Fun & Fitness over 50

I thought I rode pretty hard for 2 hours on Sunday but you know what? I waited one day, two days, now today Wednesday, I'm still not sore. Not one bit!

So ... guess what? Today is a hard day. After work it was beautiful out. Sunny, little or no wind, cool. In spite of various small physical problems I decided to hit it hard.

After a 10 minute warm up I started hammering. The route I took, which I call "Dunkin' Donut", is a 14 mile loop with an out and back spur on it. The first section is suburban so there are stop signs and intersections which actually make some good boundaries between which to sprint and recover. So after the warmup I put the hammer down until the first stop sign, ride easy until I recover a bit, then hit it hard at the next continuous stretch and so on. My heart rate is going up into the 86% to 95% MHR range during the sprints depending on the length of the segment then I let it cool down around 75% before going at it again. By the second hard interval I was starting to feel something in the legs!

Had some problem with the new HRM from Sigma. It comes with handlebar mount which is a nice feature that I hadn't expected but it tends to stick at one heart rate number and not change. I moved it to my wrist and had no problems after that. A bit of a disappointment but as I said, I didn't buy it expecting that feature.

The computer which I've had for a long time has been acting up this season too. It always had the problem that after I was done riding, it would keep counting up riding time. That would wreak havoc with not only my total ride time but my average speed and cadence too. So if I didn't write it down immediately, the numbers would be useless. Now it's got much worse in that it keeps counting all the time even when I'm stopped or the computer is completely off the bike. So if I take a break of any length, the numbers are fouled up too. Ah, the modern life!

It was a great ride and I hope I get some benefit out of it. The only other worry I have besides the electronics is this low level illness or malaise or whatever you want to call it that I've had for a couple of weeks now. It's just some congestion in the upper chest and throat such that I'm constantly clearing my throat and having some drainage, I guess from the sinuses down into the throat. I'm sick of resting. I hope my hard exertions don't exacerbate the problem. On the other hand, if I'm going to get sick, let's get it on and be done with it!