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.