25th May 2009 was a Bank Holiday in the UK, and with the weather forcast being questionable, it was uncertain if I'd get out on my bike. As luck would have it my old training partner, David West, invited me to join him on a ride in the morning.
He had been asked by the local LDS missionaries to take them on an hour ride around the area. Now I have to admit I thought the missionaries mad, as Dave is in pretty good shape when it comes to bike riding, but he was very kind and held back. 8.00am start, and the weather was good. We were about 5miles out, and a few hill climbs under our belts, and I was suprised at how well the Elders were keeping up, although we were not going overly fast, I had expected to have to wait for them, it was David that pointed out that they are 20years younger than us, and youthfullness was on their side.
The ride took just over 50mins, and 8.6miles long. Our average speed was only 10mph, but we were off road most of the time. If memory serves David and I used to average about 15mph over this course, possibly faster but my old brain can't retain information like that.!
Here's a link to google maps that shows the route we took. Click here!
A good ride in all, and was great to be back out with David, who didn't even brake a sweat.
Thanks for the invite!
Trying to get back into some sort of shape, I thought it a good idea that I start logging some of the details of my bike rides, so that I could compare my results.
So I rather lengthy search via google for some free excel spreadsheets, that were already configured for data entry, led me to this site http://www.prologcycling.com , the guy that wrote/created the site had two versions to offer, the free one was just what I needed, as although the paid for premium version had all the bells and whistles, I just did not need to know, or had know way of knowing the data to enter. So it was the free version I went for.
Here's a list of what I'm able to record:
Standard detailed cycling log
-
Type of ride (road, Mountain, Track...) - Ride style (Training, Race, TT...)
- Time of ride
- Route name
- Group Name
- Bike ridden
- Duration
- Distance
- Average speed
- Average heart rate
- Elevation
- Wind
- Temperature
- Effort
- Feeling
- Weight
- Fat Percentage
- Comments
Charts
- Chart: Goals vs. Actuals
- Chart: Riding Time
- Chart: Distance % of Goal
- Chart: Elevation
- Chart: Weight
Detail Ride Comparison:
- Compare types of rides
- Compare ride specific data
- Compare rides on different bikes
- Compare data on set courses
- Compare average speed in distance ranges
- Monthly distance totals
- Monthly average speed
- Monthly elevation
Set Goals and Track Them
- Monthly & annual mileage
- Monthly & annual average speed
- Monthly & annual elevation
That's quite a list!!!
Next step was to work out how hard I need to train, this is easily worked out by 'Heart Rate', and since I have a heart rate monitor, I was able to work out my resting heart rate (RHR), and then with a simple equation worked out my training zones. It's recommended that you rest for at least 20mins before recording your RHR.
To start you need to know your maximum heart rate (MHR), I went for the 'Miller et al (1993)' equation, which is MHR = 217 - (0.85 x Age). Now I know my RHR and MHR, I could now work out my training zones to match the following:
60% = Fat burning and re-energise glycogen stores
70% = Develop oxygen transportation systems
80% = Improve lactic acid threshold
85% = Lactic thresehold
90% = Speed
The calculation of a zone value, X%, is performed in the following way:
- Subtract your RHR from your MHR giving us your working heart rate (WHR)
- Calculate the required X% on the WHR giving us "Z"
- Add "Z" and your RHR together to give us the final value
Example: The athlete's MHR is 180 and their RHR is 60 - determine the 70% value
- MHR - RHR = 180 - 60 = 120
- 70% of 120 = 84
- 84 + RHR = 84 + 60 = 144 bpm
Well, that's me sorted. Just as point of interest - I decided that my training zone should be 70%, so armed with that info and a monitor strapped to my chest I set out on my bike to record some times. What I found was that my usual cycling speed/input actually had my heart working at 90%.
Hope this helps someone, who like me wanted to get just that little more from their regular bike ride.
Don't panic it's not an addition to my already established quartet! My youngest sister has had her first baby, he was born about 4.30am. Wednesday morning. Amy and Luke are going to call him Peter Luke Hughes, after Lukes Uncle.
Here's a photo of the little chap.
He weighed in at 7lbs something! And has more hair than me! Not sure what side of the family he looks like. Slept the whole time we were there, even whilst I held him poking and teasing him trying to get a reaction out of him!
This next photo is a terrible one of me, guess I should have shaved!
-- Post From My iPhone
A very good friend of mine donated a new bike frame in my direction. So armed with spanner and screwdriver I started the proceedure of swapping my parts from my old frame to the new. Big thanks goes out to my mate Dave, cheers mate!
The frame is a 7005 aluminium triple butted 'Leader' model LD-516H high performance frame. The reviews for this frame are very good, a good light weight but very strong frame, more popular in the USA than in Europe.
The crank set I use is the shimano XT hollow form set and bottom bracket. Attached to these are 'Crank beater' pedals with platforms, for SPD shoes or for that quick trip to the shops.
At the back I'm running shimano XTR gears with an 'SRAM' hollow pin chain. These have been on the bike for a couple of seasons, and are showing now signs of wear. Just goes to show that it pays to get the best!
In an attempt to cut weight down, I sourced a few carbon parts, such as the seat stem and handlebars etc.
I found the XT gear changer remote a great addition to the bike, which allows for gear change whilst in cruise mode. Also attached to the handlebars is the lock-out remote to my 'Rockshox' Psylo shock forks, not the lightest on the market, but coming in about 3.5lbs is quite light, the remote allows me to lockout the fork when hill climbing or roadwork, then when the mood takes a quick flick of a switch and I'm back in suspension mode and ready for the downhill crosscountry that is all about mountain biking.
Stopping the bike is left to 'Hope' mini's, which have great weight saving and incredible stopping power. I could'nt finish without mentioning the tyers, came across the 'Continental' cross country tyre, at a width of 1.5, its nice an slim cutting through the mud and great on hard pack trails.
Well that's about it, I love this bike, it weighs in about 20lbs!! which is lighter than a lot of £2000+ bikes.
The only weight saving I can do know is more closer to home, that's me!! Must get out more and drop the weight and stay in shape.
I really thought that this would be easy, as a website designer I was hoping the template would be HTML based. But that would be to easy. What I need is an XML viewer that will show me exactally what changes I've made to the code. Will google that shortly.
Looking at one of the defualt templates it looks easy enough to change parts/images etc. So what I need to do know is decide on a layout. Keeping it simple.
Will update later when I'm infront of my pc.
-- Post From My iPhone
**Small update**
After much pulling of hair I finally settled on a template that I found and configuered to my needs. Very happy!!
Last Bank holiday Monday we decided to go for a walk along the river. The sun was shining and temperatures where warm.
Here's a picture of the family
-- Post From My iPhone
Those of you that know me know I love my car, intact apart from my wife (I need to say that), it's the next love of my life.
Anyway I thought I'd post some images of the car that I modified with photoshop.
Well this is my first post on my blog. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with this! But you've got to start somewhere.
