Fun & Fitness over 50

Halleluiah, I am sore
Halleluiah, sore again
Halleluiah, give us a day off (recovery ride)
To revive us once again!

Wow, I'm really sore today! My quads even! Must be the accumulation of several days of riding. Yesterday's workout on the stationary bike in the gym was supposed to be a recovery ride but it was really harder than I should have done. But, as I said last time, I'm a systems guy. Got to follow the program, and workout #6 "Rock Bottom" from the Edwards and Reed book, The Heart Rate Monitor Workbook for Indoor Cyclists, was next in line so I had to do it!

Frankly, I enjoyed it. It was a good workout. This was the most complex sequence to date and required a lot of attention. This is the kind of workout that would be impractical and dangerous out on the road; too much watching of the chronometer and heart rate monitor. In fact, it's too complex for me to try to explain it so I'll just show it to you.

Today I took a real recovery ride (well almost). It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I thought I'd grab it when I could. In fact, it was starting to look threatening when I started out. But it was still dry and the temp wasn't too bad, probably 50s or thereabouts. Well I did take it pretty easy but it's actually harder sometimes to take it really easy as in controlling your heart rate down to a certain level than it is to ride moderately hard. You tend to want to go at least a certain minimum speed and also I like to get out of the saddle and give my seat a break. Which requires standing and pedaling and that tends to bring the old heart rate up.

Anyhow, it was enjoyable. If I'm still sore tomorrow and it's raining, I'll give my legs the day off and do some long overdue upper body weight training at the dread gym. I'm actually looking forward to it!