Sunday 7th April – Ride Report

I wasn’t really up for this as a bout of insomnia the night before had left me feeling tired and grumpy. After some cajoling from my girl friend that I would feel better if I got out, I did and she was right. Having said that it did really hurt though and I found myself wavering a number times about if I was going to finish the route or not. There are numerous opportunities to cut it short or avoid the big hills but I carried on and I’m pleased with my resolve.

Last time I did this ride I remembered my own criticism that I felt I hit the bottom of climbs to quick and then ran out of steam before the top so I tried to be more consistent which I felt worked well. Considering the lack of energy I had I was surprised to see that I only took 3 mins longer (moving time) than last week. Almost all of this 3 mins was accounted for on the first big climb so on average the rest of the ride must have taken about the same amount of time. The benefit I felt though was that at the top of the climbs I felt less tired and didn’t have any issues with being out of breath. Strangely though my average heart rate was higher. I’m wondering if the energy I “saved” was put into riding the flat sections quicker as my vertical speed was a touch slower. In all honesty though I don’t think that it’s worth taking a huge amount of notice of as the difference was only 6bpm and at 150bpm average that is still comfortably in the zone I’m aiming at.