Saturday, April 21, 2007

Just because I feel like it..

Today the weather was nice and sunny. Not a cloud in sight. 20* C (68*F) is perfect temperature.

Today is the first day I start riding out with my bikey.

I rode slow to keep my heart rate down. It ain't working. My zone 1 is less than 142 and I am suppose to be riding in Z1 most of the time. It is very hard even to keep my heart rate at 145.

I forgot the freedom to be just out on the road. To just explore the neighbourhood.

And explore I did, instead of following my usual route, I decided to turn right instead of left. The road is a dead end. Before reaching the dead end there was a 400 m climb.

Normally I will turn around seeing the dead end sign. But that climb looks really tempting and so I climbed up. It was fun. Instead of focusing on speed, I focus on cadence, form, and relaxation to keep my HR low.

You know it is summer when the critters are out. In fact, one of the critter, a chipmunk, ran across the road and smack into me while I was cycling. I just saw this brown object across the corner of my eye and it ran into my bike shoe. Good thing it did. If it hit my wheels, it became road kill for sure.

The training plan was to schedule me to ride two hours. Come on, that's not even riding. I rode four hours and 97 km. Average speed = 24.25 kph (15 miles/hr). It is slow. But it didn't matter. I was just enjoying the outdoor. Nutrition is working well with me.

Tomorrow will be just like today..I can't wait.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm just starting to appreciate FUN on the bike. Hope you have just as much fun Sunday as you did on Saturday. :)

Unknown said...

Possibly messy road kill at that!

Isn't the weather enjoyable right now?

Dances with Corgis said...

hahaha... two hours "not even riding" I love it!

My first day outside as well was yesterday- felt great!

Robin said...

you rode for FOUR hours? i bow down in front of you. you will rock the IMLP course! can't wait to meet you! That's my '07 vacation! :-)

Darren said...

Save the critters! Cliff is on the road! :)

Awesome riding weather Cliff, I'll take another 3 months just like this.

brendaj said...

I've found that my perspective on a long/short ride changes drastically throughout the season...a few weeks ago 2 hours was feeling a bit short to me too.

Anonymous said...

sounds like fun! yay for nice weather!

Jeremy said...

Saturday was my bike's first venture outdoors as well. Cheers to being off the trainer!!!

Brent Buckner said...

Good ride! Amazing how much of the outside world one gets to see in Z1. For me, higher zones => tunnel vision.