The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Last day of the month to ride. The spreadsheet totaled 445.67-miles for the month.



Today had those swirling, confusing, unsettled winds but judging by my speeds, they were assisting me to some small degree on the way out. My maximum speed clearly shows that the winds were holding me back on the way back. I checked my average speed at the mid-point above Bill Gray road and saw 20.7. From there it was mostly steady losses all the way back.



Some Butthead in a white van at the intersection of Cornville Road demonstrated why our roads aren't safe. I was to the extreme right side of my lane as we were slowing to a stop and he pulled up so close I could have bumped his van with my elbow.



Cyclists are a vehicle and they have every bit as much right to a place in the traffic lane as any car. Only when they can't keep up with traffic should they move out of the way and allow faster traffic to flow properly -- just as should any motor vehicle which can't keep pace with the bulk of traffic. And at an intersection where traffic is stopped, there is no need to try to share the lane with a cyclist. (Give them their spot in traffic.)



I shot him a look but nothing else, then beat him across the intersection. As he went past he was hanging a bird in the rear windows. The ignorance of some people is simply depressing. Here the guy endangers me and does so without any reason, then gets pissed at me over it.



Anyway, overall it was a good ride. I'll take a 20+ average speed anytime I can get it.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 11:18:30

HRM Duration: 1:16:20.4



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.60 miles

Average Speed: 20.36 mph

Duration: 01:15:27

Maximum Speed: 33.9 mph

Odometer: 19175.0 miles



Climb Timer: 07:15.5

Climb Distance: 1.76

Climb Avg Speed: 14.6

Climb Max Speed: 20.4



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 52:47, 161

Above Zone: 00:43, 175

Below Zone: 22:50, 140

Heart Rate Recovery: 01:40

Low: 099

High: 174

Avg: 155



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 07:46

Oak Creek Valley Road: 24:24

Page Springs Road: 30:21

Pass above Page Springs Road: 34:24

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 41:02

Shifting winds which wouldn't let me find a rhythm.



Other than that there were only two things worth mention. I set my Heart Rate Monitor for the wrong mode and didn't notice for the whole ride so I have zero heart rate data, and today puts me over 400-miles for the month. That's a good thing because it's the first 400-mile month this year, and a bad thing because... it's the first 400-mile month this year.



I haven't pulled up the spreadsheet but I should have about 420-miles.



Today's average... just average; 19.75 mph



Must...



...sleep (42-minutes, all mine)

COMMENTS

-

---

Nista
20:26 Oct 29 2008

Happy 400 mile month and best wishes for many more!





*throws confetti*

---

xxEmaeraldxx
21:35 Oct 29 2008

Sleep is always better too after a strenuous workout, even if it is only 42 minutes!

---

Beastt17
22:17 Oct 29 2008

Oh, you couldn't be more right!



The bedding cups around you, coddles you and suspends you in warm, delicate, cushy comfort. (Even if it's just a mat.)



Right after the shower when you're totally wrung out, rehydrated, cleansed from the inside out and deeply fatigued, then you lie down and snuggle in... that's worth the price of admission alone.

---

POST COMMENT

It was a day of cruel little winds which rarely helped and built their occasional padded walls.



An average time is a difficult sculpture in marble: hard as stone to chisel and yet as fragile as a candle flame. A moment's inattention, an inattentive driver, a gusting wind or even a clumsy traffic light can crush an otherwise artful work in sweat.



But the sculptor can pause, he can rest, he can proceed with caution. The cyclist is offered no such repose. Everything is now. Everything is rushed with immediate purpose and no room for hesitation.



To press the heart beyond maximum guarantees nothing. It may do little more than sandbag the rushing torrents. But to rest is to watch your work crumble away and vanish, as though it had never been.



It was a good day; not great, but good. Things were solid, yet purely unremarkable. The final character of the whole work was found in the losses and cracks of the final two miles. To that point, it was a smooth, cool, glassy twenty point zero.



Then it all began to fall away. The winds cut from the side and the road lifted. Heart rates pushed past 160, beyond 165, to 170 and kept going. And for all of the sweat, the lost breath and the straining legs, the numbers continued to fall.



Nineteen-nine, with a sadistic smile.



Nineteen-eight with a cruel wink.



And finally, down to the last intersection where American sits burning it's 4-dollar per gallon fuel; where I stopped, and waited, and watched as the cars slowly shook off their slumber and eased their bulk into motion to lumber past.



Nineteen, seven-seven doesn't suck. But watching a solid 20 peel down to a moderate mid-nineteen is a cruel joke to play on muscles which are feeding on the burn of lactic acid, oxygen debt, and cannibalized tissue -- all to build a solid 20, and then watch it worn down to monotony, as though it never was.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 10:31:54

HRM Duration: 1:19:02.1



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.60 miles

Average Speed: 19.77 mph

Duration: 01:17:41

Maximum Speed: 35.4 mph

Odometer: 19123.6 miles



Climb Timer: 07:22.5

Climb Distance: 1.76

Climb Avg Speed: 14.3

Climb Max Speed: 19.2



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 60:08, 162

Above Zone: 01:22, 175

Below Zone: 17:32, 139

Heart Rate Recovery: 04:07

Low: 099

High: 176

Avg: 156



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 08:014

Oak Creek Valley Road: 24:50

Page Springs Road: 31:00

Pass above Page Springs Road: 35:12

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 42:05

COMMENTS

-

---

Joli
20:20 Oct 28 2008

People aren't supposed to live in deserts! Weird freaking bedouin people :P

---

STABB666
20:39 Oct 28 2008

After the curry I just ate, I may be experiencing a similar day tomorrow...





(I'm half sorry and a little ashamed for the toilet humour)

---

POST COMMENT

A few unruly juvenile winds, slapping, dodging and taunting in mock disrespect. Nothing like the winds of two rides ago but certainly a factor to be dealt with in any attempt to maintain a forward pace. It didn't seem like a bad day, nor a particularly good day but little by little time started to lose the battle against distance. Perhaps distance was simply being less respectful of time.



At any rate, the climb became a recent past in close to 7-minutes. I found the turn that marks half-way lying 24-seconds closer than yesterday but upon turning the cheating hand of the wind became visible. It had been giving me a slight shove forward but was now ready to even the score.



Heading back down the climb the wind became a wall, rolling along at 35-mph and allowing me to go no faster while it's roar nearly washed the mp3 player from my ears. By the top of the last hill I was 12-seconds into the red and still facing 6-miles of a playful and taunting fluid foe.



The best fight I could manage did nothing but slow my rate of loss. By the end I'd lost all of the 24-seconds I'd held to my favor at the mid-point and had lost another 44-seconds over that. At the end of the day it was still a good ride with an overall average speed of better than 20-mph.



My tank was nearing empty allowing a 20oz Gatorade to slip down in one swallow, followed by a shower devoid of heated water. Ten minutes out of the shower and sweat was again pouring down the side of my face but I'm cleansed by the work-out, content in the honesty of my fatigue and ready to replace some of the 940 calories burned.







This is what tells me of the success of the work involved -- the ride captured in numbers, saved, and turned into a picture. In the top graph heart-rates are read bottom to top, the higher the point on the line, the higher the heart rate. The cyan band represents the target range. Time is read left to right. The red vertical index line marks the top of a climb (33-minutes & 185 beats/min). Two rides are represented; the blue is today (Oct 25) and the red is from 3-months ago (Jul 25). Most notable is the decrease in heart rates coupled with the increase in speed.



The bottom chart is a histogram -- just a bar-chart counting the heart rate samples in each 10-beat range.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 11:13:54

HRM Duration: 1:17:56.2



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.60 miles

Average Speed: 20.24 mph

Duration: 01:15:54

Maximum Speed: 35.0 mph

Odometer: 19072.1 miles



Climb Timer: 07:00.3

Climb Distance: 1.76

Climb Avg Speed: 15.1

Climb Max Speed: 19.5



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 59:28, 163

Above Zone: 02:50, 183

Below Zone: 15:38, 139

Heart Rate Recovery: 04:16

Low: 100

High: 178

Avg: 159



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 08:08

Oak Creek Valley Road: 24:18

Page Springs Road: 30:20

Pass above Page Springs Road: 34:18

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 41:08

A pretty common day to start, offering nothing of special note. The air felt a bit thick (perhaps due to the 30.01 inHg), providing a bit more drag than normal. I'd lost several seconds in the first mile and more losses met the second and third mile. At the three mile mark I was carrying a 14-second deficit and the only saving grace was the street sweeper on the hill up ahead. The road has a nice wide shoulder but it's only swept one time each year so it's nice to see the sweeper out.



I had to move across the rumble strip and back twice; once to pass the trailing vehicle and once to pass the sweeper itself. I started the 4th mile ahead of the sweeper and dodging the usually road debris. By the 7-mile point things were looking better and that was confirmed at the second checkpoint, about a minute faster than average.



A few minutes later, at 27:26, I received a very welcome break. That was just 18-seconds into the climb where it's still just an apron, offering a slight incline leading to where the climb starts to bite. I got back on the bike and watched the asphalt streaming by almost effortlessly. The short rest was restorative and mentally uplifting. At the top of the first third of the climb I was starting to tire but the news from the clock was positive. I held around 16-mph across the moderate middle section and then dropped to the small ring for the final assault on the last third. I topped out faster; it felt faster. When I glanced at the stopwatch, it confirmed what I was feeling. I still had the usual burn in the lungs, the failing legs and the gushing of lactic acid even from center chest, but I was more focused and far less worn down mentally.



The ride back offered no real advantages except for a clean shoulder upon which to ride, but at the top of the final climb I was 4-minutes ahead of an average ride and a minute ahead of most good rides. I tucked to avoid as much wind as possible and kept my cadence high.



I made it to the intersection where I would be heading south at 1:06 plus change. On the green I managed to hold with the cars nearly to the next light and made all of the lights without having to stop until the last light. It probably cost me a few seconds but would have been more harmful had it not been for my lack of patience with one particularly non-motivated driver. They left a gap between themselves and the car in front and I shot through, making my left turn to the final block then a quick right and up a small rise. Crossing an imaginary line my left thumb tucked to the inside of the brake hood to stab at the button, stopping the clocks as my right hand reached across to stop the timer on my heart rate monitor. One-fifteen, ten on the Flight Deck and exactly one minute more on the HRM!



Not my best ever but certainly the best in a long, long time.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 10:05:56

HRM Duration: 1:16:10.5



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.61 miles

Average Speed: 20.44 mph

Duration: 01:15:10

Maximum Speed: 36.7 mph

Odometer: 19046.4 miles



Climb Timer: 07:08.4

Climb Distance: 1.75

Climb Avg Speed: 14.7

Climb Max Speed: 21.0



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 56:54, 161

Above Zone: 00:18, 175

Below Zone: 18:58, 138

Heart Rate Recovery: 03:56

Low: 93

High: 175

Avg: 155



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 08:14

Oak Creek Valley Road: 24:26

Page Springs Road: 30:31

Pass above Page Springs Road: 34:28

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 41:32

COMMENTS

-

---

Joli
23:18 Oct 24 2008

Wow! Well done :)

---

POST COMMENT

Did I mention it was nasty?



"Windy" is another word. And this wasn't the light breezes that can be so destructive. This was wind. All-out, blowing flags, dogs, (okay, not dogs) trash, signs and cyclists kinda WIND!



It cost me a full 10-minutes extra just to reach the half way mark where I turned and then had the wind working with me... some. There was still an angle from the side but at least some of it was in my favor. It was only enough to help gain back about half of what I lost.



Going out with the wind I averaged only 14.31 mph. It was the kind of day when you're in the small ring, standing, and everytime the pedal bottoms out it feels like the bike comes to a stand-still until the next pedal starts to rotate downward. Just no free rolling at all. Coming back the average picked up to 26.28 mph which means numerous visits to 40 mph and over (one of those while zipping through an intersection in a 35 zone).



As I waited in traffic for a light to change so I could turn and complete the last 2½ miles the wind was blowing directly up the highway in my direction. A mere two blocks later it was blowing across the highway and that's pretty much how it stayed for the rest of the ride. I'd hoped to gain back 8 of the 10 minutes I lost but in the end, I was still carrying about a 5-minute deficit.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 10:03:04

HRM Duration: 1:24:16.8



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.62 miles

Average Speed: 18.53 mph

Duration: 01:22:58

Maximum Speed: 41.3 mph

Odometer: 19020.6 miles

Climb Timer: 09:15.1

Climb Distance: 1.76

Climb Avg Speed: 11.4 (WIND!)

Climb Max Speed: 14.2



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 53:46, 159

Above Zone: 00:23, 189

Below Zone: 30:37, 139

Heart Rate Recovery: 01:02

Low: 89

High: 199

Avg: 152



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 09:03

Oak Creek Valley Road: 32:04

Page Springs Road: 40:10

Pass above Page Springs Road: 45:11

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 53:43



Told you it was W-I-N-D-Y !!



The up-side was that while getting ready and sitting in a chair I took a few glances at the HRM and seemed to be averaging 40-41 with a couple quick dips to 39. It's working.

COMMENTS

-

---

Nista
22:21 Oct 22 2008

Another positive is that there were no blowing dogs.

I've been on that road. There is no corn field salvation.

---

POST COMMENT

Did I mention that it was windy? It didn't look that way until I'd carried my bike to my usual starting point. But the wind was going my way for the first two and a half miles. It brought me through the first mile in 2:46 and found me slipping out of the third mile in 7:36.



That's where the climb starts and lifts into the whims of the atmosphere. It tilts sharply for a short distance but far enough to run the heart rate into the 160s -- 165 at the top and then the climb becomes more subtle but continues for the next 3-miles without a break.



Dead snakes and tarantulas litter the road-side. A shame.



Riding was the right decision. The wind cut across the road and slowly chewed away at the result of burning lungs and sweat. But on entering the climb, I was still carrying an advantage and despite feeling the bite of the climb in my legs, I was enjoying the slight protection of the canyon. A few seconds beyond 7-minutes and the pass marked the time to breathe, to purge the lactic acid and set my resolve for the last 2-miles to reach the turn.



Forty-one, twenty-nine as I crossed to the southbound lane to head back. The continuous drag poured across from my right, meaning even the passing of cars provided no slipstream, nothing to break the constant resistance. Struggling up the rise to the highest point, the gentle hills exhaled into small dry meadows which rolled eddies and swirls across my path, sucking the life from my rhythm and my work.



The mile climb came with extra ticks of the clock but the final descent arrived with 1:30 to spare. Traffic lights charged their tolls in seconds but the last one... that was the best man leaving with my intended bride, mere feet from the altar. Lines of cars forced a wait through two lights, ending in an average of just under 20 mph.



Still, it was good.



SETUP:

Bike: GT ZR-1.0

Departure: 12:58:37

HRM Duration: 1:19:05.2



THE DATA:

Distance: 25.53 miles

Average Speed: 19.94 mph

Duration: 01:16:50

Maximum Speed: 35.0 mph

Odometer: 18958.5 miles

Climb Timer: 07:05.8

Climb Distance: 1.74

Climb Avg Speed: 14.7

Climb Max Speed: 18.2



HEART RATES:

In Zone: 53:36, 160

Above Zone: 01:10, 176

Below Zone: 24:19, 141

Heart Rate Recovery: 01:33

Low: 99

High: 179

Avg: 155



CHECKPOINTS:

Bridgeport Bridge: 07:36

Oak Creek Valley Road: 24:41

Page Springs Road: 30:27

Pass above Page Springs Road: 35:11

Turn above Dry Creek Bridge: 41:29



How often does one find a way to spend money which gives them hours and hours of fun, yet keeps their heart fit, their legs hard and their lungs capable? Cycling: if you have the means, don't pass it up.

COMMENTS

-

---

PandorasBx
10:11 Oct 18 2008

"FUN" hmmmmmm.........

---

Beastt17
22:47 Oct 18 2008

Okay... good point. But it really is fun. It hurts when you press to your limits but it's all a matter of how much you want to do and how hard you want to push. It's a chance to get away from bills, stress, work and everything else that haunts us in our monotonous lives and just be focused on one thing. And when you catch another rider who is pushing to stay ahead, it doesn't suck to know your determination is paying off.

---

POST COMMENT

I slept late for a change, after battling with a list of virii, trojans and malware for a friend. T'is late in the day and very warm -- 90° and rising. But it's also a dry day, 15% and holding. I think I need to ride.



Fuck it, I'm riding.