Second week in December 2010

This last week has been full of ups and downs.Tuesdays race was a real up for me as I beat three riders who had a month previously beaten me on the same course, and two others ahead of me are now within my sights. I feel my two long rides have paid off.Then on Thursday buoyed up by my success I had a really good hill interval training period. Friday saw me doing a very heavy job in the garden finishing off a little private patio at the back of the house and clearing away several wheelbarrow loads of paving stones. I did it to surprise Elaine who had been taken to hospital twice in the week.The picture of the patio garden is just to brighten things up.

Well I suppose something had to give in the end. I planned to have a long ride on Saturday but it turned out to be a real dismal affair. I was lethargic and just had no energy at all. I managed just thirty two ks. stopping several times for no reason at all. I suppose I had just overdone it during the week and was upset about Elaine's continuing illness.

The Polar RS300X Heart Rate Monitor is working exceptionally well. I was able to record my eight hill lap intervals and then download them to my computer and had a printout. You can see the eight laps and the rest periods in between,showing my average HR for each lap and the HR at the end of each lap. Unfortunately it does not show the Maximum HR for each lap which occurs just a few seconds after the lap is completed. It is usually about three beats higher than the HR at the end of the lap. It also shows how my HR gradually increases with each lap. It is very difficult to do each lap in exactly the same time, so it is not possible to compare each training session but maybe in the long run I will be able to see a trend.