A short chilly ride at night

I haven't worked out a lot this week. Seems time and other committments and the weather (cold) conspired to keep me indoors. So this evening I decided I was going riding anyway.

It was about 44deg out and no wind. That in itself was enough of a rarity that I felt compelled to ride. The wind never seems to stop, here in DFW.

We had recently acquired a little Garmin Edge 305 for cycling, so I strapped on the heart rate monitor, and Dave set up a profile for me. The HRM was picking up fine, and since my Vrex doesn't have a Garmin speed/cadence sensor, I wasn't expecting to see data in some of the main screen fields. Away I went.

I decided since it was not a good idea for me to do a Tabata style of interval (8 sets of sprints in a big gear for 20 seconds each, separated by 10 seconds of recovery each set), that I would instead concentrate on upping my cadence. Since turnover (of the pedals) ultimately equals speed even in an easier gear, I am hoping to increase my average cadence to 85-90rpm, instead of 70-80rpm.

I did several intervals of this, spinning up into a higher gear as the cadence got high enough. This way I did not overload my knees (a weak point in my body's drivetrain). It was a lot more work than I expected! I confess I tend to tool along at a slower cadence than maybe I am capable of, and then whine about being too slow...I guess I need to put up or shut up!

The ride itself was uneventful. I tried to spot the traffic sensors at my worst stoplights, but no success. There are no wires cut into the surface that I could find. I ended up with 12.6mi in 70min. Not bad, but a bit slower over all than normal. I think that has to do with slowing down for the recovery phases on the intervals I did. If you are interested, you can follow my rides on Strava.com where I am Vic MD there.