Easy Recovery Ride

This Ride: 14.6 mi
Kona Miles: 1253.4 mi
Month to date: 530.8 mi  <– Personal Monthly Distance Record
2010 Total: 1687.4 mi

Aching to ride, but not wanting to push it due to relatively high temperatures and wanting to ride out most of the rest of the week/month, I decided to try an experiment to test my fitness level.  As it turned out, it was also an exercise in patience.

The goal was to keep my heart rate at 120 or below, but not to move so slowly that kids on 12 inch wheels were passing me.  I do have some pride.  They call these recovery rides.

It went well.  I moved fast enough to keep a cooling breeze blowing over my face, and the heart rate peaked above 120 a few times, but I caught it early and adjusted.  Part of that adjustment was to increase my cadence, and surprisingly that worked well.  I’d reach a cadence of between 88 and 92 and my heart rate would begin to decline.  If my cadence dropped to 82 – 85, I noticed that often my heart rate began to increase.

The fitness level test?  In January, shortly after purchasing the Kona, I went out for an 8.4 mile ride with an average speed of 15.3 mph and a temperature of 60 degrees.  My average heart rate was 152 for that ride.  Today’s ride was 14.6 miles, average speed of 15.4 mph and a temperature of 82 degrees.  My average heart rate was 113.

One month ago on a similar recovery ride with a goal of MHR of 130, I covered 7.9 miles at 14.8 mph average with an average heart rate of 127.  Again, today’s ride was 14.6 miles, average speed of 15.4 mph with an average heart rate of 113.

Those are obvious positive results.