Tuesday, I got on the road a little late, and was going to have trouble even getting my fifteen mile loop in. I did it anyway, and got back a little late, but it worked out ok.
How did the ride go? It was ok. I finished in sixty-three minutes, which works out to 14.3mph average. Not too bad. Power was 114W, which was ok, with heart rate of 126bpm. I think, though, that I wasn't doing too well with regulating that. I hit a max of 142bpm, but I'm pretty sure that had to do with a car. Still, I went over too many times.
I was amused that I, for the second time, passed someone heading up the W&OD around Glencarlyn, got behind them when I took Wilson and Roosevelt back to the W&OD while they stayed on the trail, then caught them again going up the W&OD through Falls Church. And this time it wasn't an elderly woman. Not a big deal, but I was amused.
My wife had to go in early Wednesday, so I couldn't ride early. And work completely hosed me during the day, so I couldn't squeeze one in, then. So I had to do a night ride.
Mostly, that's fine; it was much like my rides over the winter, despite the change in time of day. But it meant that I couldn't watch the meter for my heart rate, which had me a little worried.
I wanted to get done a little faster than usual, so I cut out the stretch along George Mason from Wilson to Shirlington, and just took Wilson all the way to Roosevelt. That cut the ride down to eleven miles, which I finished in fifty-two minutes. So, the good and the bad, there. The good is that my max heart rate over the whole ride was 130bpm. The bad was that I was only doing 12.6mph, although some of that could be route selection; I kept most of the hilly parts, and jettisoned relatively flat parts.
Regardless, it was a pleasant drive; far fewer cars around than I expected. And I only saw two other bikers (one of whom was riding on the road with no light; not bright, literally or figuratively), and very few walkers/joggers, so that was nice.
Yesterday, same issue with early to work. And work seriously hosed me during the day (mostly not their fault, this time, though; the army was having computer problems). So again, I was out at night, and did the same route.
And the ride went fairly similarly, except that I finished much faster. Not sure why. Finished the 10.9 miles in 48 minutes, an average of 13.8mph, average heart rate of 115bpm (max 131 (!), sweet), power of 106W. Much better, although I do have to wonder about why. Still, I'm very happy now that I'm looking at that.
I do need to spend more time on the bike, though; I'm going to lose the conditioning if I keep cutting back to 45-50 minutes instead of 75-90 minutes.
In any event, I wasn't able to ride this morning either, so I'll have to talk about my ride later, after I do it.
20150710
20150709
Some improvement
One good thing did come out of Saturday (and it wasn't the July Fourth fireworks, which were almost entirely obscured by the smoke that was blown our way from the explosions); we had friends over, and I arranged a bike ride for Sunday with a couple of them. One of whom was hopefully going to be able to keep up with me.
We did a big loop, taking the Capital Crescent trail up into Bethesday and coming back on Beach Dr. And I added a bit over ten miles getting to/from the meet-up spot in Georgetown.
It was actually an easy ride, for the most part. Two friends were with me, the slower of whom started a couple of sprints which did not go well for him. And the other, and I, did push a bit for a mile or two around the beginning of Beach Dr.
Regardless of how hard we were (or weren't) pushing, it was a very nice, peaceful ride that went through a number of areas that you'd never guess would exist within DC. Still no heart rate info, but I was amused to have the power data, as I was able to send it along to the friend who felt like starting the sprints.
The one bad thing is that my light fell off going down Beach Dr, and I didn't realize what had fallen until over an hour later. So I need to replace my front light; extremely annoying.
Still, we had a good time; glad we got the chance to do it.
Monday, I wasn't able to get out in the morning, though some good did come out of that, as my heart rate meter was found (just after I'd ordered a replacement via Amazon, and was finally going to get to experience same-day delivery. Was almost disappointed to cancel that order).
I finally got out in the early afternoon, and was working on doing my normal eighteen-mile loop when it started drizzling. The skies looked threatening, and I hadn't taken ANY precautions (usually I at least put my phone in something waterproof, but I hadn't even done that), so I picked up the pace (a lot) and headed home.
Since it was convenient, I decided to try to break my record from the East Falls Church Metro station up to Williamsburg & Yorktown Blvd. Despite losing 5-10 seconds to a traffic light, that worked out pretty well, as I was able to improve on my previous best by nearly a minute. That moved my placement up from 32nd to 3rd, which was quite cool. I'm mostly amused by the difference in time, because I used to push hard there regularly, but this is the first time I have in over six months.
In any event, from there, I kept hurrying home, just to get home, as the rain was picking up as I was going. I made it home before it got too bad, and it was a good thing I cut the ride short, because it became a serious downpour within a minute of my arrival at home. Very glad I wasn't caught out in that. And things worked out ok, as my phone was fully function when I arrived, and my shoes were only a little wet.
Unfortunately, going hard for the last five minutes or so hoses my numbers for the ride, so analysis is kind of tough. If I had thought about it, I could have set a lap when I started pushing, but it didn't occur to me until well after. Next time, I suppose.
We did a big loop, taking the Capital Crescent trail up into Bethesday and coming back on Beach Dr. And I added a bit over ten miles getting to/from the meet-up spot in Georgetown.
It was actually an easy ride, for the most part. Two friends were with me, the slower of whom started a couple of sprints which did not go well for him. And the other, and I, did push a bit for a mile or two around the beginning of Beach Dr.
Regardless of how hard we were (or weren't) pushing, it was a very nice, peaceful ride that went through a number of areas that you'd never guess would exist within DC. Still no heart rate info, but I was amused to have the power data, as I was able to send it along to the friend who felt like starting the sprints.
The one bad thing is that my light fell off going down Beach Dr, and I didn't realize what had fallen until over an hour later. So I need to replace my front light; extremely annoying.
Still, we had a good time; glad we got the chance to do it.
Monday, I wasn't able to get out in the morning, though some good did come out of that, as my heart rate meter was found (just after I'd ordered a replacement via Amazon, and was finally going to get to experience same-day delivery. Was almost disappointed to cancel that order).
I finally got out in the early afternoon, and was working on doing my normal eighteen-mile loop when it started drizzling. The skies looked threatening, and I hadn't taken ANY precautions (usually I at least put my phone in something waterproof, but I hadn't even done that), so I picked up the pace (a lot) and headed home.
Since it was convenient, I decided to try to break my record from the East Falls Church Metro station up to Williamsburg & Yorktown Blvd. Despite losing 5-10 seconds to a traffic light, that worked out pretty well, as I was able to improve on my previous best by nearly a minute. That moved my placement up from 32nd to 3rd, which was quite cool. I'm mostly amused by the difference in time, because I used to push hard there regularly, but this is the first time I have in over six months.
In any event, from there, I kept hurrying home, just to get home, as the rain was picking up as I was going. I made it home before it got too bad, and it was a good thing I cut the ride short, because it became a serious downpour within a minute of my arrival at home. Very glad I wasn't caught out in that. And things worked out ok, as my phone was fully function when I arrived, and my shoes were only a little wet.
Unfortunately, going hard for the last five minutes or so hoses my numbers for the ride, so analysis is kind of tough. If I had thought about it, I could have set a lap when I started pushing, but it didn't occur to me until well after. Next time, I suppose.
20150708
Not going well
Thursday I had to take my daughter to golf camp, and I had the day off. So I went for a ride while she was learning to golf. And that went... poorly.
It actually started even before we got to golf camp, when I couldn't find my heart rate meter. I found both straps, but no meter. So the ride had no heart rate data.
I was starting from Hilltop Golf course, which is on Telegraph Rd in Alexandria, and didn't start out with a destination. I started going up Telegraph, towards Alexandria proper (Hilltop is almost to Beulah), and decided I'd head towards the bridge and turn around.
About three miles in, I noticed that I had no air in my back tire, and stopped to put some in. I couldn't, so I decided to try to limp back to Hilltop. After a quarter- to half-mile, I realized that was stupid, and stopped to change tubes.
Well, after putting the valve extender on, I couldn't even get the tube to hold air. Not even a little bit. So I tried to put the old one back on, and was only able to get that one to hold a small amount. A woman walked up, and asked me if I wanted to try with a real pump, so I did.
With that pump, I was able to inflate the tube I'd started with up to full pressure, and I started on my way. Within a quarter mile, I was flat again. Fantastic. Well, before she'd shown up, I'd spent forty-five minutes or more trying to get air in either tube. I wasn't going to go through that again, so I just started walking the bike back. It took a while (I showed up having entirely missed the pizza party, and was even a few minutes late for pick-up time), but I made it back with sore feet.
In all, I managed about four miles of easy riding and another three of walking/jogging. Man, was I pissed about the whole situation.
Things did not improve, as far as fixing those tubes, when I got home. I had trouble even getting the pump on the nozzle, and I decided that I must have over-torqued the valve extender or the valve core. Either way, I wasn't getting anywhere.
I ordered a new extender, a couple extra tubes, and another core remover tool (keep the one I had in my bike bag, and get another to keep at home).
So Friday, I went back to my old wheels, which have never had these sorts of problems.
And I still hadn't found the heart rate meter. And the power meter, for some reason, never started up. I managed to get out with a little more time, so I did the eighteen mile loop. Two and a half to three miles in, I noticed that my distance was showing four miles. I still don't know why, but it never did correct. And the GPS map from afterward shows me doing some weird stuff between George Mason/Rt 29 and George Mason/Wilson.
It corrected itself from there, but that still left my speed being off for the whole ride (my max shows as 52.3mph, which is absurd.
Which basically means there was no meaningful data for the entire ride. No heart rate, no power, and the speed data was suspect.
Still, it was a nice day, so I'm glad I got out.
Saturday, despite still not having my heart rate meter, I knew I needed to do a hard ride, and went to my normal hill route. I was disappointed not to set any records in the hills (I was particularly hoping for a record on the 4.2-mile loop segment that I created, but missed that by fourteen seconds. Still forty seconds ahead of number two on that segment, though), but did set one a bit later.
I took the big hill on Williamsburg on, towards the end of the ride (I think I wasn't going to, but cut the ride short due to the threat of rain, for which I was unprepared). And I just killed it. I wish I had the heart rate data, but I pushed 791W for the twenty-eight seconds to get up that hill. I'm surprised to see that that's still a fair bit off from my record for that time; still, it felt really good.
Even better when I got home, and saw that that time was good for a tie for KOM. I did not expect, half a year ago, to ever even challenge for KOM there. As I said, very gratifying (though a tiny bit less so, in that it's a four-way tie for the position).
Other power numbers? Well, I did do about thirteen and a quarter minutes at/over threshold, which is pretty good. And almost four and a half of that was in zone seven, which is awesome.
Other than that, a not terribly remarkable ride. Fifteen point seven miles, 1440' elevation, done at 16.0mph. Nice, but not remarkable. And my power curve was well under my records. I'm still really happy about that Williamsburg hill, though.
It actually started even before we got to golf camp, when I couldn't find my heart rate meter. I found both straps, but no meter. So the ride had no heart rate data.
I was starting from Hilltop Golf course, which is on Telegraph Rd in Alexandria, and didn't start out with a destination. I started going up Telegraph, towards Alexandria proper (Hilltop is almost to Beulah), and decided I'd head towards the bridge and turn around.
About three miles in, I noticed that I had no air in my back tire, and stopped to put some in. I couldn't, so I decided to try to limp back to Hilltop. After a quarter- to half-mile, I realized that was stupid, and stopped to change tubes.
Well, after putting the valve extender on, I couldn't even get the tube to hold air. Not even a little bit. So I tried to put the old one back on, and was only able to get that one to hold a small amount. A woman walked up, and asked me if I wanted to try with a real pump, so I did.
With that pump, I was able to inflate the tube I'd started with up to full pressure, and I started on my way. Within a quarter mile, I was flat again. Fantastic. Well, before she'd shown up, I'd spent forty-five minutes or more trying to get air in either tube. I wasn't going to go through that again, so I just started walking the bike back. It took a while (I showed up having entirely missed the pizza party, and was even a few minutes late for pick-up time), but I made it back with sore feet.
In all, I managed about four miles of easy riding and another three of walking/jogging. Man, was I pissed about the whole situation.
Things did not improve, as far as fixing those tubes, when I got home. I had trouble even getting the pump on the nozzle, and I decided that I must have over-torqued the valve extender or the valve core. Either way, I wasn't getting anywhere.
I ordered a new extender, a couple extra tubes, and another core remover tool (keep the one I had in my bike bag, and get another to keep at home).
So Friday, I went back to my old wheels, which have never had these sorts of problems.
And I still hadn't found the heart rate meter. And the power meter, for some reason, never started up. I managed to get out with a little more time, so I did the eighteen mile loop. Two and a half to three miles in, I noticed that my distance was showing four miles. I still don't know why, but it never did correct. And the GPS map from afterward shows me doing some weird stuff between George Mason/Rt 29 and George Mason/Wilson.
It corrected itself from there, but that still left my speed being off for the whole ride (my max shows as 52.3mph, which is absurd.
Which basically means there was no meaningful data for the entire ride. No heart rate, no power, and the speed data was suspect.
Still, it was a nice day, so I'm glad I got out.
Saturday, despite still not having my heart rate meter, I knew I needed to do a hard ride, and went to my normal hill route. I was disappointed not to set any records in the hills (I was particularly hoping for a record on the 4.2-mile loop segment that I created, but missed that by fourteen seconds. Still forty seconds ahead of number two on that segment, though), but did set one a bit later.
I took the big hill on Williamsburg on, towards the end of the ride (I think I wasn't going to, but cut the ride short due to the threat of rain, for which I was unprepared). And I just killed it. I wish I had the heart rate data, but I pushed 791W for the twenty-eight seconds to get up that hill. I'm surprised to see that that's still a fair bit off from my record for that time; still, it felt really good.
Even better when I got home, and saw that that time was good for a tie for KOM. I did not expect, half a year ago, to ever even challenge for KOM there. As I said, very gratifying (though a tiny bit less so, in that it's a four-way tie for the position).
Other power numbers? Well, I did do about thirteen and a quarter minutes at/over threshold, which is pretty good. And almost four and a half of that was in zone seven, which is awesome.
Other than that, a not terribly remarkable ride. Fifteen point seven miles, 1440' elevation, done at 16.0mph. Nice, but not remarkable. And my power curve was well under my records. I'm still really happy about that Williamsburg hill, though.
Exciting riding
Lots going on, no time to write, it seems. But let's try to catch up.
Monday was hosed up from start to finish. I played the game too long to get a ride in, in the morning, so I wasn't able to do anything until afternoon. I took my daughter to her piano lesson via bike, with mixed results. That is, we were able to get there, but we had a couple of really steep hills that forced my daughter to walk her bike.
While she was taking her lesson, I got out for a hard ride, which went decently. Except for the fact that my tire flatted while I was out. Check out this graph for the ride, though; I find it hilarious:
Not exactly challenging to figure out when I was by myself, and when I was with my daughter.
It was a bit interesting of a ride, though, as I was going on different roads than the ones I'm used to (since I was starting from a couple miles from home, and because I didn't have a lot of time). I managed a top-ten finish right by her piano lesson, and wandered around some bucolic streets. It was a fairly pleasant ride, despite the heat of the day.
I spent that part of the ride at a 173 average heart rate, with a max of 190bpm. That was pretty good. Overall, it was twenty-two minutes in zones four and five, which was great (almost five of it was in zone five, which was even better). Power-wise, it was almost eleven minutes at/above threshold, which isn't too bad, either.
The next day, though, did not start out well. I'd left the tube with the patch glue drying overnight (overkill, but I like to do it when I can). I woke up, played puzzles for a bit, then went to get the bike. After two tries, I couldn't get the tube to hold air (patch, remove, re-patch, remove), so I finally looked for, and found, a new tube I had sitting around.
I put it on, and got out on the road. And man, was I mad, so I decided to make it a hard ride, even though I'd done somewhat of a hard ride the day before (that is to say, I went plenty hard, but not for quite as long as I would have liked). I didn't have a lot of time, either, so I did my normal fifteen mile loop (how much time? I would never have finished it at my normal speed).
And I did more than ok. Only one top-ten finish (eighth overall on Grove Ave in Falls Church), but a bunch of PRs. And I had a stretch of over a mile and a half (on the W&OD, heading north from Shirlington) where I averaged 187bpm heart rate. I used to not be capable of getting close to that; hitting 187bpm used to get my body to tell me, almost instantly, "stop now". So my threshold must have increased, which is awesome.
For the overall ride, I managed 19.2mph (seriously, I was killing it), with thirty-nine minutes in zones four and five. Pretty obviously, my zone definitions are off. Power-wise, we're looking at sixteen minutes at/over threshold.
I think the numbers I'd used to set the threshold (260W, which I got from 95% of my best twenty-minute stretch) were wrong to begin with. The best-twenty numbers I was using are, I think, weighted average rather than strict average, which means they were (way too?) high. Well, they might be getting closer, now.
Wednesday morning, I decided to use that improvement, and set my target heart rate for my easy rides up to 130bpm. That helped a bit, with staying under target, but not as well as I'd hoped.
I mostly kept it under the target, though I did hit 137bpm at one point and 133bpm a couple of other times (briefly, though). And raising the target didn't result in much improvement in power numbers. I averaged 122W, which isn't bad, but it didn't result in any apparent improvement in speed; I still only managed 14.0mph over the eighteen miles.
The next day is when things really went to hell.
Monday was hosed up from start to finish. I played the game too long to get a ride in, in the morning, so I wasn't able to do anything until afternoon. I took my daughter to her piano lesson via bike, with mixed results. That is, we were able to get there, but we had a couple of really steep hills that forced my daughter to walk her bike.
While she was taking her lesson, I got out for a hard ride, which went decently. Except for the fact that my tire flatted while I was out. Check out this graph for the ride, though; I find it hilarious:
It was a bit interesting of a ride, though, as I was going on different roads than the ones I'm used to (since I was starting from a couple miles from home, and because I didn't have a lot of time). I managed a top-ten finish right by her piano lesson, and wandered around some bucolic streets. It was a fairly pleasant ride, despite the heat of the day.
I spent that part of the ride at a 173 average heart rate, with a max of 190bpm. That was pretty good. Overall, it was twenty-two minutes in zones four and five, which was great (almost five of it was in zone five, which was even better). Power-wise, it was almost eleven minutes at/above threshold, which isn't too bad, either.
The next day, though, did not start out well. I'd left the tube with the patch glue drying overnight (overkill, but I like to do it when I can). I woke up, played puzzles for a bit, then went to get the bike. After two tries, I couldn't get the tube to hold air (patch, remove, re-patch, remove), so I finally looked for, and found, a new tube I had sitting around.
I put it on, and got out on the road. And man, was I mad, so I decided to make it a hard ride, even though I'd done somewhat of a hard ride the day before (that is to say, I went plenty hard, but not for quite as long as I would have liked). I didn't have a lot of time, either, so I did my normal fifteen mile loop (how much time? I would never have finished it at my normal speed).
And I did more than ok. Only one top-ten finish (eighth overall on Grove Ave in Falls Church), but a bunch of PRs. And I had a stretch of over a mile and a half (on the W&OD, heading north from Shirlington) where I averaged 187bpm heart rate. I used to not be capable of getting close to that; hitting 187bpm used to get my body to tell me, almost instantly, "stop now". So my threshold must have increased, which is awesome.
For the overall ride, I managed 19.2mph (seriously, I was killing it), with thirty-nine minutes in zones four and five. Pretty obviously, my zone definitions are off. Power-wise, we're looking at sixteen minutes at/over threshold.
I think the numbers I'd used to set the threshold (260W, which I got from 95% of my best twenty-minute stretch) were wrong to begin with. The best-twenty numbers I was using are, I think, weighted average rather than strict average, which means they were (way too?) high. Well, they might be getting closer, now.
Wednesday morning, I decided to use that improvement, and set my target heart rate for my easy rides up to 130bpm. That helped a bit, with staying under target, but not as well as I'd hoped.
I mostly kept it under the target, though I did hit 137bpm at one point and 133bpm a couple of other times (briefly, though). And raising the target didn't result in much improvement in power numbers. I averaged 122W, which isn't bad, but it didn't result in any apparent improvement in speed; I still only managed 14.0mph over the eighteen miles.
The next day is when things really went to hell.
20150703
Marvel bejeweled?
As I alluded to previously, much of the cause behind my riding problems (and especially my sleeping problems) has to do with a new game to which a friend introduced me, called Marvel Puzzle Quest. At first blush, it seems like a Bejeweled clone (and I've long played a fair bit of Bejeweled, mostly of the Blitz variant) with a Marvel Super Heroes theme.
The basic mechanics are identical to bejeweled (and Candy Crush, and umpteen others, I'm sure), but the addition of the characters adds a number of strategic elements.
Basically, it is set up as a series of matches, three heroes vs one to three villains. And each one in the match has a certain number of hit points, and certain powers to directly do damage or affect the board layout. Plus, each one does a set amount of damage for each color.
This means there's a couple levels of strategy involved. First, there's the selection of characters to use, in that you want ones that complement each other in both powers and in doing max damage in each color. Or you might want one to protect another by making sure the protector does more damage in one or more colors than the protectee (the one who does the damage in the first tile match is the one exposed to enemy counterattack on the other team's turn).
There's also the strategy during the bout for selecting the tile match to make; do you want to maximize damage? Or maximize AP (energy for special powers)? Or make multiple matches? Or prevent the other team from making a certain match? Lots of options.
One of the things that makes the game pretty evil is that you have limited options for which characters to use. You start out with three, I think, and occasionally you get "cover"s. These are pictures of comic book covers with a given character on the front. If you don't have the character pictured, and you have room on your roster, you can recruit that character. If you already have the character, you can use the cover to make your version of that character more powerful, by either adding a new power (they start with only one, and can have two or three, depending on the character. For instance, modern Black Widow can only have two powers, while Iron Man can have three) or improving an existing one.
And powers can be raised until you reach the lesser of level five for that power or thirteen total levels in powers for that character.
Each character is also rated for a certain rarity, denoted by the number of stars, and a level (think D&D). The base level of the character is based on those stars: 1 for 1 star, 15 for 2-star, 40 for 3-star, up to 70 for 4-star. Character level affects hit points, how much damage is done with a match of each color, and has effects on certain powers (particularly damage-dealing ones).
When you initially find a character, the levels listed above are maxima, as well as minima. If you want to raise their level, you need two things: Iso-8 and additional covers. Each cover allows you to raise a character's level by a certain amount (how much depends on which total cover number it is and how many stars the character has). Basically, each cover raises the maximum level you can achieve by a certain amount, and then you can pay the Iso-8 to actually raise the level towards that maximum. And because there's a limit on covers, there's also a limit on overall character level (50 for one-star, 94 for two-star, 166 for three star, and 270 for four star).
So Iso-8 is a kind of in-game currency (one of two) which allows raising character level. It's also a plot device, built around that idea (I'll come back to this). It can be found by completing bouts or as bonuses for certain things (ditto). It can also be found by selling covers (you will get extras, especially of the one stars, fairly quickly).
The other form of currency is hero points, which can be used to expand your roster or to acquire additional covers. Strategically, you should only use them to expand your roster, because they're hard to find and are generally found in increments of twenty-five or fifty (and roster slots quickly reach several hundred points each).
But you can use them to purchase "cover packs" as well, where you get one, ten, or forty-two covers, perhaps within a subset of available heroes. The advantage of the larger packs is not that they get cheaper on a per-cover basis, but that you get better odds of three- and four-star covers. It's an interesting, and evil, system definitely informed by experience with collectible card-playing games. And this is part of what makes the game evil for me; I was very seriously into Magic: The Gathering back in college, and for some years after. It was quite the money-sink for me; if you want to buy a set of beta moxes/power blue (unlimited, signed lotus), I still have those (I sold the rest of my cards).
One thing to note, if you're thinking of buying a cover pack, check the odds and pricing, because it's all over the map from series to series, which is the best buy. With the base set, the single is the best buy, because it's around one-third the price with two-thirds the odds of the best covers. With some of the scenario-based ones, especially if you're just looking for the featured covers, you'll do better with the 10- or 42-packs.
Rounding out hero points, what I said about saving hero points for roster slots holds generally, but there is one exception. If you're going to put some money into the game, and decided ahead of time to set some of the hero points you buy (with real money) into (a) cover pack(s), then go for it. It isn't the most strategic use of your resources, but could work out well. I've certainly been tempted, and might do it in the future.
I alluded to plot device, so let's get back to that. There are three basic ways to play the game. Two of them are plot-driven, where you have specific missions, and have to defeat specific threats. One of them is completely single-player, with exactly-defined threats. The other is competitive, in that everyone is going after the same type of threat (same opponents), but with varying levels of difficulty (higher level opposition for stronger players (still trying to determine how they figure out the exact meaning of stronger)).
In the former, the prizes are exhaustively determined at the beginning, and will run out. In the latter, each run (and it goes in 3-4 day sequences, where each day is also a separate competition) has separate prizes, and they regenerate when the run starts over (I don't know how long the timeframe is on that; I haven't been playing long enough).
In those competitive runs, for the whole sequence, there are prizes defined by how many points you get. That is, and point total X, you'll get prize Y. Those points accumulate, too, and the winners come from the point totals.
It is run in groups of one thousand, and within that group, the top two get a really hard to find cover (and three of a slightly-easier-to-find one. Generally one four-star and all three covers of a three star). The next eight finishers get those same three covers of the three star. The next ten get two covers of that same three star. The next thirty get one cover. Below that, there will be some lesser covers (probably one or more prominent characters from that run).
Everyone also gets increasing amounts of Iso-8, and the top fifty get increasing amounts of hero points.
Within each day, there's a similar breakdown, in terms of placing determining prize. In that one, the top 100 or 200 get a (token for a) cover from the set for that run. There are also increasing amounts of Iso-8 and Hero Points. Some lower finishers get a token for a default set two-star (or better) cover or for a one-star (one-star tokens are all the same; there are no set-specific ones. Something like 90% of them are one-star covers, and you'll quickly get all of those that you want. The rest, you can sell for more Iso-8). The point is, you do well and you'll be rewarded pretty handsomely.
The last way you can play is player-vs-player. This is a kind-of weird dynamic, though, as it isn't a real-time game. Essentially, you get pitted against someone, and you attack them. Their team is played by the game's AI (which is not terribly good), while you play your team. The attacker has a number of advantages.
Anyway, the point of this is not to get into the weeds of the mechanics. Player vs player (PvP) is also done in events, and the winner of a match gets points (if the attacker wins, they also get a prize. Usually Iso-8, but sometimes a one-star token). At the end of the event, players are ranked by their points, and get prizes similarly with how it works in competitive single-player play.
This is a weird set-up, in that it isn't designed to reward newbies, it's designed to reward the players with ridiculously-powered characters (those people have an edge in the competitive stuff as well, but thanks to the dynamic scaling of opposition level, not as big an edge as here).
Anyway, I think all of that gives a feel for the game, with solid indications of why I like it. It's one of the few games I've actually put more than a couple of dollars into in a long time.
The basic mechanics are identical to bejeweled (and Candy Crush, and umpteen others, I'm sure), but the addition of the characters adds a number of strategic elements.
Basically, it is set up as a series of matches, three heroes vs one to three villains. And each one in the match has a certain number of hit points, and certain powers to directly do damage or affect the board layout. Plus, each one does a set amount of damage for each color.
This means there's a couple levels of strategy involved. First, there's the selection of characters to use, in that you want ones that complement each other in both powers and in doing max damage in each color. Or you might want one to protect another by making sure the protector does more damage in one or more colors than the protectee (the one who does the damage in the first tile match is the one exposed to enemy counterattack on the other team's turn).
There's also the strategy during the bout for selecting the tile match to make; do you want to maximize damage? Or maximize AP (energy for special powers)? Or make multiple matches? Or prevent the other team from making a certain match? Lots of options.
One of the things that makes the game pretty evil is that you have limited options for which characters to use. You start out with three, I think, and occasionally you get "cover"s. These are pictures of comic book covers with a given character on the front. If you don't have the character pictured, and you have room on your roster, you can recruit that character. If you already have the character, you can use the cover to make your version of that character more powerful, by either adding a new power (they start with only one, and can have two or three, depending on the character. For instance, modern Black Widow can only have two powers, while Iron Man can have three) or improving an existing one.
And powers can be raised until you reach the lesser of level five for that power or thirteen total levels in powers for that character.
Each character is also rated for a certain rarity, denoted by the number of stars, and a level (think D&D). The base level of the character is based on those stars: 1 for 1 star, 15 for 2-star, 40 for 3-star, up to 70 for 4-star. Character level affects hit points, how much damage is done with a match of each color, and has effects on certain powers (particularly damage-dealing ones).
When you initially find a character, the levels listed above are maxima, as well as minima. If you want to raise their level, you need two things: Iso-8 and additional covers. Each cover allows you to raise a character's level by a certain amount (how much depends on which total cover number it is and how many stars the character has). Basically, each cover raises the maximum level you can achieve by a certain amount, and then you can pay the Iso-8 to actually raise the level towards that maximum. And because there's a limit on covers, there's also a limit on overall character level (50 for one-star, 94 for two-star, 166 for three star, and 270 for four star).
So Iso-8 is a kind of in-game currency (one of two) which allows raising character level. It's also a plot device, built around that idea (I'll come back to this). It can be found by completing bouts or as bonuses for certain things (ditto). It can also be found by selling covers (you will get extras, especially of the one stars, fairly quickly).
The other form of currency is hero points, which can be used to expand your roster or to acquire additional covers. Strategically, you should only use them to expand your roster, because they're hard to find and are generally found in increments of twenty-five or fifty (and roster slots quickly reach several hundred points each).
But you can use them to purchase "cover packs" as well, where you get one, ten, or forty-two covers, perhaps within a subset of available heroes. The advantage of the larger packs is not that they get cheaper on a per-cover basis, but that you get better odds of three- and four-star covers. It's an interesting, and evil, system definitely informed by experience with collectible card-playing games. And this is part of what makes the game evil for me; I was very seriously into Magic: The Gathering back in college, and for some years after. It was quite the money-sink for me; if you want to buy a set of beta moxes/power blue (unlimited, signed lotus), I still have those (I sold the rest of my cards).
One thing to note, if you're thinking of buying a cover pack, check the odds and pricing, because it's all over the map from series to series, which is the best buy. With the base set, the single is the best buy, because it's around one-third the price with two-thirds the odds of the best covers. With some of the scenario-based ones, especially if you're just looking for the featured covers, you'll do better with the 10- or 42-packs.
Rounding out hero points, what I said about saving hero points for roster slots holds generally, but there is one exception. If you're going to put some money into the game, and decided ahead of time to set some of the hero points you buy (with real money) into (a) cover pack(s), then go for it. It isn't the most strategic use of your resources, but could work out well. I've certainly been tempted, and might do it in the future.
I alluded to plot device, so let's get back to that. There are three basic ways to play the game. Two of them are plot-driven, where you have specific missions, and have to defeat specific threats. One of them is completely single-player, with exactly-defined threats. The other is competitive, in that everyone is going after the same type of threat (same opponents), but with varying levels of difficulty (higher level opposition for stronger players (still trying to determine how they figure out the exact meaning of stronger)).
In the former, the prizes are exhaustively determined at the beginning, and will run out. In the latter, each run (and it goes in 3-4 day sequences, where each day is also a separate competition) has separate prizes, and they regenerate when the run starts over (I don't know how long the timeframe is on that; I haven't been playing long enough).
In those competitive runs, for the whole sequence, there are prizes defined by how many points you get. That is, and point total X, you'll get prize Y. Those points accumulate, too, and the winners come from the point totals.
It is run in groups of one thousand, and within that group, the top two get a really hard to find cover (and three of a slightly-easier-to-find one. Generally one four-star and all three covers of a three star). The next eight finishers get those same three covers of the three star. The next ten get two covers of that same three star. The next thirty get one cover. Below that, there will be some lesser covers (probably one or more prominent characters from that run).
Everyone also gets increasing amounts of Iso-8, and the top fifty get increasing amounts of hero points.
Within each day, there's a similar breakdown, in terms of placing determining prize. In that one, the top 100 or 200 get a (token for a) cover from the set for that run. There are also increasing amounts of Iso-8 and Hero Points. Some lower finishers get a token for a default set two-star (or better) cover or for a one-star (one-star tokens are all the same; there are no set-specific ones. Something like 90% of them are one-star covers, and you'll quickly get all of those that you want. The rest, you can sell for more Iso-8). The point is, you do well and you'll be rewarded pretty handsomely.
The last way you can play is player-vs-player. This is a kind-of weird dynamic, though, as it isn't a real-time game. Essentially, you get pitted against someone, and you attack them. Their team is played by the game's AI (which is not terribly good), while you play your team. The attacker has a number of advantages.
Anyway, the point of this is not to get into the weeds of the mechanics. Player vs player (PvP) is also done in events, and the winner of a match gets points (if the attacker wins, they also get a prize. Usually Iso-8, but sometimes a one-star token). At the end of the event, players are ranked by their points, and get prizes similarly with how it works in competitive single-player play.
This is a weird set-up, in that it isn't designed to reward newbies, it's designed to reward the players with ridiculously-powered characters (those people have an edge in the competitive stuff as well, but thanks to the dynamic scaling of opposition level, not as big an edge as here).
Anyway, I think all of that gives a feel for the game, with solid indications of why I like it. It's one of the few games I've actually put more than a couple of dollars into in a long time.
20150629
Falling further behind
I wanted to continue with Saturday because the new wheels that I mentioned recently (Swiss Side Hadrons) were finally installed on Friday. They did actually arrive on the day I mentioned them, from the postal service (along with all of our next door neighbor's mail, oddly), but it took me a while to put them on.
Well, Saturday was probably a good day for breaking them in, as it was windy and wet. Well, the wet part didn't matter, but the windy part certainly did. The first thing that hit me are how much noise they make. I didn't realize this until they arrived, but it turns out that they are not carbon fiber wheels, as I thought. They're lightweight, aluminum wheels with a carbon fiber faring.
There's plusses and minuses to that, and I probably would have bought them anyway, knowing that, but I was irritated that I did not see that mentioned on their website. That construction was what led to the noise to which I'm referring; it's a regular vibration of the faring that you hear whenever the wheel is moving. It isn't obnoxiously loud, but it's certainly noticeable.
The second thing was a little bit of a sail effect (a slight, and I do mean slight, lateral force on the wheel; it was barely enough to be noticeable) from winds at low yaw angles and when turning.
The one problem with that wind, though, was it made it difficult to judge performance (and the water didn't help either). I was a bit slower than usual, but the wind and wet probably caused that; certainly, they were contributing.
In any event, despite the weather, I did the twenty-three mile version of my Arlington trail loop (that actually goes through a bit of Alexandria as well). I did it in 104 minutes, which left my speed all the way down at 13.0mph. Considerably less than normal, to be sure. That was with 888' of elevation, averaging 112W power. So-so numbers across the board, really.
And with a heart rate of 123bpm, which is fairly high (max 131bpm, which is so-so). Unsurprisingly, given that, I had 23:36 over 125bpm, which is not good at all. The only good sign is that the average over that time was 127bpm, which means I was mostly just creeping over the line. Still, I need to do better.
Sunday should have been a hard ride, but I didn't leave myself enough time for a long, hard ride, which was what I wanted. How'd that work? Well, I overslept this morning, so it means that I got hosed up even more, now. I'll probably need to do another short, hard ride like I did the other day. That isn't terrible, but it isn't terribly good, either.
As for what the ride was, rather than what it wasn't, I did my fifteen mile loop in sixty-five minutes, for a 13.9 mph average. That isn't terrible, but again isn't all that good. Elevation was around 850', and power 113W. The power number's pretty decent, but that's at average heart rate of 124bpm, which is obviously higher than I'd want. And my max was 133bpm, though the average while over was only 127bpm.
Riding just has not been going well over the last couple weeks. I'll discuss a bit more of the why in my next post.
Well, Saturday was probably a good day for breaking them in, as it was windy and wet. Well, the wet part didn't matter, but the windy part certainly did. The first thing that hit me are how much noise they make. I didn't realize this until they arrived, but it turns out that they are not carbon fiber wheels, as I thought. They're lightweight, aluminum wheels with a carbon fiber faring.
There's plusses and minuses to that, and I probably would have bought them anyway, knowing that, but I was irritated that I did not see that mentioned on their website. That construction was what led to the noise to which I'm referring; it's a regular vibration of the faring that you hear whenever the wheel is moving. It isn't obnoxiously loud, but it's certainly noticeable.
The second thing was a little bit of a sail effect (a slight, and I do mean slight, lateral force on the wheel; it was barely enough to be noticeable) from winds at low yaw angles and when turning.
The one problem with that wind, though, was it made it difficult to judge performance (and the water didn't help either). I was a bit slower than usual, but the wind and wet probably caused that; certainly, they were contributing.
In any event, despite the weather, I did the twenty-three mile version of my Arlington trail loop (that actually goes through a bit of Alexandria as well). I did it in 104 minutes, which left my speed all the way down at 13.0mph. Considerably less than normal, to be sure. That was with 888' of elevation, averaging 112W power. So-so numbers across the board, really.
And with a heart rate of 123bpm, which is fairly high (max 131bpm, which is so-so). Unsurprisingly, given that, I had 23:36 over 125bpm, which is not good at all. The only good sign is that the average over that time was 127bpm, which means I was mostly just creeping over the line. Still, I need to do better.
Sunday should have been a hard ride, but I didn't leave myself enough time for a long, hard ride, which was what I wanted. How'd that work? Well, I overslept this morning, so it means that I got hosed up even more, now. I'll probably need to do another short, hard ride like I did the other day. That isn't terrible, but it isn't terribly good, either.
As for what the ride was, rather than what it wasn't, I did my fifteen mile loop in sixty-five minutes, for a 13.9 mph average. That isn't terrible, but again isn't all that good. Elevation was around 850', and power 113W. The power number's pretty decent, but that's at average heart rate of 124bpm, which is obviously higher than I'd want. And my max was 133bpm, though the average while over was only 127bpm.
Riding just has not been going well over the last couple weeks. I'll discuss a bit more of the why in my next post.
Falling behind
In writing, that is. More than I thought, in fact. Lately, I've been chewed up by a game a friend introduced me to, Marvel Puzzle Quest. Silly idea, the game, take Bejeweled and give it a Marvel Super Heroes twist. However, it works well; I'll talk about it later.
For now, though, I need to go back over the last several (ok, more than several) days of riding.
Last Thursday was an easy recovery ride, doing my eighteen mile course. Looking at the data, it seems to've gone reasonably well, with 13.8mph average speed and 109W avg power. It wasn't great, though, as my heart rate max was 141bpm, which is definitely too high. Wish I could remember whether it was due to exertion or a car dive-bombing me. It was close to twelve minutes over 125bpm, though, and that's certainly too much.
Friday did not get off to a great start; I overslept, then did a short ride of just under eleven miles (my wife needed to leave early, so I needed to be back early to get the kids ready). I think I must not have been feeling well, because the power is only ok, and my heart rate is all over the place. I think I had battery issues, too, because the plot shows a couple of jumps. Ahh... I think I remember... I let the battery get down to roughly nothing while playing the game in the morning, then put it in the charger. Since it was charging, I expected it to record everything ok, even though the battery was very low, but it had some issues with that. It mostly worked out, but that's annoying.
Power was ok, at 119W avg, but speed was terrible, at 12.8mph. My only explanation is that I did the toughest part of my normal ride, with almost none of the easy parts (about 700' of elevation in those eleven miles).
Saturday should have been a hard day, but I overslept even more than the day before (by about an hour, really). Because of that, I just did my usual eighteen mile loop. Performance was ok; speed of 14.3mph, 121bpm heart rate, 110W power. But the heart rate was going out of control quite a lot in there. Max was 137, with eight minutes over 125bpm. Far less than ideal.
And to top it all off, the ground was a little wet and I slipped and slid pretty hard going around a sharp turn near my house (I am not appreciative of the car that was really, really close behind me coming down the hill before that turn). Lost a fair bit of skin on my right hip, a bit more on my butt, and a little more on my right arm and hand (what kills me about the latter is that I have gloves that would have prevented that scratching, at least, but wasn't wearing them). Not fun, especially when it came time to change bandages.
Sunday was a hard day. Very hard, in fact. I only did 16.6 miles, but that was in sixty-two minutes, with close to 1400' of elevation. In fact, I scared myself a bit at one point. I wanted to beat my record on the big hill on Williamsburg at the end of the ride, so I seriously pushed my way up. Well, it worked, I topped my previous best by a second, but I looked down just after to see a heart rate of 199bpm.
I never felt any pain, or anything like that, but that's probably higher than I really want it going. Of those sixty-two minutes, I spent thirty-six minutes in zone four, with almost ten more in zone five. New record. But yeah, that was the pain cave. Still, I was pretty proud of it.
I'm very bummed, though, to not have any power data. After turning on the cycling computer, I needed to go back to the bedroom to get my heart rate meter, and somehow that meant that the power meter was never found (I originally thought this was a Stages bug, but now I'm leaning towards it having more to do with Cyclemeter. Still need to get in touch with the latter's company).
After that brutal ride, Monday and Tuesday were both easy rides, as planned. Monday was my eighteen mile route, and Tuesday was the longest version of my figure-eight course, at almost twenty-nine miles (the one good thing about the injury is that none of the places that hurt touched the bike. So sitting and laying down were problems, but biking wasn't. Funny how that sort of thing can work).
Tuesday was mixed, in some ways. I got a nice photo of the sunrise, which was particularly nice (the sunrise, that is), but I had to do it with my phone. Good for sharing, less so for photo quality. The Capital Dome, which is currently covered in scaffolding, looked particularly near, did not come out well at all, which was hugely disappointing.
Both days I had trouble with my heart rate, especially in the latter half, but not really badly.
That brings me to Wednesday, which should have been a hard ride, but it completely slipped my mind (maybe I was worrying about the weather?). I didn't leave myself much time, though - I had to rush out the door after playing that stupid game some more - and I barely had time for my fifteen mile ride. And the data certainly bear out that I was rushing. My average heart rate was 124bpm, which makes it obvious that I was going much too hard. I spent seventeen of the sixty-four minutes over 125, and that's not good. And I averaged 133bpm over those seventeen minutes; also not good. It wasn't just edging over from time to time.
It was another day where I found myself wishing I had a video camera on my helmet; I nearly ran into a bird that flew across my path. And when I say nearly, I mean a matter of inches. Neat to watch; would have been neater to have captured. I'm getting a camera soon; I'll probably not even look at 90% of the recordings I make, but stuff like that will make it worthwhile.
So Thursday, I had to make up for Wednesday's miss. And I overslept badly enough to not have time to ride in the morning. I squeezed in a short ride at lunchtime, instead, and what it lacked in length, it made up for in intensity.
I did close to ten miles, with over 1000' of elevation, going at 15.5mph. I did a calm warm-up for five or ten minutes, and it was all 'GO!' from there. I was a little disappointed that I didn't set any records in the hills, but at least I was close.
The heart rate distribution was pretty similar to Sunday's, with seventeen minutes in zone four, and over ten in zone five. Max heart rate was a little lower, peaking at 195bpm, but it got up into the 190s several times. Power was... rather good. I didn't set my instantaneous power record, but did set it up through five seconds, which was a nice surprise. Over a longer timeframe, it was merely pretty good, but I was still pretty pleased.
I'm definitely improving in short-/medium-term power, which is good for my sprinting. Not sure how much it does for me over longer distances, but it can't hurt.
After that abuse, Friday was obviously a recovery day, and another one where I had to rush out the door to get the ride in. I did my fifteen mile loop in sixty-six minutes, averaging 13.6mph. Meh.
Heart rate was 124bpm avg (pushing it, I think), with 113W power. I should be getting more power at that heart rate.
I'll talk about the last couple days (this update has been sitting in the browser for several days now) separately.
For now, though, I need to go back over the last several (ok, more than several) days of riding.
Last Thursday was an easy recovery ride, doing my eighteen mile course. Looking at the data, it seems to've gone reasonably well, with 13.8mph average speed and 109W avg power. It wasn't great, though, as my heart rate max was 141bpm, which is definitely too high. Wish I could remember whether it was due to exertion or a car dive-bombing me. It was close to twelve minutes over 125bpm, though, and that's certainly too much.
Friday did not get off to a great start; I overslept, then did a short ride of just under eleven miles (my wife needed to leave early, so I needed to be back early to get the kids ready). I think I must not have been feeling well, because the power is only ok, and my heart rate is all over the place. I think I had battery issues, too, because the plot shows a couple of jumps. Ahh... I think I remember... I let the battery get down to roughly nothing while playing the game in the morning, then put it in the charger. Since it was charging, I expected it to record everything ok, even though the battery was very low, but it had some issues with that. It mostly worked out, but that's annoying.
Power was ok, at 119W avg, but speed was terrible, at 12.8mph. My only explanation is that I did the toughest part of my normal ride, with almost none of the easy parts (about 700' of elevation in those eleven miles).
Saturday should have been a hard day, but I overslept even more than the day before (by about an hour, really). Because of that, I just did my usual eighteen mile loop. Performance was ok; speed of 14.3mph, 121bpm heart rate, 110W power. But the heart rate was going out of control quite a lot in there. Max was 137, with eight minutes over 125bpm. Far less than ideal.
And to top it all off, the ground was a little wet and I slipped and slid pretty hard going around a sharp turn near my house (I am not appreciative of the car that was really, really close behind me coming down the hill before that turn). Lost a fair bit of skin on my right hip, a bit more on my butt, and a little more on my right arm and hand (what kills me about the latter is that I have gloves that would have prevented that scratching, at least, but wasn't wearing them). Not fun, especially when it came time to change bandages.
Sunday was a hard day. Very hard, in fact. I only did 16.6 miles, but that was in sixty-two minutes, with close to 1400' of elevation. In fact, I scared myself a bit at one point. I wanted to beat my record on the big hill on Williamsburg at the end of the ride, so I seriously pushed my way up. Well, it worked, I topped my previous best by a second, but I looked down just after to see a heart rate of 199bpm.
I never felt any pain, or anything like that, but that's probably higher than I really want it going. Of those sixty-two minutes, I spent thirty-six minutes in zone four, with almost ten more in zone five. New record. But yeah, that was the pain cave. Still, I was pretty proud of it.
I'm very bummed, though, to not have any power data. After turning on the cycling computer, I needed to go back to the bedroom to get my heart rate meter, and somehow that meant that the power meter was never found (I originally thought this was a Stages bug, but now I'm leaning towards it having more to do with Cyclemeter. Still need to get in touch with the latter's company).
After that brutal ride, Monday and Tuesday were both easy rides, as planned. Monday was my eighteen mile route, and Tuesday was the longest version of my figure-eight course, at almost twenty-nine miles (the one good thing about the injury is that none of the places that hurt touched the bike. So sitting and laying down were problems, but biking wasn't. Funny how that sort of thing can work).
Tuesday was mixed, in some ways. I got a nice photo of the sunrise, which was particularly nice (the sunrise, that is), but I had to do it with my phone. Good for sharing, less so for photo quality. The Capital Dome, which is currently covered in scaffolding, looked particularly near, did not come out well at all, which was hugely disappointing.
Both days I had trouble with my heart rate, especially in the latter half, but not really badly.
That brings me to Wednesday, which should have been a hard ride, but it completely slipped my mind (maybe I was worrying about the weather?). I didn't leave myself much time, though - I had to rush out the door after playing that stupid game some more - and I barely had time for my fifteen mile ride. And the data certainly bear out that I was rushing. My average heart rate was 124bpm, which makes it obvious that I was going much too hard. I spent seventeen of the sixty-four minutes over 125, and that's not good. And I averaged 133bpm over those seventeen minutes; also not good. It wasn't just edging over from time to time.
It was another day where I found myself wishing I had a video camera on my helmet; I nearly ran into a bird that flew across my path. And when I say nearly, I mean a matter of inches. Neat to watch; would have been neater to have captured. I'm getting a camera soon; I'll probably not even look at 90% of the recordings I make, but stuff like that will make it worthwhile.
So Thursday, I had to make up for Wednesday's miss. And I overslept badly enough to not have time to ride in the morning. I squeezed in a short ride at lunchtime, instead, and what it lacked in length, it made up for in intensity.
I did close to ten miles, with over 1000' of elevation, going at 15.5mph. I did a calm warm-up for five or ten minutes, and it was all 'GO!' from there. I was a little disappointed that I didn't set any records in the hills, but at least I was close.
The heart rate distribution was pretty similar to Sunday's, with seventeen minutes in zone four, and over ten in zone five. Max heart rate was a little lower, peaking at 195bpm, but it got up into the 190s several times. Power was... rather good. I didn't set my instantaneous power record, but did set it up through five seconds, which was a nice surprise. Over a longer timeframe, it was merely pretty good, but I was still pretty pleased.
I'm definitely improving in short-/medium-term power, which is good for my sprinting. Not sure how much it does for me over longer distances, but it can't hurt.
After that abuse, Friday was obviously a recovery day, and another one where I had to rush out the door to get the ride in. I did my fifteen mile loop in sixty-six minutes, averaging 13.6mph. Meh.
Heart rate was 124bpm avg (pushing it, I think), with 113W power. I should be getting more power at that heart rate.
I'll talk about the last couple days (this update has been sitting in the browser for several days now) separately.
20150617
Somewhat better
I woke up a little bit early this morning; needed to go to the bathroom. Like the last couple days, it was a less-than-pleasant experience, but at least this time I had some imodium to take afterward. I also downed some water right away, though probably not as much as I should have.
Regardless, I got on the bike, and did roughly what I described yesterday. That is, I did my 25-mile figure-eight ride, going hard up the hills (and moderate to hard, otherwise).
How'd that work? Mixed. The first hill, which climbs S 31st St above Shirlington (going right by the apartment building where I lived for a couple years) went quite well. I knocked 16s off my previous best (which was 92s, so better than 17% improvement), although I think the segment went ten or twenty yards further than I thought, as I tailed off a bit. Or maybe I was just tired; I know my heart rate cleared 190bpm there. Still, that was 7th overall, and I was quite happy with that.
There's another, very short, hill going from Fairfax Dr to the Custis Trail (just before George Mason Dr) that also went well. I hadn't attacked that one in a long time (and have only done so a few times, actually), but took four seconds (of eighteen) off my previous best. That put me at 10th overall (and I'm pretty sure several of the ones above me were in a car), which was also cool.
On the long climb from the Cemetary, along Rt 110, up Ft Myer Dr, then the Rt 50 access road, across Rhodes, and up Courthouse, it didn't go nearly as well. I took four seconds (of thirty-four, and I'd hit that time four times previously) off my record for the first hill, which was great. But by the time I cleared the Iwo Jima Memorial, I was already a second off my best, and it did not improve from there. In the end, despite heaving at a heart rate of 195bpm, I lost nine more seconds off my best, the rest of the way. Ah well.
I also pushed pretty hard from Gravelly Point to the Fourteenth St Bridge (forgetting that the segment extends a fair bit further than that), but ended up way off my best time (almost a minute off; would be interesting to know how the part up to the bridge compared). And perhaps pushing there was a significant contribution to my lackluster showing a mile later, when I got to the Cemetary.
At the end, I tried to push on a segment shortly after turning from George Mason Dr onto Washington Blvd. Unfortunately, I started well before the beginning (forgot where it started until I got there) and then blew up. Twenty-six seconds (of fifty-six) off my record. Ouch.
But the last hill before home, on Williamsburg, between Harrison and George Mason, I managed to hammer up and over. I beat my previous best by three seconds (of forty-five), which is decent. Still need to knock ten seconds off that, if I want to get into the top ten, but I think I might be able to do that if I'm not tired when I get there (not only is there the fatigue, but I didn't start pushing until the hill, and the segment starts a couple hundred yards before that. Maybe, maybe not). We'll see.
In any event, as you can see, pretty mixed results. Overall, 25 miles, 1100', 17.0mph (worse than I thought), just shy of twenty-five minutes Z4-Z5 (heart-based), thirteen minutes Z4-Z7 (power-based). Power curve? Meh. Decent out to 10s (935W there, done on that 14s segment mentioned above), close to my record from 1:08 to 2:27, new record 5:15-5:35 (interesting, that), and pretty mediocre otherwise.
Not bad, I guess, for being in less-than-perfect health, although I must admit to still being disappointed in a few details. Looking forward, tomorrow and Friday will both be recovery days (although I might do extra, easy, miles on Friday because I might have some time during the day), and hopefully Saturday will be the hard group ride.
Oh, and I forgot to mention; the new wheels arrived very late today without ever indicating "Out for Delivery", for which they did have an indicator. Don't use PostNL if you can help it.
Regardless, I got on the bike, and did roughly what I described yesterday. That is, I did my 25-mile figure-eight ride, going hard up the hills (and moderate to hard, otherwise).
How'd that work? Mixed. The first hill, which climbs S 31st St above Shirlington (going right by the apartment building where I lived for a couple years) went quite well. I knocked 16s off my previous best (which was 92s, so better than 17% improvement), although I think the segment went ten or twenty yards further than I thought, as I tailed off a bit. Or maybe I was just tired; I know my heart rate cleared 190bpm there. Still, that was 7th overall, and I was quite happy with that.
There's another, very short, hill going from Fairfax Dr to the Custis Trail (just before George Mason Dr) that also went well. I hadn't attacked that one in a long time (and have only done so a few times, actually), but took four seconds (of eighteen) off my previous best. That put me at 10th overall (and I'm pretty sure several of the ones above me were in a car), which was also cool.
On the long climb from the Cemetary, along Rt 110, up Ft Myer Dr, then the Rt 50 access road, across Rhodes, and up Courthouse, it didn't go nearly as well. I took four seconds (of thirty-four, and I'd hit that time four times previously) off my record for the first hill, which was great. But by the time I cleared the Iwo Jima Memorial, I was already a second off my best, and it did not improve from there. In the end, despite heaving at a heart rate of 195bpm, I lost nine more seconds off my best, the rest of the way. Ah well.
I also pushed pretty hard from Gravelly Point to the Fourteenth St Bridge (forgetting that the segment extends a fair bit further than that), but ended up way off my best time (almost a minute off; would be interesting to know how the part up to the bridge compared). And perhaps pushing there was a significant contribution to my lackluster showing a mile later, when I got to the Cemetary.
At the end, I tried to push on a segment shortly after turning from George Mason Dr onto Washington Blvd. Unfortunately, I started well before the beginning (forgot where it started until I got there) and then blew up. Twenty-six seconds (of fifty-six) off my record. Ouch.
But the last hill before home, on Williamsburg, between Harrison and George Mason, I managed to hammer up and over. I beat my previous best by three seconds (of forty-five), which is decent. Still need to knock ten seconds off that, if I want to get into the top ten, but I think I might be able to do that if I'm not tired when I get there (not only is there the fatigue, but I didn't start pushing until the hill, and the segment starts a couple hundred yards before that. Maybe, maybe not). We'll see.
In any event, as you can see, pretty mixed results. Overall, 25 miles, 1100', 17.0mph (worse than I thought), just shy of twenty-five minutes Z4-Z5 (heart-based), thirteen minutes Z4-Z7 (power-based). Power curve? Meh. Decent out to 10s (935W there, done on that 14s segment mentioned above), close to my record from 1:08 to 2:27, new record 5:15-5:35 (interesting, that), and pretty mediocre otherwise.
Not bad, I guess, for being in less-than-perfect health, although I must admit to still being disappointed in a few details. Looking forward, tomorrow and Friday will both be recovery days (although I might do extra, easy, miles on Friday because I might have some time during the day), and hopefully Saturday will be the hard group ride.
Oh, and I forgot to mention; the new wheels arrived very late today without ever indicating "Out for Delivery", for which they did have an indicator. Don't use PostNL if you can help it.
20150616
Still not right
I've been feeling mostly better today. Only one extended bout, although my stomach has been feeling... not right... for most of the day.
I still got out and rode, but it was a shorter ride; around ten miles. I thought that would help a bit, although I'm not sure it did. One amusement kind of came out of it. I didn't feel up to much of a meal for breakfast, so I just threw some eggs in the pan, scrambling them. But then I left them in a bit too long; not nearly enough to burn them, but enough to end up with an egg pancake, essentially.
It tasted just fine, but definitely looked odd.
I let myself be persuaded to take my daughter to school on her bike again, which worked out ok.
Overall, that's about 16.3 miles, with close to 1000' of elevation (though I screwed up twice, resulting in the elevation not being recorded on Strava for either trip to school). On the eleven miles by myself, that was at 13.3mph, and power was only so-so at 102W. Heart-rate was pretty good, averaging 120bpm, although I did have a spike up to 132bpm when a pick-up decided that, with two lanes available, he needed to pass within a couple feet of me (no, I was not in the middle) at very high speed. Overall, I had four minutes above 125bpm. No complaints there.
I could see that I wasn't all the way well, though; I was only able to push 110-120W and stay in the low 120's pulse. That isn't bad, but is definitely worse than I was doing a few days ago. Hopefully, I can get that back to better numbers tomorrow or the next day.
Even though tomorrow should be a "go like hell" day, I'm probably going to take it easy. Also, I think the group ride isn't happening, since I haven't seen any emails. And given the way I've been feeling, I'm ok with that. I'll try to do my 25-mile loop, and if I'm feeling better, I'll attack the hills on the way, maybe.
Update: I forgot to mention, the Swiss Side Hadron wheels that I bought a while ago might arrive tomorrow. They were shipped early last week, and made it into the country by Thursday, but have made no visible progress since. But optimistically, they could still arrive tomorrow. I will say that I'm extremely unimpressed with the shipper, PostNL. Their tracking (or their progress; I'm not sure which, though my inclination is to give them the benefit of the doubt, and blame the tracking) sucks rocks. I would strongly recommend never using them, if it's an option, and you have another choice. Six days to get from NYC (presumably where it came into the country) to here is really awful, no matter how you slice it.
I still got out and rode, but it was a shorter ride; around ten miles. I thought that would help a bit, although I'm not sure it did. One amusement kind of came out of it. I didn't feel up to much of a meal for breakfast, so I just threw some eggs in the pan, scrambling them. But then I left them in a bit too long; not nearly enough to burn them, but enough to end up with an egg pancake, essentially.
It tasted just fine, but definitely looked odd.
I let myself be persuaded to take my daughter to school on her bike again, which worked out ok.
Overall, that's about 16.3 miles, with close to 1000' of elevation (though I screwed up twice, resulting in the elevation not being recorded on Strava for either trip to school). On the eleven miles by myself, that was at 13.3mph, and power was only so-so at 102W. Heart-rate was pretty good, averaging 120bpm, although I did have a spike up to 132bpm when a pick-up decided that, with two lanes available, he needed to pass within a couple feet of me (no, I was not in the middle) at very high speed. Overall, I had four minutes above 125bpm. No complaints there.
I could see that I wasn't all the way well, though; I was only able to push 110-120W and stay in the low 120's pulse. That isn't bad, but is definitely worse than I was doing a few days ago. Hopefully, I can get that back to better numbers tomorrow or the next day.
Even though tomorrow should be a "go like hell" day, I'm probably going to take it easy. Also, I think the group ride isn't happening, since I haven't seen any emails. And given the way I've been feeling, I'm ok with that. I'll try to do my 25-mile loop, and if I'm feeling better, I'll attack the hills on the way, maybe.
Update: I forgot to mention, the Swiss Side Hadron wheels that I bought a while ago might arrive tomorrow. They were shipped early last week, and made it into the country by Thursday, but have made no visible progress since. But optimistically, they could still arrive tomorrow. I will say that I'm extremely unimpressed with the shipper, PostNL. Their tracking (or their progress; I'm not sure which, though my inclination is to give them the benefit of the doubt, and blame the tracking) sucks rocks. I would strongly recommend never using them, if it's an option, and you have another choice. Six days to get from NYC (presumably where it came into the country) to here is really awful, no matter how you slice it.
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