was that my iPhone wasn't working for data connections.  It first manifested as trouble uploading the ride to Strava, but after a bit, I realized that other things weren't working either.  The IP stack must've gotten corrupted, or something, because rebooting fixed everything, but that was weird.  I've never needed to reboot my phone before (although my iPad2, after upgrading to iOS 8, did reboot itself from time to time), so it was entirely unexpected.

Oh, and one bit of amusement.  I needed to do laundry, and especially with the winter tights (all but one of my tights, plus both sets of knee- and leg-warmers were dirty), there's quite a bit of it.  It used to be that I had a little bit of cycling clothes in my laundry.  Now the cycling clothes are my laundry, practically.  Which means that the dryer is startlingly close to empty, when I run it.