I woke up to this: 
and, very strong winds. Great for the garden (at least the rain), less so for riding conditions
The Metservice is now one of my favourite websites: - it reminds me of how Dr D (being one of the most 'natural' (eg. never going near a gym) fit and conditioned guys from doing all sorts of exercise - cycling to work and home, tennis, running, surfing, diving etc, I worked with, used to always look up the Metservice website to see what the weather - mainly for surfing or diving conditions were. I never understood back then. Now I do!...Now I do, D.
I also woke up to slightly sore thighs from yesterday's RPM session. I'm trying to use the remaining (pre Taupo) RPM sessions to just go that little bit further with the "hill work" in class. I try to keep the visualisation positive when doing this " just keep on the hill path until I get to the top, and then either see the Gladstone valley or Te Muna valley below" - which is always an awesome reward after a hard hill. But sometimes the reverse visualisation creeps in "Like, its ok, you can't fall off on your cleats on a RPM bike....) Sometimes its easier to imagine falling off my bike with my cleats on than it is reaching the top of the hill and looking into the valley. I totally need to eliminate the negative imaging.
The Metservice is now one of my favourite websites: - it reminds me of how Dr D (being one of the most 'natural' (eg. never going near a gym) fit and conditioned guys from doing all sorts of exercise - cycling to work and home, tennis, running, surfing, diving etc, I worked with, used to always look up the Metservice website to see what the weather - mainly for surfing or diving conditions were. I never understood back then. Now I do!...Now I do, D.
I also woke up to slightly sore thighs from yesterday's RPM session. I'm trying to use the remaining (pre Taupo) RPM sessions to just go that little bit further with the "hill work" in class. I try to keep the visualisation positive when doing this " just keep on the hill path until I get to the top, and then either see the Gladstone valley or Te Muna valley below" - which is always an awesome reward after a hard hill. But sometimes the reverse visualisation creeps in "Like, its ok, you can't fall off on your cleats on a RPM bike....) Sometimes its easier to imagine falling off my bike with my cleats on than it is reaching the top of the hill and looking into the valley. I totally need to eliminate the negative imaging.
Until "Taupo" I've resolved blog entries now become all about the ride and the preparation - oh yeah, that's right, that's what the blog is about! Diversions are ok, but not in the next week! It's easy for me to get distracted by the rpm music, the class of the day, current status of my employment or not, state of my overgrown garden, etc etc (I don't underestimate the importance of the etc etc, and the etc is important to the contextual layers of the wider journey for completeness) but I totally need now to focus on the exercise training, the quality of the exercise and my nutrition, and keeping positive and focussed on the end goal - completion of Taupo within 8 hours. So, "heads up" to you (and reminding myself!) that's what I'll be documenting now until Taupo. Detail around that. Bearing in mind detail is not really my thing (although on some occassions it can be ;-)), and neither is maths - but I need to focus on the "maths" and some "maths modelling" (well, my version of maths modelling) to work out what times I aim for, for each "leg" of the race, allowing for say between 3 or 4 - 5-10 minute restwater breaks, and possibly some walking on the hills.
Today's workout:
After the rain and wind cleared, I did head out for a shortish ride. It was super windy - I was having difficulty at one point staying upright becasue of the wind.
I did a version of the Westside route - so flat roads up near the hills, until I reached a gravel road and needed to return. I found a road which I didn't know existed near Dalefield School which was kind of cool.
My computer has all sorts of functions which I haven't completely mastered. However, today I wore the chest monitor so that allowed me to see my heart beat (well at least the measurement of it!), and know how much calories I burned. It beeps a lot unless I stay at a consistent pace so that serves as an incentive to do so. I could probably turn the sound off, if I read the manaul more closely!
I managed to do a few minutues of "sprints" where I got my RPM over 100 for a minute or so. Also managed to keep it at 75-80rpm for certain points. My average RPM today though was 66RPM and my speed 20.8. I think my speed needs to be 22km. At certain points: mainly because of the wind I did get over 35km.
Time: 130 minutes
Distance: 28km
My heart rate started at 70 or so in the hallway, ended on about 110 and somwhere on the road ranged from 130. I think it needs to be 140 from what I recall on the machines at the gym. I have no idea!
Despite the wind, felt like a good ride.
I don't like the low RPMs and calories burned, but I think I do quite like the computer and at least being able to measure progress while I am on the road.
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Yep, training heart-rates are a bit of a funny thing, where they 'should' be depends on a whole lot of things. Typical advice is that your maximum HR is found by subtracting your age from 220 (or some people say that for females it should be your age from 226) and that number is your top end (maximum). You'll find its quite likely your HR will get up there during RPM and also on big rides. Mine gets up to the mid 170s when I'm riding (and really pushing it) and sometimes over 180 when I'm instructing. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is don't freak out too much if your HR actually goes higher than 140 when you're riding ... unless of course your Dr advises otherwise! If you get a chance maybe talk to the PT or the Godfather (I think I got their names right?! ;) about it.
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