my thoughts, musings, rants and discoveries . . .

Well, it has been a while since my last post. Sorry about that.

The Tour de France has come and gone. I had fully intended to write a nice post on it. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about how this Tour had left me wanting. But I must admit, it got good at the end. There seems to be no end to the drama in this sport.

For those who missed it all, Chicken Legs “pulled himself out” of the race. He had basically one the thing. But I guess the allegations of blood doping finally caught up with him. What a shame.

Levi Leipheimer, on the other hand, and Team Discovery both surprised me with incredible performances. Together, they made for a great race.

Anyway, while I won’t be invited to any races any time soon, I’ve made some progress in my own personal riding. Though when you compare my results with what these super humans do, I look like I should be using a walker instead of a bike

When I started off the season in April (rather late due to snow and rain from our messed up season), I was turning in a 14.2 mph round trip on my 25 mile ride, which both begins and ends on a pretty nice, 2 mile hill ride. My goal at the time was to get back up to a round trip average of 15 mph. Well, I’ve hit that fine.

Have you ever felt like you’ve hit a wall? Well, that’s where I am now. Check out my last several ride performances (mph).

• 16.8
• 17
• 17
• 17.2
• 17.2
• 17.3
• 17.3
• 17.3
• 17.3
• 17.4
• 17.3

I’ve been varying my rides a bit lately and have added a lot more hills into the mix. I’ve also increased my riding distance to a little over 30 miles per ride. Last week, I even did a 40 mile one. Just trying to increase things and get better in the areas I’m week. And I suppose I’m hoping that at some point I might be able to pass 18 mph on my 25 mile course. Still, this pales in comparison to the averages these professionals will hold to. But then again, I’m just an amateur who has been riding for a few years.

Having said that, from the house to the end of the valley road to the house is approximately 5 miles. And I can now average 32 mph on the way out to the main road. This calls for me in one pretty much my top gear pedaling around 100 rpm. Of course my return time is nowhere close to this. But who cares? It’s great time for me.

I have no aspirations for racing. I’m almost 40 and have no desire to hurt myself in a fluke accident. I ride for fun and to stay in shape. I suppose I get a competitive bug every now and then and will attack and pass a rider a mile up the road from me. But it’s a great motivator to work on my sprinting and it stresses my heart a bit. But that’s about it. I lost my asthma symptoms nearly 4 years ago. But I still have a smaller than average heart to contend with. While many seasoned riders averaging my weekly miles will hover in the 140bpm heart zone, I tend to average around 160bpm. And I’m still hitting the high 180′s when I do certain climbs or sprints. My heart reminds me of the old Castrol motor oil commercials. It’s simply higher revving. What can I say? It’s what God has equipped me with.

I hope to make the continued increases up to and past 18mph. But soon we’ll be in the winter weather and my riding patterns will change. I’ve got a treadmill now. And I have my indoor trainer. I don’t want to let the whole winter and spring season go without riding. But you never really know how de-motivating ice, snow and cold can be. Then again, I can be quite determined too.