I ate the bugs for Greg

Tonight was another tempo interval night on the bike. A perfect night for riding, by the way. It's a pity that days like this are numbered. I got out in good time, looking to do 10 min hard, 5 min easy.

There was a bit of a wind, but it couldn't decide what direction it was going to blow, so I decided to ignore it, and just pedal on effort. I wanted to keep the cadence up during the tempo portion, and try to actually ride easy in between. That's a bit tough when your easy section is uphill. I went out 22X then down 22 past the Rothny observatory a ways, I don't know exactly how far.

Still, I pushed hard during the 10 min, then sat up to nutriate and hydrate during the rest. I tried Sharkies for the first time. They've been in a couple of my race packages, but I haven't got around to them yet. I'm not really a fan of gummy things, so I wasn't terribly eager. They're ok I guess, but some of the flavours don't go very well with my energy drink. Water after them was fine.

Remember how we don't eat the paste, but do drink the kool-aid? Well, I've never been fond of kool-aid, so I've been trying to think about something else to express the idea of doing what IG has planned, showing our dedication, our focus, and sheer grit. After sailing through the umteenth cloud of bugs doing the ack spit thing, I had a brainwave. It occurred to me that IG wouldn't turn down the protein, he'd just breathe them in and out, or swallow. Spitting takes more effort than swallowing, and removes fluid from your body. Hence the title of this piece. Greg, feel free to put this on the next generation of T shirts.

Heart rate numbers. I didn't really look at this while riding, just tried to pedal strong at a pace where I'd be happy to stop part way through, and have to stay dug in to finish the 10 minutes. So lets see how I did.
125 bpm overall average heart rate, including warm up and cool down
148 bpm overall peak heart rate
56 min heart rate, must be right after getting on the bike. This after hauling her upstairs, and scurrying around getting ready.
1723 total calories
average heart rates during ride
113 bpm 10 min warm up
134 bpm 1st interval, 108 bpm 1st rest
133 bpm 2nd interval, 116 bpm 2nd rest (hill)
137 bpm 3rd interval, 116 bpm 3rd rest
132 bpm 4th interval, 121 bpm 4th rest
132 bpm 5th interval, 117 bpm 5th rest
136 bpm 6th interval, 107 bpm 6th rest
114 bpm cool down (zooming along trying to spin out legs.

1:50 overall ride time

I feel pretty good after. My legs were a bit tired, but I could have gone for a run, or gone for a longer ride. Maybe that means I didn't push hard enough.