Century Training Series: Day 18

For some reason I was thinking all day that today was just a one hour endurance ride but upon checking the century training plan in the June 2009 issue of Bicycling, I found out it was 1.5 hours. No big deal.

The weather was near perfect again with cloudy skies, temps in the low 90s and just a touch of sprinkles a few times. It didn’t even sprinkle enough to get the roads wet. I think the threat of rain kept most of the other cyclists at home because there weren’t many down at White Rock Lake today.

As always I started with my 15 minute warm up and reset my computer when I was done with it so I could keep track of my 1.5 hours. My legs felt tired today so I didn’t try to push it and stayed close to my endurance pace of 15 mph. I stayed in the small chain ring the entire time in order to concentrate on my cadence as well. During my warm up I did a quick calculation of my cadence by counting the number of revolutions in 15 seconds and multiplying by four. It turned out to be 92 which is right in the window you want to be in so I was happy with that.

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. I was worried about the rain at one point because I could see some major rain off to the west but it never made it to White Rock Lake. I noticed again today an inordinate number of riders with clip-on aero bars. Not sure what I’m missing with that.

Here are the numbers for today:

Total Time (h:m): 1:30
Total Distance: 23.05 miles
Avg Speed: 15.3 mph

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com Al

I always thought you had a cadence sensor on your computer – maybe you should get one. I remember doing exactly what you are doing, counting for a certain time period and then multiplying.

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

Yes, I should get one. A new computer is on my long list of items I need behind bibs, jerseys, a new helmet and so on. I would love to be able to spring for a nice Garmin setup but even the low-end 305 is way outside my budget limitations right now. I know I can get a cheaper computer that has cadence but I believe I really need to invest in one that at a minimum does speed, distance, avg speed, trip time, cadence and heart rate. GPS would be nice but not necessary.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com Al

I think you can get a computer that does all of that for under $70.

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

I'm sure you can too but it'll have to wait right now.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com Al

Also – and you may have mentioned this before – the White Rock Lake route that you always use; do you always ride it because of the terrain or the fact that it's a loop?

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

I ride it mainly because it’s convenient. Here in the suburbs of Dallas safe roads to ride on aren’t easy to find and the White Rock Lake route is close enough for me to drive to the trail that feeds into it and not have to worry about traffic. It’s also close enough to allow me to get a full 2 hour ride in on a weekday.