My heart is hibernating today

It's another cold day here, about -20 C, (below zero F) and windy. I work in a high rise building downtown. I don't know if it's the wind noise or my variable speed computer fan, but I hear the wind a lot. It makes me just a bit cold, sitting there, listening to the wind moan. As I was heading home, all set to go outside, I got a good twinge in each knee. I guess they didn't want to go out.

Once home I got changed pretty promptly and did about 20 minutes of leg exercises, trying to loosen up my left calf. It was feeling very tight. Both knees are feeling a bit feeble. I started with a very easy warmup, willing to start as gradually as it needed to be, and let me tell you, it was pretty darned gradual. 30 minutes in and I hadn't cracked 100 bpm heartrate, nor exuded a drop of sweat. I was spinning fairly well in an easy gear, and then gradually went into harder gears.

At 45 minutes I was feeling barely warmed up, and my legs were spinning in what I'd consider a reasonable way for starting a workout, but still feeling feeble and tired. By now I'd realized I wasn't going to get the best workout of all time done today, and was going to settle for mostly easy spin, but I did want to get some time at my TT gear.

So, big ring, second down on cassette, high 80's, rpm. Where is my heart rate you ask? Low, very low. Normally at 90 rpm in this gear I'm sweating, and hitting mid 120's for heart rate. Today I was just over 100 bpm, and only a couple rpm at most down from my usual pace. I never got over 110 bpm, even when I got rpm up to 90 for 5 minutes.

I am not deluding myself into thinking I have made some sudden gain in cardio fitness, or found some wonderful increase in efficiency. I think it's laziness pure and simple, my legs doing the bare minimum, and my heart the same. I was not feeling strong. My butt was hurting on the bike. I called it a ride at the one hour mark. Stretched. Ate dinner. Packed swim bag. KBRCC on Sunday is a distinct maybe.