Between the lines

From a very early age I tracked my workouts. I have various notepads for gym work going back to 1990 but the serious tracking started when I ran marathons for the US Army a couple years later. While I do and have used several fantastic online journals, free and paid, I often find myself using a notepad and a stubby pencil.

On Sunday I finished what I thought a decent ride on a hilly course with several of my team mates. As I often do I copied the numbers from my cyclocomputer (Polar 200 w/ wireless cadence). On a whim I flipped back to my first ride on this course this year in January, my first serious ride since my injury in April.

How did I compare two months later?

The first time I did this 21 mile course in January, I could not stay with the team so I only did 13 miles, sticking to the the main road as they did out and backs. Now I stayed all they way.

That first ride took me 1'10" to do 13 miles averaging 13.3 mph. I just did the full 21 miles in 1'19" averaging 16mph. My top speed is now five mph faster from 30 to 35 mph.

My HR that first ride was an average of 147 and high of 182. As I said there are hills. Now my average is 141 bpm and my max is 165. On the same course. Drops on both sides. Very happy.

Cadence in January was an average of 80 rpm and a max of 98. Now I average 85 rpm and my max on Sunday is 117 rpm.

In all I am very pleased with this progress. While it's not race worthy it is certainly health worthy and I love that I can do what I love.

There's treasure everywhere.