Jacque Anquetil's 1962 Tour de France Winning Bike

Monday, October 24, 2011

Recovery of Sorts

So today was going to be an easy day at the gym.  Instead of using 53x16 I was going to ride in 53x17, a gear significantly enough smaller to allow for recovery.  It allows recovery when one rides at lower cadence and against lower resistance.  This I could not accomplish, however.  The gear felt so easy that I rode at 100+ rpm.  And I decided to ride use my higher gear training zones.  At 200 watts 53x17 is significantly easier than 53x16, as is 220 watts, etc.  That was the theory, but I was sweating profusely anyway.  And my heart rate was climbing too.  During the warm up it hovered in 120s-130s.  I wanted to bring it up to 140s and stay there.  I got to 140s all right, and as riding intensity increased, my heart rate kept going.  I was in 150s for a while, maxing out at 161, about 12 beats higher than I'd planned.  Thirty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds of failed recovery was enough and I climbed off.

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