Distractions

While google adwords is making me a few bucks from this blog, it's disheartening that all of the current advertisements are entirely for my competition! So, enough is enough. I'm going to talk about something else for a few posts to confuse the google-bot and hopefully get a better mix of advertising.

This past weekend I enjoyed a scenic tour of a 62km route up and down the banks and valleys of the Credit River. It's a very pretty place in the Halton Hills region of Ontario. My decision to do this ride was perhaps a little premature as it was only my 7th ride on my bicycle this season. I had fallen off the waggon due to my former job. It was consuming me both mentally and physically. After a hard day of work, I came home to work on my freelance work then after that all I could do was collapse onto the couch.


The brown line and the grey shaded area represent the altitude profile for this course. The blue is my speed and the red line is my heart rate. The climbs really got to me! I put a grand total of over 13 minutes in the "red" zone. This zone is a totally unsustainable rate of exertion. At my current weight (extra effort required to haul that fatness up the hills) it can be as frightful as 1400 kCal/h. My aggressive "go all day" pace needs to be less than 700/h (and then consume 300 kCal/h) for me to keep on top of my blood-glucose level. Any more and my stomach can't absorb calories fast enough to keep my blood-glucose level high enough. When it drops you slow down lots or worse. (Headaches, nausea, dizzyness, or even pass out)

I'm totally sore today which is great! I remember how I love this "good hurt". My endurance is still reasonable, my power has mostly returned, but I'm just far too heavy to fly up the hills like a did a few years ago.

This next week I hope to get out on the bike every day as our weather has improved drastically... It's the first real week of summer we've had all summer!

This upcoming weekend I'm looking forward to the Hope Island Racing Conference where I'll spend 4 days on a boat racing against other recreational sailors and staying at anchorage every night.

Take that google-bot!