Back on the Junk

a bingers return to the trainer.

A few mornings ago I awoke to realize that this is in fact 2008. The very same year that I agreed to let the Original Big Ring drag my sorry ass across, over, up, down, across, over, up, up, up, up, down, up and down the Coast Mountains in the seven day stage race that is the B.C. Bike Race.

Which, and this is the second 'fact' of this post is only about six months away.

Shortly after that realization set in a curious feeling came over me. Something like a vile mixture of anxiety, worry, fear, dread, paralysis and a few more emotional jewels that only I, Steven King or Polanski's three weird sisters could concoct.

..that incidently is my first and last Shakespeare reference for this post.

you're welcome.

Anyway, so it turns out this whole 'fear' thing is a pretty powerfull motivator once the initial paralysis wears off, and thus has provided a valuble catalyst to getting my face out of the tray of cinnamon buns and back on the trainer, swiss ball, etc. so last sunday was the 'warmup' and tonight was the real deal.

The intended program was 3hrs on the trainer at 75% MHR. (As much to gauge how soft i've got as anything)
Admittedly I have to guess at my max heart rate because the standard age based charts bear no resemblance to my real experiences in having trained with HR for the past few years. (yeah, yeah, power is the way to go. heard it, believe it, but a HR monitor is less than 100 bones and a power tap is a mortgage payment so HR it is)
Anyway, the program held together for the first hour which was pretty tough actually. My HR was in the mid 150's where I wanted it but the clock was moving sloooooww. That is until I found the right tunes on the Ipod and 75% turned into 85+%. and fwiw tonight the right tunes were older ska-core including some vintage clash with a bit of dropkicks, Camper van Beethoven and the Queers mixed in.

Once the right tunes are dialed in it's sooo much easier to stay on the bike.

The second hour as a result flew by and the momentum carried well into the third. Energy started to wane at around 2:40, and the undercarriage was speaking up also but with the end in sight it wasn't too hard to stay with it. So in the end the stats came out as;
3hrs on bike with no stops
average heart rate of 161
max HR of 192 (6min standing climb at 2hr mark)
min HR of 89 (right off the hop)
and a calorie count of 3245!
How many pints n' pizzas is that?? (yeah, I know the calibration is fer shite but I don't care, I'm using that calorie count to justify a midnight snack of cheese (protein), crackers (sound base for cheese ..cause I'm all about 'base') and Laphroaig quarter cask single malt (pain killer) Another interesting stat is the room humidity level hit 78%. Juicy!

So, I'm well chuffed about sticking to the plan of 3hrs and even happier that I didn't kill myself doing it but I'm not sure if i'll be able to make that a regular thing because 3hrs in a contigious time block isn't so easy to find outside of working hours these days
but the fear still looms large so we'll see..
stay posted.

Kark