I'm cool

OK. My goals for Monday's ride were modest:keep cadence above 80, keep HR in zone 3 (70-80%MHR) as much as possible. Zone 3 is supposedly where you burn the most fat. Of course, any exertion uses calories so that's good, right? I'm trying to get my weight back down after it crept up a bit over the winter.

While I had trouble keeping my HR up there, I did average 83RPMs. Out of 55 minutes, only 9 were in zone 3. I felt I was working fairly hard. I didn't sleep very well the previous night. Maybe that was it.

On the other hand, my average speed was 14.3MPH so I'm happy about that. I'm trying to work that up a bit this year.

Overall, I was satisfied with that ride. While I do want to get faster and be able to climb better, my primary goals are general health and energy. So if I can aim to ride as near to every day as possible, that would be cool with me.

Last night I didn't get enough sleep again so even though it's a beautiful morning I'm going to skip the ride and try to rest. I have a day of training at work and I need to stay awake!

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Glad to be sore

Finally, I'm sore.

I've been frustrated that I haven't been having good, hard rides that leave me feeling sore in the calves and quads right away.

Today was one such ride.

I rode with Charles as I am wont to do on Sunday afternoons.

It's always good riding with Charles cause he usually picks a good hill which I might avoid on my own and the friendly "co-optition" gets me hammering. Either from me trying to keep up with him or me trying to blast past him or ride as hard as I can when I am "pulling" in front. Also, trying to keep as high a cadence as possible, even on the upgrades, helps.

We rode from my house down to Feura Bush and then out to the cell phone towers ("it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings", I mean, "you go by the cell towers")on route 312, the Clarksville road. This was the hill that I was cursing Charles out last year for taking me on but it wasn't at all bad this year either because I knew what was coming and paced myself or I'm in much better shape (or experienced enough to know that "pain is the name of the game") or all of the above. But it was oh so much fun going down the other side especially when you've earned it!

'Nuff said. Here's da root!

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