Mike's Bike Blog

The weather and my schedule didn't cooperate much for me this week at least for hitting the road. I was only able to get out on Saturday, so all my rides were on the trainer. I was able to put together 125.78 miles and burned 5482 calories. This week is already starting off better.

I've been looking forward to this workout since Tuesday might when I completed class 8 and downloaded 9. This class was awesome. It was power intervals at max effort one after another with a short recovery between each. It really pushes you hard. My only gripe with the workout was the production values of the video. I download the videos to my iPhone and then attach the iPhone to the handle bars of my spin bike and watch the video that way while I do the workout. Normally I just have the audio go through the speakers of the iPhone so I don't have to wear headphones. The audio was muffled making it really hard to hear the instructors. I ended up having to stop the video and go find my headphones.

This class consists of a 6 minute Tempo internal that then rolls into a 4 minute steady state interval with a 2 minute recovery. There are 3 sets total. The total workout lasts one hour. Keeping in my target heart rate ranges and pedaling at the prescribed cadence wasn't too hard and it felt pretty good. Although Carrie kept making a reference about future classes, that this workout was easy compared to what's yet to come.

This morning I did the 20 mile ride out to Volente Beach and back. I felt really good, the weather was warm and the wind wasn't bad either. I completed the 20 miles in 1:12:37 which is a personal best. My previous best time was 01:13:18 and on that ride I had a riding partner to push me. I made it up the hill in 5:02, which is the same exact time that I did it in when I did my baseline on the 6th.

Average Speed: 16.6 mph (17.5 there/16.7 back)
Max Speed: 40.4 mph
Average Heart Rate: 156bpm
Max Heart Rate: 178bpm
Avg Cadence: 76 rpm
Ascent: 1552ft
Descent: 1575ft

I've ridden this particular ride 12 times so far, today's ride was the best. I had the best time by a couple minutes and it felt really good. The average time to complete the 11.70 miles is 47 minutes 32 seconds. Today I completed it in 42:14! My average speed has been 14.7, today my average speed was 15.4. Today's cadence was 73 and my heart rate was 153/171bpm. I was checking out the grade info on my GPS and at points on the hill right after the bridge the grade was 10%, I occassionally would look while going up the other hills and was seeing it range from 5-10%.

See the route on MapMyRide.com