Ya Gotta Have Heart

Well, I did make it to Spin Class last night. In fact three of us did and opened ourselves up to Edmund The Terrible. Quite a workout. Since he had three middle age + guys in the room I think the fan was blowing around a little testosterone -- he pushed us hard. Of course, that is why we go and it is good to have a variety of instructors. And, maybe it is good to sweat through your dry layers on the way home.

I wore my heart monitor and it seemed to work in the gym this time. Initially it registered all over the place so I stopped using it but thought it best to try again. This time my numbers were 216 Max, 143 Avg. I managed to hang about 175 for the more intense lengthy sections and probably maxed on the jumps. Something to keep an eye on as I beef up the training schedule.

Tonight is Core with ET again... Lord help me.

Spin On

Dog Day Afternoon

I waited a day to post again to see where we ended up with Emily and her surgical consultation. It was good and bad. First, she does have arthritic hips, secondly, she may have been presenting discomfort from a torn cruciate in her knee. The good thing is that she now shows no symptoms of either. Until she presents with discomfort we will wait, rest her a week or so and get her back into her routine. Surgery is in her future but not sure when. Hopefully we can do the lesser of the hip surgeries and she will lead a comfortable life with her orange ball and the ability to sleep up on the couch.

It was another long day of waiting with the inability to be proactive in dealing with Emily so it zapped my energy some. Tonight I hope to spin and loosen up the legs some, burn some stress and keep an eye on the heart monitor.

Spin On.

Tripped Up Report

Finally -- road time! I was able to get in about 32 miles late Sunday morning and it felt pretty good. Temp was about 80º, low humidity and low wind. I did my standard Sanibel loop, but did not head to Captiva because I wanted to have an easy spin and keep the miles low. I guess it did feel good because my intent was to do 25 miles. The City of Sanibel has done a lot of work on the roads since I have, lots of fresh pavement meant for smooth rolling.

My one complaint is my new Trek Incite ACH cyclometer. It was a gift, which I really do appreciate, but the learning curve is steep due to poor instructions. In fact one section of the miniscule type actually has you refer back to another section -- in French. Pluses: built in heart monitor (more later), grade (Causeway climb is 5%) and altitude (not set right). Minuses: Having to rotate through all the displays -- speed and temp are the only one that stay on at all times, poor instructions and my biggest beef is that it stopped working when I stopped for recovery. I had it working fine, stopped for a Gatorade and when I got back on it was blank! Only the temp showed. I hit every combination of buttons but no luck. Finally, after a few miles and after the return climb it re-set itself to the power-save clock and I was able to start over from there....grrrrr. So, my trip data is not accurate or conclusive. I have to call Trek and get some instructions in English.

My heart rate did not exceed 185 bpm (on the climb which I did at about 14.4 mph -- it is short) but without a proper computer reading I am not sure if it was higher later in the ride -- but I don't think so. I averaged about 148.

Happy Monday, Spin On.