Monday, November 12, 2007

3rd time's a charm

Finally!!! A good training weekend at last!! We went out to Bolton again on Saturday to ride. It was chilly but sunny out. The first 15 minutes were pretty uncomfortable but once we started climbing, I started sweating. After the first few hills, I had to remove a layer. Good thing I did as we did a slightly different route--a route that had a monster hill in it. By the time I got to the top of that hill I was pretty drenched. And, I actually felt pretty good. Cardio seemed to be fine and my legs actually felt good! I think I'm finally getting used to the new bike. The ride was tough but I didn't bonk. I felt great! I pushed the pace a bit on the way back and still felt great. WAHOOO!
Yesterday Gary and I went to do our lactate testing with Tara. I had this done last time with Richard. It helps to determine the best aerobic heart rate you should be working at in each discipline. Richard tested us on the bike the last time so this time Gary and I got tested on the run. I know that I have a pretty high lactate threshold on the run. It takes a while for lactic acid to build up in my legs. I hopped on the treadmill and started at an easy pace. They kept increasing it until I was working hard--on a scale of 1 to 10 my exertion level was an 8. Then they pricked my finger to take a blood sample. They kept doing that every 4 minutes for the next 35 minutes or so. Apparently I clear lactate most efficiently when my heart rate is at 150. My lactate balance point for the run is 160, which means that it's probably about 150 for the bike. Funny, because with Richard's test my balance point was 137.5 for the bike. Usually there is a difference of 10 beats per minute between the bike and the run (the run being higher). So, I think Richard's test was off because there is no way I've improved that much over the last year considering I haven't been doing THAT much.
I had a 2 hour run scheduled but I figured there was no way I was going to run 2 hours after pushing myself like I did on the treadmill. Since the testing was over at Mississauga Road and Lakeshore I decided to run home. I ran with my heart rate slightly higher than normal and I felt great. I motored home turning over sub 6 min km's. My average for the run home was 5:42 km's. NICE!

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