Slide Rule

19.2mph/avg over 5mi, 18.7 over 10. My average is improving. In the last couple miles, I could feel my energy suddenly drop to the point where I could barely maintain 16-17, but I powered through it, forcing myself up into mid-18′s.

It was gratifying to notice that my lung capacity and muscle stamina have significantly improved. My lungs still hurt when I breathe deep, but no longer restrict airflow. Good deal. My legs burn after working hard as before, but they no longer crash as quickly. I find I can maintain high output for long distances, perhaps miles, where before I could hardly sprint for a few hundred feet without collapsing.

Yay.

Good ride today. The weather was a little cooler, so once I got my heart rate up I wasn’t roasting. My average went down, I don’t have exacts, but it’s around 18.8 over 6 miles, 12 mile total. The first 6 miles was a disaster, mid-16′s avg, but I felt I was straining to get warmed up. After a short break at the halfway point, I clicked through the tracks in my iriver, found some motivational tunes, and got the flow going right.

I find my biggest struggle right now is my lungs. I feel like my legs are ready & desire to work harder, but my lungs hurt and I feel like I’m not getting enough oxy to my muscles. Hopefully I’ll be able to work through that relatively quickly, it’s growing to be a hindering annoyance.

Another item of note – I was run off the road by a dog today, a combination of the oncoming dog occupying half the burke-gilman, and an obviously blind cyclist moving to pass the dog left me with no room to maneuver, and I found myself in the dirt. No incident followed, and I repressed my desire to shout obscenities, but the desire was there just the same. I wonder if I’m too uptight for this sport. I doubt if the seattle area needs anymore bike-nazis.

20.1 avg over 4 miles, 19.2 avg over 6. Acceptable, I think. I’ve proven I can sustain 15-17 over long distances, so bumping it up a few mph is an improvement, even if it means sharp falloff in distance.

My goal is to get to 20miles in an hour, and overconfidence what it is, it’s humbling to suffer such an epic failure. I have a long way to go.