Wednesday 18th September 2013 - A little light hike bike

Today was a bike day.  It was also a 'get the car serviced day' so an excuse for a little walk from the garage to the office.  A little walk was all it appeared to be when I looked at the google maps app on my phone.  Sadly I was undone by an inability to appreciate scale and my little walk turned into a 3 mile speed hike that deposited me late and sweaty into a meeting at 9:10 when I should have been coolly sipping black decaff at my desk by 8:40.  On the bright side my car got serviced so that's a positive.

I reversed the process to go and collect the car after work and so I'm claiming it as six miles on the training diary.

The real activity of the day took place after work with an hour on the bike.  I have the same heart rate zone 2 goal as with my running so I set out to stay below 126 bpm.  At first this proved harder than I expected and I was ticking along at around 140 for the first ten minutes or so.  

The situation wasn't helped by a near miss with a big scary lorry at a roundabout near my home.  As I approached the point where the road narrowed for the roundabout the lorry tried to overtake me.  There was clearly no chance of him getting past before the junction and it was a little hairy to think that if he took it too wide I'd be heading for his back wheels.  Eeek!  I shouted up at the driver and gave a robust and frank appraisal of his abilities at the wheel.  Miraculously I heard a shouted "sorry" from the cab and he slowed down again and went behind me to the junction.  I was so stunned that I stopped the bike and waved him past feeling an instant remorse for my harsh words.  I have a mental picture of a nervous and insecure driver desperate to do the right thing but lacking the skills to pull it off.  I'm a bad person.

Eventually my heart rate settled and I averaged 122 bpm across the ride as a whole.  It seemed to me that the terrain dictated my heart rate for the most part and although my average is nice and close to where I wanted it to be I spent a lot of time way over and a lot of time way under.  As my training progresses I'd like to be able to control this much better.

The route I chose took me through Overton and St Martins and I rode through dusk and into the dark.  I tried out my new lights and they kick bum!!!  I was like something from Close Encounters of the Third Kind as I lit up the night!

That's it for today - time to join the IOS7 bandwagon and update the iphone!

 Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS:

TODAY
Run Distance: 0 miles
Swimming: 0 m
Cycling: 14:36 miles 
Hiking: 6 miles
Workout time:  2:53 hrs
Press-ups: 0
Core workouts: 0

TOTAL
Run Distance: 4.81 miles
Swimming: 1850 m
Cycling: 14:36 miles 
Hiking: 6 miles
Workout time:  4:53 hrs
Press-ups: 26
Core workouts: 1