Ride Statistics Fun

So, this year is supposedly the year I don't worry about my riding statistics, and while I am not recording any new numbers, I am still a math geek and I can compare myself to last year's baselines. During my 12 week base-building plan, I've been riding about an hour, 4 times a week, while throwing in longer rides during the weekend. These rides are mainly flat, although I've thrown in a couple of weeks of climbing regimens to shake the muscles up. I've been feeling a little antsy and impatient lately on these flat rides, which is a good sign my fitness and my legs want more pain (the brain is still negotiating, however...). After a muscular tension session a couple of days ago (heavy gear, slow cadence) that felt pretty good, yesterday I tried a spinning session (small ring, high cadence), and ended up with almost exactly the same time over the same course. So, today, I combined muscular tension and high cadence on the course, switching between them so my cadence was never too high or too low, just to see how close I could get to my course record.

Here are some numbers from last year: 99 - the number of times I rode this course. 16.3 - the mileage of this course. 56:09 - the mean time in MM:SS. 17.4 - average mph over this distance.

Over the last two weeks, no matter what kind of drills or techniques I'm working on for the session, I've been throwing in times under 56 minutes. I was surprised at this, since I only figured out what last year's average time over my flat course was a few minutes ago. Here's two more numbers: 52:11 and 52:34 - the two fastest times recorded last year. The first was laid down in July, and the next was in September. I recorded both of them after months of training for the Solvang Century, my own crazy hill-climbing, and training with CycleDots as some of our members trained for Levi's Gran Fondo, a climb-intensive event ride. My point is, my fitness on the bike was mature with a finished base and a climb-specific build programs completed at different times last year. Right now, I'm only finishing my base, although it will be a stronger base than last year (my goal is a heavier cruising gear for more speed on the flats at the same cadence).

Here's today's number: 52:56. Third fastest time (for me) ever. I'm getting excited about those hills right about now.

Still Following the Way of the Sword

I love this paragraph in a Jalopnik story about the steel company that makes the containers for the nuclear reactors in Japan - The strange link between samurai swords and Japan's nuclear reactors:

"Although Japan Steel Works is a major corporation with 5,000 employees, it also maintains a samurai sword blacksmith, in a small shack on a hill above the factory in Muroran, where a single craftsman still hammers steel into broadswords, as the company has done since 1917." [emph. added]

Spring Has Sprung

It has been quite a while since I last posted anything personally cycling related. I enjoyed taking all the statistics from my bike rides last year, so I could track improvement and take baselines. This year, it's all about enjoying the bike, and having a template to consult to get a rough idea on how I'm doing.

For the first time this year, the morning weather was glorious. No need for arm warmers, base layers, knee warmers, toe covers, hats, full-fingered gloves, vests, capes, or jackets. Just a jersey, shorts, and the wind on my skin. So, I took that excuse to put on a heart rate monitor, since I was feeling a little more naked than usual. Also, just to check in on my zones to see if anything has changed.

As far as I could tell, after 2 months of base building, I'm back to my usual fitness. Sitting around: 68 - 72 bpm. Standing: 80 bpm. Walking around: 90 -100 bpm. Casually rolling on the bike: 145 - 155. Warming up: 165. Cruising: 172 - 177. Zone 4 sweet spot: 180 - 183. Zone 4 hurt locker: 189 - 192. Red Zone: 192+. I pegged 194 - 195 for 3 minutes on one of my laps, and that was enough for the day. I threw out the sprint test, and just stayed in my recovery zone of 177 for about 7 minutes. Woof.

Compared to last year's stats, I'm about 2 months further ahead in my performance, and that's even adding a bigger cruising gear, starting training a month later, and a month longer break. I attribute the gain in performance to the fitness level I left off of last year being much higher than the year before, and the addition cycling-specific yoga positions at the beginning of this year as opposed to only half-way through last year. Just a half hour, 4 times a week, targeting balance, flexibility, and the little helper muscles in the core really helps.